Living Trust Inglewood: Planning for an Inglewood Home Without Probate
Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
Inglewood has its own courthouse on Regent Street, but it does not hear probate. An Inglewood estate is opened at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, and on Zillow's August 2026 typical Inglewood value of $749,827 the statutory attorney and executor fees come to $35,993.08. A funded living trust keeps the house out of that process for a $400 trust plus $100 deed.
Sign a revocable living trust, then deed your Inglewood home to yourself as trustee and record that deed with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder. Your successor trustee can then transfer the house without a court case. If the house stays in your own name, Probate Code §10810 and §10800 set attorney and executor fees totaling $35,993.08 on the typical Inglewood value of $749,827 (Zillow, August 31, 2026), and the case is heard downtown at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Our trust is $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple.
Key Takeaways
The Inglewood Courthouse at One Regent Street hears criminal, traffic, family law, general civil, small claims and unlawful detainer cases. An Inglewood estate is filed in the Central District and heard at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street.
The Registrar-Recorder's LAX/Courthouse office at 11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard records deeds over the counter. Anything sent by mail goes to Norwalk.
Zillow's typical Inglewood value of $749,827 is $173 below the $750,000 limit for a Probate Code §13151 primary residence petition. That petition is still a court case, and a house worth a little more does not qualify.
Renters occupy 63.8% of Inglewood's occupied housing units (American Community Survey 2020 to 2024). Owners of buildings with two or more units must register with the City's Housing Protection program, and a trust deed does not change that.
49.8% of Inglewood's housing units were built before 1960, and 4,064 householders moved in during 1989 or earlier, so the vesting deed we start from is often decades old.
Attorney-prepared trust: $400 single, $500 married couple. Deed preparation is a separate $100 per property.
Los Angeles County Probate: Why an Inglewood Estate Leaves Regent Street
Courthouse
Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, Stanley Mosk Courthouse
Address
111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone
(213) 830-0800. The court's call centers are open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Probate department
Set by the court when the petition is filed and shown on the case record
Local courthouse, no probate
Inglewood Courthouse, One Regent Street, Inglewood, CA 90301, (310) 419-1300
Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.2(b) names three places where the Southwest District sits: the Torrance Courthouse, the Torrance Annex and the Inglewood Courthouse at One Regent Street. The court's judicial directory for the week of October 5, 2026 lists its departments as felony and misdemeanor criminal, traffic, family law, general civil, and small claims and unlawful detainer. Probate is not on that list. The Inglewood Juvenile Courthouse at 110 Regent Street handles juvenile justice cases.
The reason is a filing rule, not a local choice. Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(A) requires all probate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship proceedings in the county to be filed in the Central District. The rule allows some cases connected to the North District to be filed at the Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster, and those cases are now heard downtown as well. Nothing in the rule sends an Inglewood case anywhere but the Central District. The same directory places nearly every probate department in the county at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse on North Hill Street; probate long cause trials are heard at the Metropolitan Courthouse, 1945 S. Hill Street.
Here is what that means when an Inglewood owner dies with the house titled in his or her own name. The person named as executor files a petition at Mosk and pays the $435 first filing fee under the statewide schedule effective January 1, 2026. Notice is published. A probate referee appointed by the court appraises the house. Creditors have at least four months after letters issue to file claims, and the court must order distribution before the house goes to the heirs. The petition, the inventory and appraisal, and the accountings are filed in a court file open to the public.
A will does not change the route. It is the document the downtown court admits to probate. A living trust that actually holds the house does change it: the successor trustee you choose steps in without a petition, pays the final bills, sends the notices the Probate Code requires, and signs the deed to your beneficiaries. The one Inglewood courtroom a trust owner is likely to see is a different kind: if a trustee ever has to evict a tenant from an Inglewood rental, unlawful detainer cases are on the Regent Street calendar. Our article on Los Angeles County probate judges and departments explains how probate cases are assigned at Mosk.
Recording an Inglewood Trust Deed With the County
Recorder
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk
Address
In person near Inglewood: LAX/Courthouse office, 11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard, 6th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90045, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Main office: 12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, CA 90650. By mail only to Norwalk: Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250.
Phone
(800) 201-8999
Recording fee
The county's posted fees for a grant deed: $15.00 base fee, $3.00 for each additional page, $7.00 fraud notification fee and $2.00 AB 1466 fee, plus a $10.00 survey monument fee when the legal description is not shown on a recorded subdivision tract map. Confirm the current fee with the recorder before mailing.
