Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
A Hayward estate is not probated on Amador Street. Alameda County probate papers are filed only at the Berkeley Courthouse. On Zillow's August 2026 typical Hayward home value of $820,844, the statutory attorney and executor fees alone would total $38,833.76. A funded living trust keeps the home out of court for a $400 trust plus a $100 deed.
To keep a Hayward home out of probate, sign a revocable living trust and record a deed putting the home in it with the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder. Without that deed, a home at Zillow's August 2026 typical Hayward value of $820,844 goes through the probate court in Berkeley, where statutory attorney and executor fees under Probate Code §10810 and §10800 come to $38,833.76. The trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a couple, and the deed is $100.
Hayward has a full courthouse of its own, but a Hayward probate goes elsewhere. The Hall of Justice on Amador Street handles family law, civil suits, small claims and evictions, but Alameda County hears its probate calendar in Berkeley. The court's probate page is blunt about filing: probate documents shall only be filed in the clerk's office at the Berkeley Courthouse, and they must be filed at least two court days before the hearing to be considered. If a contested matter goes to trial, it moves again, to the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland.
The two Berkeley departments set their own rules on remote appearances. Each allows them at the department's discretion, only by ZoomGov video, and telephone-only appearances are generally not allowed. Petitions to appoint a guardian of the person are heard in person. The trial courtroom hears trials in person, and anyone who wants to appear remotely there must ask in writing and show good cause.
Before a hearing, a probate examiner reviews the petition against the Probate Code, the local rules and the court's policies. The court says examiner notes are ready about three weeks before the hearing on its eCourt Public Portal. When the notes flag a procedural problem, the court allows a verified declaration on form MC-030 to address it; if an amended petition is needed instead, a new notice of hearing must be served and republished where required. Each of those steps is a cost and a delay that a trust administration avoids. Your successor trustee works from the trust document and a certification of trust, and nothing about your Hayward home goes into a public court file.
A signed trust holds nothing until assets are put in its name, and for a house that means a recorded deed. Our deed conveys the Hayward parcel from you, as owner, to you as trustee of your trust, using the legal description and the Assessor's Parcel Number from your current vesting deed. Hayward owners can mail it to the Madison Street office or carry it to Oakland or Dublin. The county mails the original back after recording, and its FAQ puts that at about four to six weeks. If you bring a photocopy with you, the counter will stamp it as a conformed copy at no charge.
The PCOR is the form that protects your property tax bill. On it you check the box for a transfer into a revocable trust. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) treats that transfer as no change in ownership, so the Alameda County Assessor keeps your Proposition 13 base year value and sends no supplemental bill. The county's deed page warns that paying the $20.00 instead of filing the PCOR does not excuse you from an ownership statement the Assessor later sends. Our guide to living trust property tax rules covers the reassessment side in more detail.
Alameda County's documentary transfer tax follows Revenue and Taxation Code §11911: $0.55 for each $500 of value on realty sold. On our deed the county tax line reads $0.00, with the Revenue and Taxation Code §11930 statement on the face of the deed, because nothing is sold. The county's deed page also lists other charges that may apply to some deeds, including the city transfer tax and a survey monument fee of up to $10 under Government Code §27585. Hayward's own city tax is covered below. Our office prepares the deed and the PCOR for $100 per property, and you record them. From January 1, 2027, AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) sets the Government Code §27361 base recording fee at $15.00 for the first page and $4.00 for each additional page, so the county's page charges will change. Our trust transfer deed guide walks through the deed itself.
Zillow's Home Value Index put the typical home value in Hayward at $820,844 for August 2026 (data through August 31, 2026), about 3% below its value a year earlier. The math below uses that figure from Zillow's research data files. Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's fee as a percentage of the gross estate: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000 and 1% of the next $9 million. The base is the gross value, so a mortgage on the house does not lower it. Probate Code §10800 gives the executor the same amount.
Run your own numbers in the probate cost calculator
Hayward's neighborhoods spread widely around that citywide figure. Zillow's August 2026 neighborhood series puts Hayward Highland at $1,173,835, Mt Eden at $940,833, Fairway Park at $931,745, Southgate at $853,908 and Glen Eden at $835,707. Tennyson-Alquire was $810,581, Harder-Tennyson $770,083, Upper B Street $692,829 and North Hayward $568,052. On a Hayward Highland home the statutory fees would be $24,738.35 for each side, $49,476.70 together.
The lower figures matter for one shortcut. The small estate affidavit under Probate Code §13100 stops at $208,850, which no Hayward house approaches. The Probate Code §13151 petition for a primary residence, though, reaches $750,000 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, so a family home in North Hayward or Upper B Street may qualify where a Mt Eden home will not. It is still a court petition filed with the probate court in Berkeley, with notice to heirs and devisees within five business days of filing. Our California probate fees guide explains each charge, and a $400 trust, or $500 for a married couple, removes the house from all of it.
