Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
When a Madera homeowner dies without a funded trust, the estate is opened at the Madera Superior Court on South "G" Street. Zillow's typical Madera home value was $425,530 for August 2026, and in a full probate the statutory attorney and executor fees on that value add up to $23,021.20. A $400 trust plus $100 deed keeps the house out of that courtroom.
A Madera house stays out of probate when you sign a revocable living trust and record a deed putting the house in it with the Madera County Recorder at 200 W. 4th Street. Skip the deed and your family files at the Madera Superior Court, 200 South "G" Street, either a §13151 petition or a full probate. On Zillow's August 2026 typical Madera value of $425,530, statutory attorney and executor fees in a full probate total $23,021.20. Our trust costs $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple.
The court's locations page lists one courthouse for the whole county, the Madera Superior Court at 200 South "G" Street, and describes it as a full service court handling all case types. The court's probate page places the Probate Department inside the Civil Division at the main courthouse, and Local Rule 1.3.6 gives the Probate-Civil Division decedents' estates, trust matters, conservatorships, guardianships, minors' compromises, spousal property petitions and other matters under the Probate Code, along with civil law and motion and family law. Probate is filed in the county where the person who died was living (Probate Code §7051), so the estate of a parent who lived in Madera, in Chowchilla or in an unincorporated part of the county comes to this same building.
The court's probate page lists the kinds of petitions it sees: probate, guardianship, conservatorship, petitions to terminate joint tenancy, affidavits for real property of small value, and petitions to establish the fact of a birth, death or marriage. Two of those are the paperwork families meet when a house was held in joint tenancy or was worth very little. A third, probate itself, is what a funded trust replaces. The same page states plainly that Madera Superior Court does not have a probate examiner on staff. For tentative calendar dates the court asks callers to phone the Civil Division between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Madera's local rules, effective January 1, 2026 and unchanged on July 1, 2026, set out how a probate moves. Papers for a probate hearing, including the proposed order, must be filed or lodged at least four court days before the hearing (Local Rule 7.1.7). Most verified petitions are decided on the papers without anyone appearing, but Local Rule 7.1.8 makes the attorney appear on a petition to confirm the sale of real property, and the petitioner and attorney must both appear on a petition to appoint a guardian or conservator. Under Local Rule 7.2.1, every fee the attorney or personal representative asks for must be stated with an explanation of how it was calculated, even when an accounting is waived, and Local Rule 7.2.2 says fees and commissions in a decedent's estate are not paid before a court order authorizes them, apart from narrow exceptions.
Electronic filing is available for probate through an approved electronic filing service provider, and the court says eFiling is not mandatory at this time. The court also offers remote appearances in civil matters under AB 170, which runs through December 31, 2026. None of this is needed for a house that is already titled in a trust: the successor trustee signs the escrow papers, and no petition, hearing or court file is involved. Anyone who has the original will of someone who died must still deliver it to the court clerk within 30 days after learning of the death, unless a petition to probate it has already been filed (Probate Code §8200), even when a trust holds everything.
Probate guardianship and conservatorship investigations in Madera are done through Family Court Services, and the court's fee page lists a $600.00 guardianship investigation fee and a $400.00 conservatorship investigation fee, each paid by the petitioner. Our package includes a durable power of attorney and an advance health care directive. They name the people who handle your money and medical decisions if you cannot. Without them, a family may have to petition the court to appoint a conservator. For young children, the pour-over will names a guardian (Probate Code §1502), and the trust can hold a child's inheritance and pay it out at the ages you set.
The trust document does not move the house; the recorded deed does. Our deed transfers the property from you to you as trustee of your trust, and you record it with the Madera County Recorder, which shares the 200 W. 4th Street address with the Assessor. The recorder accepts deeds over the counter from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and by mail to the same address. The county's recording requirements list what it checks: the property must be in Madera County, signatures must be original and acknowledged, the first page needs a 2 inch blank space at the top with the return name and address in the upper left, and the Assessor's Parcel Number must appear on every conveyance under Madera County Code §3.12.130. The parcel number is printed on your property tax bill, and the Assessor's office at (559) 675-7710 can give it to you.