SB 2 fee
$75.00 per document under Government Code §27388.1, capped at $225 per transaction. It is usually not charged on a deed moving your own home into your trust, because our deed claims the owner-occupier exemption of §27388.1(a)(2) on its face. Rentals, second homes and vacant land pay it.
PCOR
File a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (BOE-502-A) with the deed. If it is missing, the county may charge a $20.00 fee in lieu under Revenue and Taxation Code §480.3(b).
Inglewood has no recorder counter of its own. The Registrar-Recorder lists four offices where documents are recorded: the Norwalk headquarters, Lancaster, Van Nuys, and the LAX/Courthouse office on La Cienega Boulevard, which shares its address with the court's LA Airport Courthouse. For an Inglewood owner the La Cienega office is the closest of the four by map, and the county also stocks blank PCOR forms there. Mailed documents must go to Norwalk; the county's branch page says not to mail anything to a district office.
Signing the trust does not retitle the house. The deed does that. You grant the property from yourself as owner to yourself as trustee of your trust, using the legal description and Assessor's Parcel Number from the deed you hold now. The PCOR that goes with it is marked as a transfer into a revocable trust. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says that transfer is not a change in ownership while the trust is revocable, so your Proposition 13 assessed value stays where it is. On a house owned for decades, keeping that base is a large part of the point. Our guide to living trusts and property tax goes through the form line by line.
Transfer tax on a deed into your own trust
The county collects documentary transfer tax at $0.55 for each $500 of consideration, not counting any loan that stays on the property, when the consideration is more than $100. The Registrar-Recorder says it collects the tax for the cities at the same time the document is recorded. It lists five cities with special, higher rates: Culver City, Los Angeles, Pomona, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica. Inglewood is not on that list. The City also has a real property transfer tax of its own, described in a City staff report from January 2011. 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 own tax, documentary transfer tax is $0.00 on a transfer into the grantor's own revocable trust (R&T §11930), and the county's list of accepted exemption statements has one for exactly this: the conveyance transfers an interest into or out of a living trust.
We prepare the trust transfer deed and the PCOR for $100 per property. You sign the deed before a notary and record it, at the La Cienega counter or by mail to Norwalk. One date to note: AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) raises the Government Code §27361 base recording fee to $15.00 for the first page and $4.00 for each additional page starting January 1, 2027. The Registrar-Recorder's notice of September 24, 2026 says it will apply the change to documents received on or after that date, subject to Board approval and notice, and will stop charging its penalty print, nonconforming page, referencing and indexing fees. Our trust transfer deed guide shows how the deed is filled in.
Probate Fees on a $749,827 Inglewood Home
Zillow's Home Value Index for the City of Inglewood was $749,827 for August 2026 (data through August 31, 2026), up about 2.3% from $732,946 a year earlier. That is the figure used here. It is a typical value for the middle of the market, not a median sale price. Owners' own estimates run a little higher: the American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024 puts the median value of owner-occupied Inglewood homes at $792,800 and counts 19.0% of them at $1,000,000 or more. The statutory fee in Probate Code §10810 is figured on the gross value of the estate with nothing subtracted for a mortgage: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, and 2% of the next $800,000. Probate Code §10800 gives the executor a fee in the same amount.
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 $750 on this home.
Creditor period: four months after letters issue (Probate Code §9100), so no estate closes sooner.
Because the base is gross value, an owner who still owes $500,000 on an Inglewood house and an owner who owes nothing produce the same $35,993.08. The small estate affidavit under Probate Code §13100 is limited to $208,850 for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and it does not reach a house of this value.
The $750,000 primary residence petition, and why $173 is not a plan
In Inglewood the typical home value lands right at the limit of Probate Code §13151. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, that section lets heirs petition the court to transfer the decedent's primary residence if its gross value is $750,000 or less. Zillow's typical Inglewood figure is $173 under the line. Three things make that a poor substitute for a trust. First, the value counted is the value when the owner dies, and Zillow's own series rose about 2.3% in the last year. Second, it covers only the home the decedent lived in, so a duplex held as a rental or a second house is outside it. Third, it is still a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court, filed no sooner than 40 days after the death, with a $435 fee and notice to the heirs. The California probate fees guide explains each charge, and our trust costs $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple.
Inglewood Homes, Rentals and Airport Noise: What a Trust Changes
A city where most households rent, and many owners are landlords
The Census Bureau estimates Inglewood's population at 101,662 on July 1, 2025, down from a 2020 base of 107,751. In the 2020 Census, 24,155 of the city's 37,853 occupied housing units were rented. Of the owners, 11,386 households had a mortgage or loan and 2,312 owned free and clear. The American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024 shows the same pattern, with 63.8% of occupied units renter occupied.
