Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
Shasta County hears probate in Department 44 of the main courthouse at 1515 Court Street in downtown Redding. On a house at Zillow's August 2026 Redding home value of $387,376, the statutory attorney and executor fees alone come to $21,495.04. A funded living trust keeps the house out of that courtroom for a $400 trust plus a $100 deed.
Put the house in a revocable living trust and record a trust transfer deed with the Shasta County Assessor-Recorder at 1450 Court Street. Without one, a Redding home at the $387,376 typical value would either go through full probate, where attorney plus executor fees under Probate Code §10810 and §10800 total $21,495.04, or through a §13151 petition, which is shorter but still a court case in Department 44.
Redding is the county seat, so a Redding family does not travel for probate. The court's Probate Division is at the main courthouse on Court Street downtown, a short walk from the recorder. The court's Probate Division page lists office hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and handles wills, conservatorships, guardianships, minor's compromises, name changes and special trusts along with decedents' estates. The same page says probate matters are filed in the Civil Division, and that clerks cannot give legal advice.
The Department 44 calendar runs on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. The court posts tentative rulings for that calendar before the hearing; the October 5, 2026 posting explains that the tentatives are meant to avoid unnecessary appearances, and that a granted petition's signed order goes to will call or the mail after the Monday calendar. Remote appearances are made through WebEx by telephone. The court states that it no longer uses CourtCall.
None of that is difficult on its own. The issue is that a probate, or even the shorter §13151 home petition, puts your family on that calendar: a filed petition, notice to heirs, a hearing date, a judge's order, and for a full estate, a four month creditor period and a final accounting before anything is distributed. A successor trustee of a funded trust signs a deed and an account transfer instead, without a case number.
A trust holds only what is titled in its name, and for a Redding house that means a recorded deed from you, as owner, to you as trustee. The recorder and the assessor share an office in Shasta County, so the PCOR you file with the deed lands with the same department that will later value the property. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) treats a transfer into a trust you can revoke, where you remain the beneficiary, as no change in ownership, so the assessed value you have built up since you bought stays where it is. The county's documentary transfer tax of $0.55 per $500 of value applies to taxable conveyances over $100, and every deed needs a signed transfer tax declaration. On a deed into your own revocable trust it shows $0.00 and the reason. The Assessor-Recorder's list of valid exemption reasons includes a transfer to or from a revocable trust for the benefit of the grantor (Revenue and Taxation Code §11930), and the county requires the Assessor's Parcel Number on every deed.
Deed preparation is a separate $100 per property. We prepare the deed and the PCOR; you record it, either at the counter on Court Street or by mail. The recorder applies the $75 SB 2 fee unless the document states an exemption reason on its face, so the deed for the house you live in states the owner-occupier exemption, and the fee is usually not charged. A rental, a cabin you use as a second home or a vacant lot does not fit that exemption, and the $75 is paid on those. Our guide to the California trust transfer deed covers the form line by line, and the property tax guide covers §62(d) and supplemental assessments in more depth.
Zillow's home value index puts the typical Redding home at $387,376 as of August 31, 2026, down 0.5% over the year. Redfin's median sale price for Redding was $399,735 in August 2026; the math below uses Zillow's typical value from its research data for August 31, 2026. Probate Code §10810 sets the attorney's statutory fee on the gross value of the estate, before any mortgage is subtracted: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, 2% of the next $800,000, then 1% and 0.5% on larger amounts. Probate Code §10800 gives the executor the same amount again.
Run your own numbers in the probate cost calculator
That is about $21,495 in statutory fees against a one time $400 trust for one person or $500 for a couple; the probate fee guide explains the full schedule.
Because the typical Redding home value is well under $750,000, many Redding families will hear that the house can skip probate. That is half right. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, Probate Code §13151 lets a successor ask the court for an order determining that the decedent's primary residence passes to them, without opening a full estate, when the home's gross value is $750,000 or less and at least 40 days have passed since the death.
What it is: a petition filed in the Shasta County Superior Court, with the same $435 filing fee as a probate petition, notice to the heirs and devisees named in the petition, a hearing on the probate calendar, and an inventory and appraisal of the house by the county's probate referee, attached to the petition (Probate Code §13152 and Judicial Council form DE-310). If the judge grants it, the family records the order with the Assessor-Recorder. No executor is appointed and the §10810 percentage fees do not apply.
What it is not: it is not an affidavit and it is not automatic. It does not reach a rental, a second home, a cabin at the lake, vacant land, or property outside California. The limit is gross value, so a $780,000 home with a large mortgage does not qualify. It does nothing while you are alive, so it will not help if you become unable to manage the house. Bank and brokerage accounts are not part of the petition either; they need their own procedure, and if the estate is larger than the $208,850 small estate limit, that can mean a full probate. Our small estate guide compares the affidavit, the §13151 petition and full probate. A recorded trust deed avoids all three.
Redding had 93,611 residents in the 2020 Census. It sits on the Sacramento River, 162 miles north of Sacramento, and it is the county seat and the main city of a large, mostly rural county. That shape shows up in the estate plans of people who live here: a house in town, and often something else up the road.
The Carr Fire started on July 23, 2018 near Whiskeytown and burned 229,651 acres in Shasta and Trinity counties. CAL FIRE counts 1,614 structures destroyed and 279 damaged, and parts of west Redding were evacuated. Between February and March 2025 the State Fire Marshal released new Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps for local responsibility areas, and the City of Redding publishes the 2025 CAL FIRE zones for the city and the Buckeye Fire Protection District on its open data site.