Two practical points from the recorder's pages. First, after a deed is recorded the original is mailed back to the address on the first page within 2 to 3 weeks, once it has been added to the county's archive. Keep that original with your trust. Second, recorder staff are barred by law from giving legal advice, including which forms you need or how to fill them out, so the deed should arrive complete. The recorder takes cash (no $100 bills), checks, cashier's checks, money orders and cards; debit card payments and credit card payments of $83.75 or less carry a $2.50 service fee, and credit card payments above $83.75 carry 3%.
Madera County's fee page lists the $75 Building Homes and Jobs Act fee on every document unless an exemption applies, including a document recorded in connection with a transfer of a residential dwelling to an owner-occupier, and it says exemptions must be cited on documents from private parties. The county publishes a cover page (revised May 9, 2022) with a box for Government Code §27388.1(a)(2)(B). Our deed of the home you live in states that exemption on its face, so the $75 is usually not charged. A rental house, a second home or a vacant lot does not qualify and pays $75, up to the $225 cap per transaction.
Madera County collects a documentary transfer tax of $0.55 for each $500 of value. The county's own instructions say it is figured on the fair market value or consideration, excluding any liens or encumbrances that remain on the property, and the county's transfer tax declaration lists "Transfer into or out of trust instrument in inter vivos gift or upon death (RTC 11930)" as an exemption. The county's fee page also says each conveyance must carry a tax declaration showing the amount, the jurisdiction (City or County) and how the tax was computed. That jurisdiction line matters in Madera, because the City of Madera, a general law city, has its own tax of $0.55 per $1,000 of value. California City Finance lists the combined city and county rate inside the city as $1.10 per $1,000, the same total as the county rate of $0.55 per $500. A parcel outside the city, for example in Madera Acres or Madera Ranchos, which the Census Bureau lists as census designated places separate from the City of Madera, is marked as county.
The City's ordinance answers the trust question. Madera Municipal Code §8-5.01 says the City's tax is adopted under Part 6.7 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, the state documentary transfer tax law, and §8-5.02 taxes only deeds of realty sold, with the value measured without any lien or loan that stays on the property. Section 8-5.09 has the County Recorder administer the City's tax under that same state law. A deed from you to yourself as trustee of your own revocable trust sells nothing and no price is paid, so no city tax is owed, and the deed states the exemption. A later sale by your trustee is taxed like any other sale.
On the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report you check the box for a transfer into a revocable trust. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says that transfer is not a change in ownership, so the Assessor keeps your Proposition 13 base year value. Our guide to living trust property tax rules explains the report. We prepare the deed and the report for $100 per property, and you record them. From January 1, 2027, AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) resets the Government Code §27361 base recording fee to $15.00 for the first page and $4.00 for each additional page; county add-on fees still apply, so Madera County's posted totals will change. Our trust transfer deed guide covers the deed itself.
The table uses Zillow's Home Value Index for the City of Madera, $425,530 for August 2026 (Zillow research data through August 31, 2026). Probate Code §10810 pays the estate's attorney 4% of the first $100,000 of gross value, 3% of the next $100,000 and 2% of the next $800,000. Probate Code §10800 gives the executor the same amount. Both are figured on the gross value of the estate, so a mortgage on the house does not lower either one.
Run your own numbers in the probate cost calculator
Our California probate fees guide explains each charge. Set against $23,021.20 in statutory fees, a trust costs $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple, plus $100 for the deed.
Because the typical Madera house sits well under $750,000, some families plan to rely on Probate Code §13151. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, it lets heirs petition for the decedent's primary residence when its gross value is $750,000 or less, without a full probate. It is still a court proceeding at the Madera Superior Court: a $435 filing fee, at least 40 days after the death, notice to heirs and devisees, and a hearing. It covers only the home the person lived in, not a rental, a duplex or a lot.