The housing is also more mixed than in many Los Angeles suburbs. Only 37.6% of Inglewood's 40,072 housing units are detached single family houses. Another 5,527 units (13.8%) are in buildings of two to four units, 6,444 are in buildings of five to nine units, and 2,493 are attached single family units such as townhouses. For a trust, that means many Inglewood owners hold a building with tenants in it. A duplex or fourplex goes into the trust by the same kind of deed as a house. A building you rent out is not your own home, though, so the $75 SB 2 fee is charged on its deed, and the Proposition 19 benefit for children does not reach it.
The City's rental registry and a trust
Inglewood's Housing Protection program requires residential properties with two or more units on a parcel, including mixed use buildings, to register through the City's online Residential Registry, according to the City's registration FAQ (revised August 1, 2023). Single family homes and condominiums owned by a natural person do not have to register. The FAQ also says that an owner who lives on the property and rents out no more than one unit, including an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit, and lived there before the tenant, is exempt from the fee but still registers and claims the exemption.
Three points matter when that property moves into a trust. The City says the registration bill is the obligation of the owner on title, and after the deed is recorded that owner is you as trustee. The FAQ does not say how the City treats a single family house or condominium titled in a revocable trust, so if you rent one out, ask the Housing Protection Department before the next registration period whether it now has to register. And the City's FAQ warns that an owner who fails to register cannot raise the rent, demand or accept rent, advertise the unit or evict a tenant. Your successor trustee will be stepping into that role, so the trust papers should say where the registry login and the leases are kept.
Older houses, older deeds
Close to half of Inglewood's housing stock is older than 1960: the American Community Survey counts 6,444 units built in 1939 or earlier, 6,193 built in the 1940s and 7,334 built in the 1950s, 49.8% of all units together. Inglewood Knolls in the southeast corner of the city is a tract built in 1953 and 1954. Many households have also stayed a long time: 4,064 householders moved into their current home in 1989 or earlier and 4,349 more in the 1990s.
A long ownership usually means the deed we work from is the one recorded when the house was bought, and it may still show a spouse who has died. If title was held in joint tenancy, the Registrar-Recorder's procedure is to record an Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant with a certified copy of the death certificate and a PCOR. That puts title in the survivor's name alone, and the trust transfer deed follows. The same county page lists an Affidavit of Death of Trustee under the same recording instructions. That is the document a successor trustee can record after your death, with the death certificate, to show on the record who now acts for the trust.
When a child inherits an Inglewood house: Proposition 19
A long ownership also usually means a low Proposition 13 taxable value, and that is where Proposition 19 comes in. A child who inherits a parent's home keeps the parent's taxable value only if at least one inheriting child moves in as a primary residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within one year. The protection is capped at the old taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027. At Zillow's typical $749,827, an Inglewood house falls inside that cap no matter how low the old taxable value is. The BOE-19-P claim is due within three years of the death. Rentals and second homes do not qualify, which matters if your estate includes a duplex or other rental. Our Proposition 19 inheritance guide covers the filing.
Airport noise and the Residential Sound Insulation program
Downtown Inglewood is about 4 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, and the City runs a Residential Sound Insulation program for homes affected by aircraft noise. The City says the program offers sound insulation at no cost to residents in neighborhoods with a recorded noise level of 65 decibels CNEL or higher, for homes built before 1998, within the 2020 Noise Exposure Map contours of LAX. It is funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and Los Angeles World Airports, and the City says it identified about 3,700 additional units under its newer guidelines.
Two of the City's answers bear on estate planning. A new owner of a home that was never insulated can still request the work. And the City's FAQ says the home will not be reassessed, because the State Board of Equalization considers sound insulation modifications exempt. The owner or a representative 18 or older must be present to let the contractor and city inspectors in. Once the house is in your trust you deal with the program as trustee, and if you cannot act, your successor trustee or your agent under the durable power of attorney can deal with the program for you.
An Inglewood address that is not in Inglewood
Mailing addresses and city limits do not line up perfectly here. Lennox, on Inglewood's southwest side, is an unincorporated census designated place with ZIP Code 90304, and Inglewood annexed large parts of the old Lennox area over the years. Zillow tracks Lennox separately, with a typical value of $715,343 for August 2026. A house in Lennox is under county government, so the City of Inglewood's rental registry and city ordinances do not apply to it. The trust deed does not depend on the mailing address in any case. It uses the legal description and the Assessor's Parcel Number from your current deed, and we check them before drafting.
