Living Trust Fairfield CA: Keep Your Home Out of Solano County Probate
Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
Fairfield is the Solano County seat, so the court that hears Solano County probate sits downtown, at the Old Solano Courthouse on Texas Street. On Zillow's August 2026 typical Fairfield home value of $599,253, statutory attorney and executor fees in a full probate would total $29,970.12. A funded living trust keeps the house out of that courtroom for a $400 trust plus $100 deed.
To keep a Fairfield home out of probate, sign a revocable living trust and record a deed moving the home into it at the Solano County Recorder on Texas Street. A house left in your own name at Zillow's August 2026 typical Fairfield value of $599,253 would go to Department 22 of Solano County Superior Court, a few blocks away, where statutory attorney and executor fees under Probate Code §10810 and §10800 come to $29,970.12. The trust costs $400, or $500 for a married couple.
Key Takeaways
Solano County hears probate in Fairfield: Department 22 at the Old Solano Courthouse, 580 Texas Street, with the probate clerk at the Hall of Justice, 600 Union Avenue.
The Solano County Recorder is also downtown, at 675 Texas Street, Suite 2700. Its July 1, 2026 schedule posts $13.00 for a deed's first page and $3.00 for each additional page.
Zillow's typical Fairfield home value was $599,253 at August 31, 2026. Full probate on that value would carry $14,985.06 for the attorney and $14,985.06 for the executor, $29,970.12 together.
Fairfield's own transfer tax is half of the $1.10 per $1,000 that applies to a sale; it is not added on top. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder.
Travis Air Force Base sits three miles east of downtown. An owner domiciled in another state can still face a Solano County ancillary probate on a Fairfield house held in his or her own name.
Attorney-prepared trust: $400 single, $500 married couple, plus $100 per deed.
Solano County Probate at the Old Solano Courthouse
Courthouse
Superior Court of California, County of Solano, Old Solano Courthouse, Courtroom 3
Address
580 Texas Street, Fairfield, CA 94533 (hearings). Filings go to the probate clerk at the Hall of Justice, 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533.
For most Solano County families the probate court is a drive to the county seat. For Fairfield families it is downtown. The court's estates and trusts page places probate of estates and trusts in Department 22, which sits in Courtroom 3 of the Old Solano Courthouse at 580 Texas Street, and sends the paperwork to a different building, the Family Law and Probate clerk's office in the Hall of Justice at 600 Union Avenue. A petition is filed on Union Avenue and argued on Texas Street.
Department 22 is not only a probate courtroom. Its setting guide gives Monday morning to civil law and motion and other civil calendars and Tuesday morning to probate conservatorships. Petitions in trusts, estates and other probate matters are heard at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with no more than 12 matters on each calendar and no more than 5 of those trust matters. Probate estate compliance hearings are set at 11:00 a.m. on Friday. Ex parte applications in a probate estate are heard by appointment only: you call the department first, and only after it gives a date do you file the application with the clerk (Solano Local Rule 7.10). Parties can appear by ZoomGov video or a toll free dial in, or through CourtCall.
Solano posts two kinds of advance review. Probate notes, which the court brought back on February 26, 2024, are prepared by court staff after reading each filing and are generally available about a week before the hearing; a defect they identify can be cured by filing the missing document, through e-filing, before the hearing date. Pre-grants, the court's intended rulings on new petitions, spousal property petitions and petitions for final distribution, go up after 2:00 p.m. the court day before. If you are satisfied with the intended ruling, you need not appear; you submit an order for the judge's signature, and the pre-grant becomes the ruling unless a party appears. The court's list of reasons you may still need to appear includes a contested matter, a holographic will that has not yet been proved, and a petition for court confirmation of a sale of property.
Which court hears the case depends on where the person lived, not on where the death occurred. Probate Code §7051 sends the estate of a California resident to the county of domicile, so a Fairfield resident who dies at a hospital in Vacaville, Napa or Walnut Creek still has a Solano County probate. A trust administration needs none of this. Your successor trustee takes over the home and accounts titled in the trust without a petition, a notes posting or a hearing in Department 22.
Recording Your Trust Deed at 675 Texas Street
Recorder
Solano County Assessor/Recorder, Recorder Division
Address
675 Texas Street, Suite 2700, Fairfield, CA 94533. The county lists this one office for recording; the same Assessor/Recorder handles your PCOR and assessed value.
