Vallejo Living Trust: Keep Your Home Out of the Fairfield Probate Court
Reviewed by Rozsa Gyene, California attorney. Last reviewed October 2026.
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, but its probate cases are heard in Fairfield, in Department 22 of the Old Solano Courthouse. On Zillow's August 2026 typical Vallejo home value of $519,461, the statutory attorney and executor fees in a full probate would total $26,778.44. A funded living trust keeps the house out of that courtroom for a $400 trust plus a $100 deed.
To keep a Vallejo home out of probate, sign a revocable living trust and record a deed putting the home into it with the Solano County Recorder in Fairfield. Left in your own name, a house at Zillow's August 2026 typical Vallejo value of $519,461 goes to Solano County Superior Court, where a full probate carries statutory attorney and executor fees of $26,778.44 under Probate Code §10810 and §10800. The trust is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple.
Key Takeaways
Solano County hears probate in Department 22 of the Old Solano Courthouse, 580 Texas Street, Fairfield. The probate clerk is at the Hall of Justice, 600 Union Avenue, (707) 207-7341. Probate is not heard at the Vallejo courthouse.
Trust deeds are recorded at 675 Texas Street, Suite 2700, Fairfield: $13 for the first page and $3 for each additional page under the schedule updated July 1, 2026, plus $20 if no PCOR is filed.
Vallejo adds its own conveyance tax of $1.65 per $500 on sales, on top of the county's $0.55. A deed into your own revocable trust is not a sale, so neither tax is due on it.
Zillow put Vallejo's typical home value at $519,461 for August 2026. Statutory probate fees on that value: $13,389.22 for the attorney and the same for the executor, $26,778.44 together.
Mare Island homes inside the city's three community facilities districts pay Mello-Roos special taxes. Putting the home in a trust does not change them.
Attorney-prepared trust: $400 single, $500 married couple. Deed preparation is a separate $100 per property.
Solano County Probate: Department 22 in Fairfield
Courthouse
Superior Court of California, County of Solano, Old Solano Courthouse
Address
580 Texas Street, Fairfield, CA 94533 (hearings). The probate clerk's office is at the Hall of Justice, 600 Union Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533.
Department 22, which hears probate of estates and trusts
A Vallejo estate is never heard in Vallejo. The court's page for estates and trusts sends every probate hearing to Department 22 in the Old Solano Courthouse on Texas Street in Fairfield, the county seat, and puts the probate clerk in a second Fairfield building, the Hall of Justice on Union Avenue. Papers go to one address and the hearing happens at the other. The Vallejo courthouse, the Solano Justice Building at 321 Tuolumne Street, is not where probate is heard.
Department 22 lets parties appear remotely through ZoomGov (video or a toll-free dial-in) or through CourtCall, so an executor living in Vallejo does not always have to drive to Fairfield for a routine hearing. Ex parte applications in a probate estate are heard by appointment only: the court says to contact the department first and file with the clerk after a date is given (Solano Local Rule 7.10). Rule 7 of the local rules sets out the court's other probate procedures.
Venue follows the person, not the place of death. Probate Code §7051 puts the case in the county where the decedent was domiciled, regardless of where the death happened, so a Vallejo resident who dies in a Napa or Contra Costa hospital still has a Solano County probate. A trust administration avoids all of it: the successor trustee you named takes over the home and accounts the trust holds, with no petition, no Department 22 calendar and no public court file.
Recording a Vallejo Trust Deed in Fairfield
Recorder
Solano County Assessor/Recorder, Recorder Division
Address
675 Texas Street, Suite 2700, Fairfield, CA 94533. This is the only recording address the county lists; there is no Vallejo recording counter on its pages.
Phone
707-784-6290; document recording Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Recording fee
$13 for the first page ($10 base fee plus $1 each for micrographics, days of operation and electronic recording) and $3 for each additional page (Solano fee schedule updated July 1, 2026)
SB 2 fee
$75 per document under Government Code §27388.1, up to $225. Solano accepts an exemption declared on the face of the document or on its SB 2 Exemption Cover Page. Our deed of your own Vallejo home into your trust 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 says a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (BOE-502-A) is required when property is transferred, and the recorder may charge $20 more if it is not submitted at recording (Revenue and Taxation Code §480.3).