Creating and Funding an Inglewood Living Trust
Fill out the online questionnaireList your family, the Inglewood house, any duplex or other rental, your bank and brokerage accounts, and who should serve as successor trustee and receive what. The questionnaire saves your answers while you work.
Attorney prepares and reviews the documentsRozsa Gyene, a California attorney, drafts 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 delivered.
Sign before a notary and two witnessesSign the trust and the power of attorney in front of a California notary public, in Inglewood or anywhere in the state. The pour-over will is signed in front of two adult witnesses, as the signing instructions explain.
Record the trust transfer deed with the Los Angeles County Registrar-RecorderRecord the deed from you to yourself as trustee at the LAX/Courthouse office on La Cienega Boulevard, or mail it to the Norwalk headquarters, with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. If a late joint tenant is still on title, record the Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant first. The deed for the home you live in claims the SB 2 owner-occupier exemption; a rental pays the $75 fee.
Move bank and brokerage accounts into the trustGive each bank, credit union and brokerage firm the certification of trust and ask it to retitle the account to you as trustee, or to name the trust as payable on death beneficiary where the institution offers that.
Check retirement and insurance beneficiary formsRetirement plans, IRAs and life insurance pass by their own beneficiary forms, not by the trust. Confirm that each form names the person or trust you intend and has a contingent beneficiary.
Advance health care directive with HIPAA authorization
Certification of trust
Assignment of personal property
Personal property memorandum
Funding instructions
The trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple. Each deed is $100, so an Inglewood owner with a house and a duplex pays for two deeds. You can reach the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071. The office is in Burbank, but there is no need to visit: you sign in front of any California notary in Los Angeles County or elsewhere in the state. To see how the price compares with other ways of doing this, read what a California living trust costs.
Inglewood Living Trust Questions
Does the Inglewood Courthouse on Regent Street hear probate?
No. The court's judicial directory for the week of October 5, 2026 lists the Inglewood Courthouse departments as criminal, traffic, family law, general civil, small claims and unlawful detainer. Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(A) requires probate, trust, guardianship and conservatorship proceedings to be filed in the Central District, so an Inglewood estate is probated at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles.
What would probate cost on a typical Inglewood home?
Zillow's typical Inglewood home value was $749,827 on August 31, 2026. On that gross value Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee at $17,996.54, and §10800 gives the executor the same amount, $35,993.08 together. The $435 first petition fee and a probate referee's commission of about $750 come on top. A living trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple.
The typical Inglewood home is just under $750,000. Does that mean my family can skip probate without a trust?
Not reliably. Probate Code §13151 lets heirs ask the court to transfer a decedent's primary residence with a gross value of $750,000 or less, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. Zillow's typical Inglewood value is only $173 under that limit, the value is taken when the owner dies, and a rental the owner did not live in does not qualify. Even when it applies, it is a petition filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court with a $435 fee and notice to heirs. A recorded trust deed avoids the court entirely.
Does a deed of my Inglewood home into my own trust owe transfer tax?
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 documentary transfer tax, the Registrar-Recorder's list of exemption statements includes one for a conveyance into or out of a living trust under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930. Inglewood is not one of the five cities the county lists with special higher rates.
Where do I record the trust deed for an Inglewood house?
With the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. In person, the LAX/Courthouse office at 11701 S. La Cienega Boulevard, 6th Floor, records documents from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. By mail, send it to the Document Analysis and Recording Section, P.O. Box 1250, Norwalk, CA 90651-1250; the county asks that nothing be mailed to a district office. Include a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report.
I own an Inglewood duplex. Does the City's rental registry still apply after it goes into my trust?
Yes. Under the City's Housing Protection registration rules, residential properties with two or more units must register, and the City's FAQ says the bill is the obligation of the owner on title. After the deed that owner is you as trustee, and later your successor trustee. A property that is not registered cannot raise rent, collect rent or evict, so the successor trustee should know the registry exists.
My late husband is still on our Inglewood deed as a joint tenant. What do we do first?
Clear his name first. The Registrar-Recorder's procedure is to record an Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant with a certified copy of the death certificate and a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. Once that is on record, the public record shows the house in your name alone, and the trust transfer deed can be recorded. We read your current vesting deed before drafting so the order is right.
Will my child keep my Prop 13 tax base on our Inglewood house?
Possibly. Under Proposition 19, a child who inherits the family home keeps the parent's taxable value if the child moves in as a primary residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within one year. The protection covers the old taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027, which is more than the typical Inglewood home is worth. The claim form, BOE-19-P, is due within three years. Rentals do not qualify.