Phone
707-784-6290; documents are accepted for recording Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Recording fee
$13.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page, as posted on the county's schedule updated July 1, 2026. Confirm the current fee with the recorder before mailing.
SB 2 fee
$75 per document under Government Code §27388.1, no more than $225. Solano accepts an exemption declared on the face of the document or on its SB 2 exemption cover page. The deed of the home you live in claims the owner-occupier exemption of §27388.1(a)(2), so the fee is usually not charged on it. Rentals, second homes and vacant land pay it.
PCOR
The county requires a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (BOE-502-A) on a transfer, and the recorder may charge $20 more when one is not filed at recording (Revenue and Taxation Code §480.3).
Fairfield owners have an advantage most of the county does not: the recorder, the assessor, the probate clerk and the probate courtroom are all within a short walk of one another downtown. Funding the trust needs only the first of these. The deed runs from you as owner to you as trustee of your trust, identifies the parcel by legal description and Assessor's Parcel Number, and is recorded at 675 Texas Street. On the PCOR you check the box for a transfer into a revocable trust. Because Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) treats that transfer as no change in ownership, your Proposition 13 assessed value stays where it is and no supplemental tax bill follows. The lender does not have to approve the deed, and the loan stays in place.
Every deed in Solano County carries a transfer tax line. The county tax is 55 cents per $500 of value, and the county's own list of exemptions includes a deed that transfers the grantor's interest to a revocable trust for the grantor's benefit, not as part of a sale, under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930. Fairfield also has a transfer tax of its own. California City Finance lists Fairfield as a general law city taking $0.55 of the $1.10 per $1,000 total, the same total as in unincorporated Solano County, while charter city Vallejo adds $3.30 per $1,000 of its own. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder. When a tax exemption is claimed, the county asks for its Transfer Tax Affidavit.
Two other Solano charges are worth knowing about. The $10 real estate fraud prosecution fee of Government Code §27388 applies to the document types on the county's list, which includes quitclaim deeds and affidavits but not grant deeds or trust transfer deeds. A $10 survey monument fee applies to some deeds that convey land not described as a complete lot on a recorded map. Our office prepares the deed and the PCOR for $100 per property, and you record them yourself, at the counter or by mail. From January 1, 2027, AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) raises the statewide base recording fee in Government Code §27361 to $15.00 for the first page and $4.00 for each additional page, before any county add-on fees. Our trust transfer deed guide walks through the deed form.
Probate Cost on a Typical Fairfield Home
Zillow's Home Value Index put the typical Fairfield home value at $599,253 for August 2026 (data through August 31, 2026), about 1.2% lower than a year earlier. That figure drives the table. Probate Code §10810 pays the estate's attorney 4% of the first $100,000 of the gross estate, 3% of the next $100,000 and 2% of the next $800,000, and Probate Code §10800 gives the executor an identical fee. The schedule runs on gross value, so the amount still owed on a mortgage does not reduce either fee.
Court filing fee: $435 for the first petition (statewide fee).
Probate referee: one-tenth of one percent of the appraised property (Probate Code §8961), about $599 on this home.
Creditor period: four months after letters issue (Probate Code §9100), so no estate closes sooner.
A typical Fairfield house is well under the $750,000 limit of the Probate Code §13151 petition, which lets heirs take a decedent's primary residence for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 without a full probate. That route still runs through the probate clerk on Union Avenue with a $435 filing fee, cannot be filed until 40 days after the death, and reaches only the residence. Bank accounts, a car and other assets must fit under the $208,850 small estate limit of Probate Code §13100 or go through probate, and a rental house never qualifies for §13151. Our California probate fees guide explains each charge. A funded trust needs neither court route: a $400 trust plus $100 deed, or $500 for a married couple plus the same $100 deed.
Fairfield Homes, Travis AFB and Your Trust
The county seat, and what that means for your estate
Fairfield was laid out in 1856 by the clipper ship captain Robert H. Waterman, who won the county seat away from Benicia in 1858 and gave land for the county buildings; the city incorporated in 1903. That is why the county's court and its Assessor/Recorder are in Fairfield today. The Census Bureau counted 119,917 residents in its April 2020 estimates base and estimated 122,489 for July 1, 2025, which makes Fairfield one of the two largest cities in the county along with Vallejo. For a Fairfield family, the court that would supervise a probate is a local institution, but the trust is designed so that your successor trustee never has to use it. The only stop downtown that matters for the trust is the recorder's counter, once, when the deed is recorded.