For a trust, wildfire history matters in three practical ways. First, a rebuilt house is still the same parcel, but if the rebuild was financed or the title changed during reconstruction, check the vesting on the current deed before we draft, since the trust deed must start from whoever holds title now. Second, a vacant lot that was never rebuilt is still real property; it is not a primary residence, so the §13151 home petition would not cover it, and it needs its own trust deed. Third, tell your homeowner's insurer that the house is now held by you as trustee so the trust is shown on the policy. A trust does not change hazard zone rules, defensible space duties or what a seller must disclose.
Shasta Lake is about ten miles north of Redding, with marinas such as Bridge Bay, Jones Valley and Shasta Marina Resort that rent and moor houseboats. A privately owned boat or houseboat is a registered vessel, and the DMV handles vessel registration and transfers. It does not pass under your trust deed. If you want the trust to own it, retitle it through the DMV; otherwise list it in the assignment of personal property so it is clearly part of the trust. A vessel that is left in your own name and pushes the estate over the small estate limit can be what forces a court filing.
Outside the city limits, Shasta County has grazing and farm land under Williamson Act contracts, which restrict the land to agricultural and open space use in exchange for a lower assessment. In July 2024 the Board of Supervisors voted not to implement the state changes in AB 1265 and SB 1353 for 2025, keeping the existing contract benefits in place. A Redding household that owns contracted acreage elsewhere in the county should fund it into the trust with its own deed. The contract binds every successor in interest of the owner (Government Code §51243), so the transfer to your own revocable trust does not end it, and the successor trustee can keep operating or lease the land without a court order. Grazing or farm land is not a primary residence, so the $750,000 home petition does not reach it; without a trust, ranch acreage of any real value usually means a full probate.
Plenty of Shasta County owners hold a manufactured home rather than a site-built house. How one goes into a trust depends on how it sits. A home in a park on rented space, not installed on a permanent foundation, is titled and registered by the state Department of Housing and Community Development, so it is transferred through HCD, not through the Assessor-Recorder. A manufactured home installed on a foundation system on land you own is treated as a fixture and part of the real property (Health and Safety Code §18551), and moves with the land in the ordinary trust deed. Check which one you have before you sign; the funding instructions in the package cover both.
Mercy Medical Center Redding and Shasta Regional Medical Center are among the largest employers in the city, and Shasta College and Simpson University are both based here. Many Redding households have a 403(b), 401(k) or public pension alongside the house. Those accounts pass by beneficiary designation, not by the trust and not by the will. Review the beneficiary forms at the same time you sign the trust, so the accounts and the house point to the same people.
Redding sits close to Trinity, Tehama and Siskiyou counties and about 120 miles south of the Oregon line. A cabin near Lewiston or a lot in Tehama County is recorded in that county, so it needs its own deed there. California land outside your home county would otherwise be part of the same Shasta County probate. Land in Oregon or another state is different: without a trust it can require a separate ancillary probate in that state. Our guide to out of state property in a California trust explains the extra deed.
Parents and children: a transfer from a parent to a child at death can trigger reassessment under Prop 19 unless the child moves in and other conditions are met. Adding a child to the deed now to avoid probate is a gift of part of the house and can trigger reassessment of the share you add. A trust lets the successor trustee deal with the Prop 19 filing after death without either problem. See the Prop 19 inheritance guide.
The package is $400 for one person and $500 for a married couple. Deed preparation is a separate $100 per property, so a Redding house plus a lake cabin in another county would be two deeds. You work directly with the attorney and can reach the office at (818) 337-4071 with questions. You sign before any California notary in Shasta County, at a bank, a shipping store or a mobile notary in Redding, and record the deed yourself. See what a California living trust costs for how this compares with other options.
In the Superior Court of California, County of Shasta, at the main courthouse at 1515 Court Street, Redding, CA 96001. The court lists Department 44 for its probate calendar, which is heard on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. The Probate Division can be reached at (530) 245-6789. Clerks cannot give legal advice.
Possibly not full probate. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, Probate Code §13151 lets a successor petition the Shasta County Superior Court for an order that the decedent's primary residence passes to them, if the home's gross value is $750,000 or less and at least 40 days have passed. That petition is still a court case: it is filed, noticed to heirs, set for hearing and decided by a judge, and it covers only the primary residence. A home held in a funded living trust needs no petition at all.
With the Shasta County Assessor-Recorder, 1450 Court Street, Suite 208, Redding, CA 96001, recorder line (530) 225-5671. The county's posted recording fee is $14.00 for the first page and $3.00 for each additional page. Include a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report or the county charges a $20 fee.
No. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) excludes a transfer into a trust you can revoke, where you remain the beneficiary, from change in ownership. The Shasta County Assessor keeps your current assessed value. Prop 19 matters later, when the home passes from a parent to a child.
Usually not, when the deed moves the home you live in. Our deed writes the owner-occupier exemption under Government Code §27388.1(a)(2) on its face, which is what the county asks for. Without a stated exemption the county collects the $75 Building Homes and Jobs Act fee per document, and a rental, second home or vacant lot pays it, capped at $225 per transaction.
Yes, but each is retitled in its own place. A cabin or land in another California county gets its own deed recorded in that county. A registered vessel is transferred through the DMV. A manufactured home that is not on a permanent foundation is titled through the Department of Housing and Community Development, not the county recorder. Property in Oregon or another state needs a deed under that state's rules.
Moving contracted land into your own revocable trust does not cancel the contract. The contract stays with the land, and the Shasta County Assessor continues to value it under the Williamson Act. The trust simply lets your successor trustee manage or transfer the land without a court order.
Checked October 6, 2026. Fees and addresses change; confirm with the office before you file or record.
Start the questionnaire online, sign before a Shasta County notary, and record your deed on Court Street.
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