Hayward incorporated on March 11, 1876 and today governs itself under a city charter. That matters for real estate because a charter city may levy its own transfer tax on top of the county's. Hayward's Real Property Transfer Tax Ordinance, Article 6 of Chapter 8 of the Municipal Code, says it is adopted under the powers in the City Charter (§8-6.01). Voters raised the rate in Measure T on November 6, 2018, from $4.50 to $8.50 for each $1,000 of value (§8-6.05, as amended by Ordinance ME 18-01). The City's Measure T FAQ gave the example of a $700,000 sale, where the tax went from $3,150 to $5,950. The county's transfer tax page lists Hayward's $8.50 per thousand alongside the other Alameda County city taxes.
The ordinance is not written the way the state documentary transfer tax law is. Its value of the consideration counts any existing loan that stays secured on the property after the transfer (§8-6.05), and the declaration that goes with the tax must say so (§8-6.70). Its exemptions are its own list: security instruments, government transfers, bankruptcy plans, partnerships, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, divorce divisions, a one property limit for like kind exchanges, and transfers without consideration that confirm a deed, make a gift, partition property, carry out a will or intestate succession, or carry out a joint tenant's right of survivorship (§§8-6.15 to 8-6.59). Revocable trusts are not named in it. Because Hayward's ordinance counts a loan that stays on the property and does not list revocable trusts as exempt, ask the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder before recording whether city tax is due on a deed of a mortgaged home into your trust. A sale of the house by your successor trustee after your death is a sale like any other, and the city tax applies to it.
Hayward is bordered by San Leandro, Union City, Fremont and Pleasanton, and by the unincorporated communities of Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, Cherryland, Fairview and Sunol. Zillow's neighborhood file even groups Cherryland and Fairview with Hayward. The city itself had an estimated 157,113 residents on July 1, 2025, according to the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates (estimates base for 2020: 162,900). A house in one of those communities records at the same Alameda County office and would be probated in the same Berkeley departments, but the Hayward ordinance taxes only real property located in the City (§8-6.05). If you own property on both sides of the line, each parcel gets its own deed and PCOR, and the trust should list them all. A trust that holds your home but not the duplex in Cherryland leaves the duplex for probate.
The fault is named for the city for a reason. The U.S. Geological Survey's field guide to the Hayward Fault says the 1868 earthquake damaged nearly every building in what was then a town of 500 people. The guide describes Hayward's old City Hall, built in 1930 directly on the fault, as abandoned and slowly being torn apart by creep. Two strands of the fault run beneath its front and behind it. The guide traces the fault from block to block downtown: offset curbs at Prospect and Rose Streets and along Simon Street, cracked pavement in the municipal lot between Avenue A and Hotel Avenue, and offset sidewalks in the alley between Avenues B and C. It notes that the most recent great earthquake on the fault was in 1868 and that the past five major ones came, on average, about every 140 years.
A trust cannot do anything about the ground, but it decides who acts after a loss. If an earthquake damages a house held in your trust while you are hospitalized or after you die, your successor trustee can file the insurance claim, sign with a contractor and sell or rebuild without waiting for a court to appoint anyone. When the house goes into the trust, ask your insurer to list the trust on the homeowner's policy and any earthquake policy, and keep the policy numbers with your trust papers. The durable power of attorney in the package covers accounts and property that are not in the trust.
If you own a rental in Hayward, the City's rules reach into how a successor trustee runs it. The City's Residential Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Ordinance, effective July 25, 2019, limits rent increases on covered units, generally those built before July 1, 1979. Single unit properties exempt under the state Costa Hawkins law are excluded, and so is an owner occupied property with a legal accessory dwelling unit, such as a converted garage. On a covered unit the landlord may raise rent once in 12 months by 5% or less. Unused increases can be banked for up to 10 years, but a banked increase requires giving the tenant a copy of the rental history. Landlords must give the City copies of rent increase notices and notices ending a tenancy, and must pay the City's program fee each year.
When a covered rental is in your trust, all of those duties pass to your successor trustee on the day the trustee takes over. A trustee who cannot find the rent history cannot prove a banked increase, and one who does not know the fee is due can fall behind with the City. Put a short memo with your trust papers listing each unit, the tenant, the current rent, the date of the last increase and where the leases are kept. If you rent out an ADU behind your own house, the ADU and the house are one parcel, so the single trust transfer deed covers both.
Hayward has its own Mobile Home Space Rent Stabilization Ordinance, separate from the apartment rules. The City's FAQ says space rent generally may rise in a 12 month period by the greater of 3% or 60% of the change in the consumer price index, never more than 6%, and that a resident on a lease longer than 12 months is outside the City's rent limits. Each time a space becomes vacant, the park owner or manager must file an In-Place Space Transfer form with the City's Rent Review Office. For a trust, the key point is what a deed can and cannot move. A mobile home on a rented space is registered and titled by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, not recorded with the county, so the trust transfer deed does not reach it. A home installed on a foundation system on land you own is a different case: HCD says it no longer registers such a home, so ask us how the deed should describe it. Tell us which situation you are in when you answer the questionnaire.