Travis Air Force Base households
Travis Air Force Base, built starting in 1942 as the Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, lies about three miles east of the city's central business district. Military and civilian households connected to the base raise three trust questions that are particular to this city.
The first is domicile. Some people assigned to Travis keep a legal home in another state. If one of them owns a Fairfield house in his or her own name and dies, Probate Code §7052 allows a California proceeding in a county where the property is located, which means a separate ancillary probate in Solano County on top of the estate administered at home. A house held in a trust avoids that second case. The second is absence. A deployment or a remote assignment is exactly when the durable power of attorney and a named successor trustee earn their keep, because someone can sign for the house and the accounts without asking a court for authority. The third is that the Thrift Savings Plan and life insurance do not pass under a trust at all. They go to whoever is named on the beneficiary form, and military survivor benefits follow their own elections, so those choices need to fit the trust plan.
Values across Fairfield's two ZIP codes
Zillow does not publish Fairfield neighborhood values, but its ZIP code index for August 2026 shows a real spread inside the city. The typical value was $533,508 in ZIP code 94533, the ZIP of the courthouse and the recorder, and $688,841 in 94534. Both are under the $750,000 ceiling of the §13151 primary residence petition, but a typical home in 94534 has only about $61,000 of room, and any larger or newer house there can be over the line. Next door, Suisun City's typical value was $531,494. Every one of these figures is more than twice the $208,850 small estate limit, so a typical Fairfield house will not pass by the small estate affidavit, and a trust does not depend on where the value lands.
Selling a Fairfield home out of the trust
A sale is where Fairfield's own rules show up. The current Fairfield Municipal Code keeps Chapter 18A, Local Disclosure Requirements on the Sale of Real Estate, which adds city disclosures to the sale of a home zoned for residential use. The version of that chapter published before the code moved to eCode360 asked the seller to list, on the local option real estate transfer disclosure statement, the taxes and assessments payable to the city and other local agencies (Mello-Roos special taxes among them), and to give notices about vacant land planned for development, aircraft noise near Travis and, for homes next to two city golf courses, an errant golf ball easement. Ask the escrow officer for the current city form before you list the house.
For the state transfer disclosure statement, the answer depends on who is selling. Civil Code §1102.2(d) exempts sales by a fiduciary in the administration of a trust or estate, but not when the trustee is an individual trustee of a revocable trust who is a former owner of the property or lived in it within the preceding year. So if you sell your own Fairfield home as trustee of your own trust, expect to give the disclosures; a successor trustee who never owned or lived in the house may be exempt, and the escrow officer will ask. Moving the house into the trust, by contrast, is not a sale and triggers none of this. Taxes follow the same pattern. A trustee's sale at $599,253, with no loan assumed, would carry $659.45 in documentary transfer tax at 55 cents per $500, split between the county and the city. A probate sale of the same house pays the same tax, so the trust does not save it; what the trust saves is the court process and the statutory fees.
Special taxes that stay with the house
Look at the direct charges listed on your Solano County property tax bill, such as a Mello-Roos community facilities district tax or a landscape maintenance district assessment. Those charges are tied to the parcel, not to the owner. Recording the deed into your trust does not end them, reduce them or move them, and the trustee keeps paying them with the regular property tax installments. Put the most recent tax bill with your trust papers so that whoever takes over can see what is owed and when.
Fire season and the 2020 evacuations
In August 2020 parts of Fairfield were evacuated during the LNU Lightning Complex fires, which burned more than 315,000 acres across five counties, including land near Vacaville. The City's fire department posts a local responsibility area fire hazard severity zone map, which shows whether a given part of the city is in a moderate, high or very high zone. A trust does nothing about fire risk, but it settles who acts afterward. When the house is titled in the trust, the successor trustee can deal with the insurer, a contractor and the lender for the property if you cannot. After the deed is recorded, ask your insurance agent to add the trust to the homeowner's policy, and keep the policy number with the trust binder.
How to Create and Fund a Living Trust in Fairfield
Complete the online questionnaireAnswer the questions from home in Fairfield: your family, each Solano County parcel you own, your bank and investment accounts, and who should serve as successor trustee and as your agents. Your answers are saved as you work.
Attorney drafts and reviews the documentsRozsa Gyene, a California attorney, prepares the trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, advance health care directive and certification of trust from your answers and reviews them before they are sent to you.