The trust document alone does not move the house. The deed does: it runs from you as owner to you as trustee, describes the parcel and its Assessor's Parcel Number, and is recorded in Fairfield. On the PCOR you mark the box for a transfer to a revocable trust. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) treats that transfer as no change in ownership, so the Solano County Assessor keeps your current assessed value and no supplemental bill follows. Your lender is not involved and the loan stays as it is.
A deed for Vallejo property can carry two transfer taxes. Solano County's documentary transfer tax is 55 cents per $500 of value, and the county's own exemption list includes a deed transferring the grantor's interest to a revocable trust for the grantor's benefit, not as part of a sale (Revenue and Taxation Code §11930). For property inside Vallejo city limits the county also collects the City of Vallejo's conveyance tax of $1.65 per $500, and the county page says it does not discuss the city's exemptions. The city ordinance (Vallejo Municipal Code chapter 3.10) taxes real property sold to a purchaser when the consideration exceeds $100. Your deed into your own trust is not a sale and has no consideration, so the deed states $0.00 for both. The county asks for a Transfer Tax Affidavit when an exemption is claimed.
Two other Solano charges are worth knowing. The county adds a $10 real estate fraud prosecution fee (Government Code §27388) to the document types on its list, which includes quitclaim deeds. It also charges a $10 survey monument fee on deeds, other than quitclaims, that convey land not described as a complete lot on a recorded tract map. Our office prepares the deed and PCOR for a separate $100 per property, and you record them yourself in person on Texas Street or by mail; recording is the step that actually funds the home into the trust. Recording fees go up across California on January 1, 2027, when AB 2224 (Stats. 2026, ch. 292) sets the Government Code §27361 base fee at $15.00 for the first page and $4.00 for each additional page; county add-on fees come on top of that base. Our trust transfer deed guide explains the deed itself.
What Probate Would Cost on a Typical Vallejo Home
Zillow's Home Value Index put the typical Vallejo home value at $519,461 for August 2026 (data through August 31, 2026), down 2.8% over the year. The figures below use Zillow's typical home value. 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 pays the executor the same. The base is gross value, so a mortgage on the house does not lower the 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 $519 on this home.
Creditor period: four months after letters issue (Probate Code §9100), so no estate closes sooner.
Vallejo is one of the places where the shortcut matters. A typical house at $519,461 is under the $750,000 limit of the Probate Code §13151 petition, which lets heirs take a primary residence for deaths on or after April 1, 2025 without full probate. It is still a petition filed in Fairfield with the $435 fee, it waits 40 days after the death, and it covers only the residence. Everything else must fit under the $208,850 small estate limit of Probate Code §13100 or go through probate, and a rental house never qualifies. Our California probate fees guide explains each charge. A funded trust needs neither court route, for a $400 trust plus a $100 deed, or a $500 trust plus a $100 deed for a married couple.
Vallejo Property and What It Means for Your Trust
A large city of owners and landlords
Vallejo counted 126,090 residents in the 2020 Census, more than any other city in Solano County, and the Census Bureau estimated 123,287 for July 2025. Only 57.4% of its occupied homes are owner occupied (American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024), so a large share of Vallejo houses are rentals. A rental is deeded into the trust the same way as a residence, but it pays the $75 SB 2 fee, it cannot use the §13151 primary residence petition, and under Proposition 19 it does not qualify for the parent and child property tax exclusion when your children inherit. The trust should say who manages the rental, collects rent and holds the deposit if you cannot, and the lease should be assigned to you as trustee.
The same Census tables show 17.9% of residents are 65 or older and 6,328 are veterans. For an older owner the trust matters during life as much as after death: if you lose capacity, the successor trustee manages the house and the trust accounts without a conservatorship petition in Fairfield, and the durable power of attorney covers what is outside the trust. Military and federal retirement savings in the Thrift Savings Plan, like CalPERS benefits, pass by beneficiary designation rather than by the trust.