The other statutory shortcuts are narrower. An affidavit for real property of small value under Probate Code §13200, one of the filings the Madera court lists on its probate page, reaches California real estate worth up to $69,625 in total for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, and cannot be filed until six months after the death. Probate Code §13100 lets heirs collect personal property such as a bank account by affidavit only when the estate is $208,850 or less. A deed recorded during your lifetime makes all of these unnecessary for the house.
Zillow's monthly series for Madera begins at $95,460 in January 2003. It climbed to $213,656 by August 2006, fell to a low of $123,302 in December 2011, and recovered to $281,994 by August 2020. It reached $393,287 in August 2022, $414,157 in August 2025, and $425,530 in August 2026, the highest figure in the series. The statutory fee rises with every dollar of value, and the §13151 and §13200 limits are fixed amounts that values can outgrow. A funded trust works the same whatever the house is worth on the date of death.
The Census Bureau estimates Madera's population at 69,017 on July 1, 2025, up from a 2020 base of 66,348, out of 167,927 people in Madera County. Madera is the county seat: the court is on South "G" Street and the recorder and Assessor share 200 W. 4th Street. The 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey counts 18,562 housing units in the city, 71.6% of them detached single family houses. About 8.7% are in buildings of two to four units, 13.2% are in buildings of five or more, and 527 units (2.8%) are mobile homes.
Of the 17,526 occupied homes, 9,588 (54.7%) are owner occupied and 7,938 (45.3%) are rented. About two thirds of owners still have a mortgage; 3,082 owner occupied homes (32.1%) have none. Among the 2,304 owner households headed by someone 65 or older, the survey estimates that 1,103, nearly half, own the house free and clear. A paid off house is often the largest asset in an estate, and it is the asset a deed into the trust protects. A mortgage does not stop you from funding a trust either. For a home loan on a house with fewer than five units, federal law (12 U.S.C. §1701j-3(d)(8)) bars the lender from using a due on sale clause because of a transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary and which does not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy.
The same survey estimates that 48.9% of Madera households include someone under 18 and 44.1% are married couple households. A married couple who own their house together usually sign one joint trust at $500, and the deed puts the house in both names as trustees. Parents can name a guardian for minor children in the pour-over will, and the trust can hold each child's share and use it for that child until the age you pick.
The survey dates 37.4% of the city's units to 2000 or later, including 4,811 built between 2000 and 2009, and puts the median year built at 1991; about 39% were built before 1980. Some parcels in the city carry a special tax. The City formed Community Facilities District No. 2005-1 (Public Services) on November 16, 2005, by Resolution No. 05-334, and its administrator's report for fiscal year 2021/22 counted 994 developed parcels subject to the special tax, which helps pay for police, fire, park maintenance and storm drainage services. The district has issued no bonds, and the report shows the special tax placed on the secured property tax roll rather than billed separately. Putting a house in your trust does not change the special tax; it stays with the parcel, and your successor trustee pays it from the trust along with the rest of the property tax bill.
In 11,462 of Madera's 17,526 households (65.4%), Spanish is spoken at home, according to the American Community Survey. The Madera County Recorder's requirements say every recorded document must be in English, and a document signed in another language needs a translation by a California court interpreter or a member of the American Translators Association. Your trust and deed are prepared in English. Choose a successor trustee who can deal comfortably with the bank, the title company and the Assessor, and make sure the people you name know where the signed originals are kept. Our site also has pages in Spanish.
A successor trustee usually needs certified copies of the death certificate for the bank, the title company and the recorder. Madera County's fee page lists $26.00 for a certified death record in 2026, and the county notes that since July 1, 2003 state law allows only certain authorized individuals to buy an authorized certified copy. Under Proposition 19, as the State Board of Equalization explains it, a child who makes the family home a principal residence keeps the parent's factored base year value if the home's market value is no more than that value plus $1,044,586 (for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027); any excess is added to the assessed value. The Madera County Assessor's page links a Proposition 19 fact sheet. A rental, or a home no child will live in, is reassessed.
