Fresno Inheritance Guide › From out of town
The house is in Fresno. You are not.
Most of what an estate needs can be done by phone, mail and a mobile notary. A few things cannot wait, because an empty house in Fresno starts costing money and coverage within weeks. This page is the order we would do them in from somewhere else. It is general information; your attorney confirms what applies to your estate.
The first two weeks
Before anyone decides about selling.
Find out who can act
A successor trustee can usually act right away with the trust and a death certificate. If there is no trust, nobody can sign for the house until the court issues Letters, which takes months. Until then, family can still protect the house. See the order of things.
Call the homeowner’s insurer
Tell them the owner has died and the house is empty. California’s standard fire policy does not cover some losses once a building has been vacant more than 60 days in a row unless the policy is endorsed for it (Insurance Code §2071). Ask, in those words, whether the house is covered while vacant.
Get a key to someone local
A neighbor, a relative, a property manager. Change the locks if you do not know who has keys. Someone should look at the house every week.
Keep the utilities in the estate’s name
Power for a porch light and for showing the house; water shut at the valve if nobody is checking on it. Forward the mail to whoever is handling the estate.
Register it with the city if it will stay empty
Fresno asks owners to register a building expected to be vacant more than 30 days and to name a local contact. Registration is free; the city’s fee schedule lists $250 a month for an unregistered vacant building.
If someone lives in it
- A tenant
The lease does not end because the owner died. Rent goes to whoever is managing the estate, and the tenant’s rights stay the same. Under California’s Tenant Protection Act, selling the house is not by itself a reason to end a tenancy. A house can be sold with the tenant in it, which is often simpler than asking anyone to leave.
- Fresno’s rental registry
Fresno requires rentals to be registered with the city, and the registration has to be updated within 30 days of a change in ownership. If the parent was a landlord, find out whether the house is registered.
- A relative
A brother who moved in to take care of a parent is not a tenant unless he pays rent, but he is family, and how the estate handles it is a family and legal question. Talk to the attorney before anyone is asked to move.
Selling without flying in
- The value. Executors and trustees owe the heirs a fair price. An appraisal or an opinion of value from someone who is not buying is how they show it. In a probate, the court’s probate referee values the house for the inventory.
- The contents. Ask a local relative or an estate-sale company to pull the photographs, papers and anything the family wants. The rest can go with the house.
- Brothers and sisters. If several heirs inherit together, the trustee or executor signs, but everyone sleeps better when every heir sees the same numbers at the same time. Send the offer, or the listing agent’s estimate, to all of them at once.
- Signing. Escrow is at a Fresno title company. Trustees and executors sign by mail or with a mobile notary where they live, and the money goes to the estate or trust account by wire.
- Listing or selling direct. A Fresno agent can list an empty house and show it without you. A direct buyer, like us, buys it as it sits, contents included. You may get more by listing. Selling it lays out both.
Sources: Cal. Ins. Code §2071; Cal. Civ. Code §1946.2 (Tenant Protection Act); City of Fresno Rental Housing Improvement Act regulations, effective March 1, 2025; City of Fresno Master Fee Schedule, July 1, 2026. General information, not legal advice.