Neighborhood values and the $750,000 line
Zillow's August 2026 neighborhood figures show how wide the range is inside one city. The typical value is $416,053 in Vallejo Heights, $431,506 in Old City Vallejo, $445,582 in the Saint Vincent's Hill Historic District and $457,248 in South Vallejo. It rises to $579,536 in Glen Cove, $668,827 in Heather Ridge, $669,701 in Somerset Highlands and $708,305 on Mare Island, and reaches $780,108 in Hiddenbrooke. Every one of those values is far above the $208,850 small estate limit. Hiddenbrooke's typical home is already over the $750,000 ceiling of the §13151 petition, and Mare Island's is within about $42,000 of it, so for those owners the simplified petition may not be available at all. A trust does not depend on the value of the house.
Vallejo's conveyance tax when the house is sold
The deed into your trust is tax free, but a later sale is not. If your successor trustee sells a Vallejo house for $519,461 with no loan assumed, the county documentary transfer tax is $571.45 and the city conveyance tax is $1,714.35, or $2,285.80 together. A probate sale of the same house would pay the same taxes, so the trust does not avoid them; what it avoids is the court confirmation and the statutory fees. Vallejo's ordinance makes both the seller and the buyer liable for the city tax and charges a 10% penalty when it is unpaid at recording, which a trustee selling the house should keep in mind when reviewing the escrow statement.
Mare Island: Navy history and Mello-Roos special taxes
Mare Island was the first United States Navy base on the Pacific, established in 1854, and the shipyard closed on March 31, 1996. Today the former base is part of Vallejo, with homes that Zillow tracks as their own neighborhood, Touro University California among its tenants, and the Mare Island Historic Core around the museum and plaza off Nimitz Avenue. Homes there carry Mello-Roos special taxes: the City's frequently asked questions explain that three community facilities districts, Nos. 2002-1, 2005-1A and 2005-1B, levy special taxes on property within their boundaries, and that the 2005-1A tax shows on the property tax bill as separate facilities and services charges. Moving a Mare Island home into your trust does not end or change those taxes. The successor trustee pays them with the rest of the property tax bill, so keep a recent bill with your trust papers.
Historic districts, landmarks and Mills Act contracts
The City of Vallejo has three historic districts listed in the National Register: the Architectural Heritage District (listed in 1973 as the Vallejo Old City Historic District), the Saint Vincent's Hill Historic District (listed in 2003, with a period of significance from 1868 to 1947) and the Mare Island Historic Core. The City also counts 82 federally or locally designated landmarks. Work on a landmark or a property in a district goes through a Certificate of Appropriateness under Vallejo Municipal Code §16.614.09, and the Planning Division lists a Mills Act property tax abatement program. The state Office of Historic Preservation explains that a Mills Act contract runs for at least ten years, renews each year, and stays with the property when it is transferred, binding later owners. If your Victorian in the Architectural Heritage District or a cottage on Saint Vincent's Hill has a Mills Act contract, the trust takes the house subject to it. Keep a copy of the contract with your trust papers so your successor trustee knows the obligations.
Property across the water and the county line
Vallejo sits at the southwest corner of Solano County, with the Carquinez Strait to the south and Contra Costa County across it, Benicia to the east and Napa County to the north. Benicia property is recorded at the same Fairfield office, but a cabin or vineyard parcel in Napa County is recorded with the Napa County Recorder, and a Contra Costa condominium with the Contra Costa County recorder. Each parcel needs its own deed and its own PCOR. Real estate in another state needs a deed under that state's rules, or it can require a separate probate there. When a child inherits a parent's Vallejo home, Proposition 19 lets the child keep the parent's taxable value only if the child makes it his or her primary residence and files for the homeowners' exemption within a year (a later claim helps only going forward), and only up to the parent's taxable value plus $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 to February 15, 2027. Our Prop 19 inheritance guide covers the details.
How to Create and Fund a Living Trust in Vallejo
Answer the questionnaire onlineFrom home in Vallejo, answer the online questions about your family, your Solano County real estate, your accounts and the people you want as successor trustee and agents. Your answers save as you go.
Attorney prepares your documentsRozsa Gyene, a California attorney, prepares your trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, advance health care directive and certification of trust from your answers and reviews them before you receive them.
Sign before a notarySign the trust and the power of attorney before any California notary public, in Vallejo or anywhere else in Solano County. The pour-over will is signed in front of two witnesses, following the signing instructions.