Sign in front of a notarySign the trust and the power of attorney before a California notary public, in Fairfield or anywhere else. The pour-over will is signed before two witnesses as the signing instructions explain.
Record the trust transfer deed at 675 Texas StreetRecord the deed to your Fairfield home with the Solano County Recorder, 675 Texas Street, Suite 2700, Fairfield, in person or by mail, together with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. The deed for the home you live in claims the SB 2 owner-occupier exemption, so the $75 fee is usually not charged on it; a rental or vacant parcel pays it.
Move bank and brokerage accountsGive each bank, credit union and brokerage firm the certification of trust and retitle the account to you as trustee, or name the trust as payable on death beneficiary where the institution offers it.
Check every beneficiary designationThrift Savings Plan accounts, CalPERS and other pensions, 401(k) and 403(b) plans, IRAs and life insurance pass to the named beneficiary, not under the trust. Confirm that each one names the person or the trust you intend, and a contingent beneficiary.
Advance health care directive with HIPAA authorization
Certification of trust
Assignment of personal property
Personal property memorandum
Funding instructions
The Fairfield package is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple, and the deed for your Fairfield home, a rental or any other parcel is $100 per property. You can reach the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071. The documents are signed before a California notary, and there are notaries throughout Fairfield and the rest of Solano County. For how our pricing compares, see what a California living trust costs.
Fairfield Living Trust FAQ
Where is probate heard for a Fairfield resident?
In Fairfield itself. Solano County Superior Court hears estates and trusts in Department 22, Courtroom 3 of the Old Solano Courthouse, 580 Texas Street, Fairfield, CA 94533. Petitions are filed with the probate clerk at the Hall of Justice, 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, (707) 207-7341. A home held in a funded living trust needs no petition in either building.
What would probate cost on a typical Fairfield home?
Zillow's typical Fairfield home value was $599,253 at August 31, 2026. On that value Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee at $14,985.06 and Probate Code §10800 sets the executor's fee at the same amount, $29,970.12 together. The fees are figured on gross value, so a mortgage does not lower them. The $435 filing fee and the probate referee, about $599, come on top.
Does a Fairfield home qualify for the $750,000 primary residence petition?
A typical one does. Probate Code §13151 lets heirs take a primary residence worth $750,000 or less, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, by a petition rather than full probate. Zillow's August 2026 typical values were $533,508 in ZIP code 94533 and $688,841 in 94534, both under the limit. The petition is still filed in Fairfield with a $435 fee, covers only the residence, and a rental does not qualify.
Does Fairfield charge its own transfer tax on a deed into my trust?
Fairfield is a general law city whose share of the transfer tax is part of the same $1.10 per $1,000 total that applies to a sale; it is not an extra layer like Vallejo's. A transfer into your own revocable trust usually pays no transfer tax because no price is paid; the deed states the exemption. Confirm with the county recorder. For the county's tax, Solano County lists a deed to the grantor's own revocable trust, not part of a sale, as exempt under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930.
What does the Solano County Recorder charge to record a trust deed?
The schedule updated July 1, 2026 posts $13.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page. The $75 SB 2 fee is usually not charged on a deed moving your own home into your trust, because the owner-occupier exemption of Government Code §27388.1(a)(2) is claimed on the deed; it is charged on rentals, second homes and vacant land, capped at $225 per transaction. A deed recorded without a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report costs $20 more. Confirm the current fee with the recorder before mailing.
What if I own a Fairfield house but my legal home is in another state, for example while stationed at Travis?
Probate Code §7052 says that when the owner was not domiciled in California, a California estate proceeding can be opened in a county where the owner's property is located. A Fairfield house left in your own name could therefore need an ancillary probate in Solano County on top of the estate in your home state. A house titled in a living trust passes by the trust, without that second court case.
If my home is in a trust, does anything still go to the Solano County court?
Usually only the pour-over will. Probate Code §8200 requires whoever holds an original will to deliver it to the clerk of the superior court within 30 days after learning of the death, and the court lists the probate clerk at the Hall of Justice, 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, for that. Lodging the will is not a probate. If everything is in the trust, nothing further needs to be filed.
How much does a living trust cost in Fairfield?
$400 for one person and $500 for a married couple. That covers the revocable living trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, advance health care directive and certification of trust. The deed for your Fairfield home is $100 per property; our office prepares it and you record it with the Solano County Recorder on Texas Street. Call (818) 337-4071 to reach the attorney's office.