A parcel elsewhere in Madera County, in Chowchilla or the unincorporated county, is recorded with the same recorder on West 4th Street. A house in Fresno County or a lot in Merced County is deeded into the trust the same way but recorded with that county's recorder; if it is left out, it can still need a probate in Madera, where you lived. The survey counts 1,451 veterans in the city. Military and civil service pensions, the Thrift Savings Plan, 401(k) and 403(b) plans, IRAs and life insurance pass by beneficiary designation, outside the trust, so check each designation when the trust is signed.
One person's trust is $400 and a married couple's joint trust is $500. Every deed, for the Madera house, a rental or land elsewhere in the county, is $100 per property. You can call the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071. The documents are signed before a California notary, and a notary in Madera works as well as one anywhere else in the state. For a comparison of prices, see what a California living trust costs.
At the Madera Superior Court, 200 South "G" Street, Madera, CA 93637. The court's Probate Department sits in the Civil Division at that courthouse, and the Civil Division's number is (559) 416-5525; the clerk's windows are open 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on court days. Under Local Rule 1.3.6 the Probate-Civil Division hears decedents' estates, trust matters, conservatorships, guardianships and spousal property petitions. A home held in a funded living trust needs no case there.
Zillow put the typical Madera home value at $425,530 for August 2026. In a full probate, Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee on that gross value at $11,510.60, and Probate Code §10800 gives the executor the same amount, for $23,021.20 together. The $435 first petition filing fee and a probate referee commission of about $426 are added. Our trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple, and the deed is $100.
With the Madera County Recorder, 200 W. 4th Street, Madera, CA 93637, (559) 675-7724. Documents are accepted from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays, in person or by mail. The county's posted fees are $14.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page. Confirm the current fee with the recorder before mailing. Send a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report with the deed, or the recorder adds a $20.00 penalty, and put the Assessor's Parcel Number on the deed, which county code requires on every conveyance.
The City of Madera, a general law city, has its own real property transfer tax of $0.55 per $1,000 of value; inside the city the combined city and county rate is $1.10 per $1,000. The City's tax is adopted under the state documentary transfer tax law (Madera Municipal Code §8-5.01) and reaches only realty sold, valued without any loan that stays on the property (§8-5.02), so a deed into your own revocable trust with nothing paid owes no city tax. For the county's tax, Madera County's transfer tax declaration lists a transfer into or out of a trust by gift or upon death under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930 among its exemptions.
Yes. Madera's Local Rule 7.1.8 lets most verified probate petitions be decided without anyone appearing, but it makes an exception for a petition to confirm the sale of real property, where the attorney must appear in court. Papers for a probate hearing must be filed at least four court days before it (Local Rule 7.1.7). A successor trustee selling a house that is already in a living trust does not need a court confirmation.
No. Under Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d), a transfer into a trust you can revoke is not a change in ownership, so the Madera County Assessor keeps your Proposition 13 base year value. Mark the revocable trust box on the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. Special taxes stay the same as well: if your parcel is in the City's Community Facilities District No. 2005-1, that levy follows the parcel whoever holds title.
They may be able to use the Probate Code §13151 petition for a primary residence worth $750,000 or less, for deaths on or after April 1, 2025, but that is still a court case: a petition filed at the Madera Superior Court, a $435 filing fee, notice to heirs and a hearing. It does not reach a rental or a vacant lot. A funded trust lets the successor trustee act without filing anything with the court.
Checked October 7, 2026. Fees and addresses change; confirm with the office before you file or record. Madera County's web pages were opened live on that date; its SB 2 cover page and transfer tax instructions were read from Internet Archive copies.
An attorney-prepared living trust for $400, or $500 for a married couple, signed before any California notary in Madera County.
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