Record a trust transfer deed with the Solano County RecorderRecord the deed for your Vallejo home at the Solano County Recorder, 675 Texas Street, Suite 2700, Fairfield, 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 lot pays it. Property in Napa or Contra Costa County is recorded with that county's recorder.
Retitle bank and brokerage accountsShow each bank and brokerage firm the certification of trust and have the account retitled to you as trustee, or name the trust as the payable on death beneficiary where the institution allows it.
Review beneficiary designationsCalPERS and other pensions, 401(k) and 403(b) plans, IRAs, the Thrift Savings Plan and life insurance pass by beneficiary designation, not under the trust. Check that each one names the people or the trust you intend, with a contingent beneficiary.
Advance health care directive with HIPAA authorization
Certification of trust
Assignment of personal property
Personal property memorandum
Funding instructions
The Vallejo package is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple. A deed for your Vallejo home, a rental or any other parcel is a separate $100 per property. You can reach the attorney directly at (818) 337-4071. Everything is signed before a California notary, and there are notaries throughout Vallejo and the rest of Solano County. For a full comparison of pricing, see what a California living trust costs.
Vallejo Living Trust Questions
Where is probate heard for a Vallejo resident?
Solano County Superior Court hears probate in Department 22 of the Old Solano Courthouse, 580 Texas Street, Fairfield, CA 94533. The probate clerk's office is in a different Fairfield building, the Hall of Justice at 600 Union Avenue, (707) 207-7341. Probate is not heard at the Vallejo courthouse on Tuolumne Street. A Vallejo home held in a funded living trust passes to your beneficiaries without any filing in Fairfield.
What would probate cost on a typical Vallejo home?
Zillow put the typical Vallejo home value at $519,461 for August 2026. On that value Probate Code §10810 gives the attorney $13,389.22, and §10800 gives the executor the same amount, so the two statutory fees total $26,778.44. The $435 filing fee, the probate referee and publication are extra, and the fees are figured on the gross value, before any mortgage is subtracted.
Can a Vallejo home use the $750,000 primary residence petition instead of full probate?
Often, yes, if the house was the owner's primary residence, its gross value is $750,000 or less, and the death was on or after April 1, 2025 (Probate Code §13151). It is still a court petition in Fairfield with a $435 filing fee, it cannot be filed until 40 days after the death, and it covers only the home. A rental or second home does not qualify, and Zillow's August 2026 typical value in Hiddenbrooke, $780,108, is already over the limit.
Will I pay Vallejo's city transfer tax when I deed my home into my trust?
No tax should be due. Vallejo's real property conveyance tax is $1.65 per $500 and applies to real property sold for consideration over $100. Solano County's documentary transfer tax of $0.55 per $500 lists a deed to your own revocable trust, for your benefit and not part of a sale, as exempt under Revenue and Taxation Code §11930. A deed into your own trust is not a sale, so the tax shown on it is $0.00. Both taxes apply later if the trustee sells the house.
What does it cost to record a trust deed in Solano County?
Under the fee schedule updated July 1, 2026, the Solano County Recorder charges $13 for the first page and $3 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. The recorder adds $20 if no Preliminary Change of Ownership Report is filed with the deed.
Does moving my home into the trust change my property taxes or Mare Island special taxes?
No. Revenue and Taxation Code §62(d) says a transfer into a revocable trust is not a change in ownership, so the Solano County Assessor keeps your existing assessed value when a PCOR is filed with the deed. Mello-Roos special taxes from Mare Island's community facilities districts stay on the property tax bill exactly as before, and the trust or your successor trustee keeps paying them.
How much does a living trust cost in Vallejo?
A living trust in Vallejo is $400 for one person or $500 for a married couple. The package includes the revocable living trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, advance health care directive and certification of trust. Our office prepares the deed for a separate $100 per property, and you record it yourself with the Solano County Recorder in Fairfield. Call (818) 337-4071 to speak with the attorney's office.
How do I transfer my Vallejo home into the trust?
You sign a deed transferring the home from you to yourself as trustee and record it with the Solano County Recorder at 675 Texas Street, Suite 2700, Fairfield, CA 94533, together with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. Your mortgage stays in place and the property is not reassessed. Until that deed is recorded, the home is still in your own name and would still go through probate.