A living trust avoids probate. It does not stop reassessment when your children inherit. Under Proposition 19, a child keeps your taxable value on the family home only if the child makes it a principal residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within one year, and the exclusion is limited to the taxable value plus an adjusted $1 million, which is $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027. Take a hypothetical Hayward home bought decades ago with a taxable value of $300,000 and a market value of $820,844. The limit is $300,000 plus $1,044,586, or $1,344,586, so a child who moves in keeps the $300,000 base. A child who rents the house out instead is reassessed at market value. Our Prop 19 inheritance guide explains the claim.
California State University, East Bay (formerly Cal State Hayward) is in the Hayward hills, and Chabot College is also in the city. Anyone who works for a public college or school district may hold a pension and a 403(b) or 457 account, and none of those pass under a trust or a will. They go to whoever is named on the beneficiary form. When we prepare your trust, we ask about those designations so the forms and the trust point the same way.
The package is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple. A deed for your Hayward home, a rental or any other parcel is a separate $100 per property. You can reach the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071. You sign before a California notary, which can be a notary in Hayward. For how our pricing compares, see what a California living trust costs.
No. The Hayward Hall of Justice at 24405 Amador Street hears civil, family law, small claims, restraining order and unlawful detainer cases, not probate. Alameda County Superior Court hears probate at the Berkeley Courthouse, 2120 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Berkeley, and probate papers may be filed only at the Berkeley clerk's office. Probate trials go to the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland. A Hayward home held in a funded living trust passes without a filing in any of them.
Zillow's typical home value for Hayward was $820,844 for August 2026. Under Probate Code §10810 the statutory attorney fee on that gross value is $19,416.88, and the executor may take the same amount under §10800, for a combined $38,833.76. The $435 first petition filing fee and the probate referee's commission of about $821 are added to that. A living trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple, plus $100 for the deed.
Hayward taxes transfers of real property in the city at $8.50 per $1,000 under its own Real Property Transfer Tax Ordinance, adopted under the City Charter (Hayward Municipal Code §8-6.01). The ordinance's exemption list does not name revocable trusts, and its value of the consideration includes a loan that stays on the property (§8-6.05). Because Hayward's ordinance counts a loan that stays on the property and does not list revocable trusts as exempt, ask the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder before recording whether city tax is due on a deed of a mortgaged home into your trust.
The Alameda County Clerk-Recorder charges $14.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page. A Preliminary Change of Ownership Report filed with the deed costs nothing; without one the county charges $20.00. The $75 SB 2 fee is usually not charged on the deed for the home you live in, because the deed claims the owner-occupier exemption in Government Code §27388.1(a)(2). A rental, second home or vacant parcel pays it, capped at $225 per transaction. Our office prepares the deed for $100 per property and you record it.
Possibly. Zillow's August 2026 typical value was $568,052 in North Hayward and $692,829 in Upper B Street, both under the $750,000 limit that Probate Code §13151 sets for a decedent's primary residence when the death is on or after April 1, 2025. That petition is still filed with the probate court in Berkeley and noticed to heirs. The citywide typical value of $820,844 is over the limit, so most Hayward homes would need full probate. A funded trust needs neither.
No. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) provides that a transfer into a trust you can revoke is not a change in ownership. The Alameda County Assessor keeps your Proposition 13 base year value. You claim the exclusion on the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report filed with the deed, and questions about the form go to the Assessor's Office at (510) 272-3800.
If the rental is deeded to your trust, your successor trustee steps in as landlord without a court order. Hayward's Residential Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protection Ordinance still applies to covered units, generally those built before July 1, 1979. The trustee may raise rent once in 12 months by 5% or less, must give the City copies of rent increase notices and notices ending a tenancy, and pays the City's annual program fee. Keep each tenant's rent history with your trust papers, because a banked increase requires it.
A trust transfer deed covers land you own. A mobile home sitting on a rented space in a park is registered and titled by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, not recorded with the county, so the deed does not move it. Tell us about it in the questionnaire so the plan accounts for it. Space rent in Hayward parks falls under the City's Mobile Home Space Rent Stabilization Ordinance, and each time a space becomes vacant the City requires the park owner or manager to file an In-Place Space Transfer form with its Rent Review Office.
Checked October 7, 2026. Fees and addresses change; confirm with the office before you file or record.
An attorney-prepared living trust for $400, or $500 for a married couple, signed before a California notary near you.
Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene, 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505. California State Bar #208356. Read client reviews.
Legal Review By
California State Bar #208356 | Licensed Since 2000
25+ years estate planning experience in California