There are about 116 probate referees in California, and one of them is assigned to every probate estate in the state. Their valuation of the real property becomes part of the court file within the first four months of the case.
Jonathan Khorsandi on Sep 23, 2026
Reviewed by: Michael Gibbs, California Probate Referee, Orange County Superior Court
There are about 116 probate referees in California, and one of them is assigned to every probate estate in the state. Their valuation of the real property becomes part of the court file within the first four months of the case, usually before a listing agreement is signed. In a limited authority case, that number is the figure the judge measures your purchase contract against.
Most agents working probate have never spoken to one.
On September 23 we hosted Michael Gibbs, a probate referee for Orange County Superior Court, for a class on this specific piece of the process. Gibbs is also a probate attorney and certified legal specialist, a licensed broker in California and Hawaii, and a licensed appraiser, so he sees the same transaction from three sides. What follows is the working version of what he covered, with the code sections attached.
California appears to be the only state that uses them. Before 1982, when California still had a state inheritance tax, they were called inheritance tax appraisers. The tax went away and the office stayed, renamed.
Referees are appointed by the State Controller, not hired by the estate. Probate Code section 400 requires at least one in every county. Section 403 sets the term at four years. Section 401 requires passing a qualification examination. Orange County has eight referees, Los Angeles has roughly thirty, and several of the smaller northern counties have exactly one.
They are paid by the estate rather than by the state: a commission of one tenth of one percent of the value appraised under section 8961, with a floor of $75 and a ceiling of $10,000 under section 8963, which a court may exceed if the reasonable value of the services is higher. On an $800,000 house, the referee earns $800. It is treated as an expense of administration.
One thing worth correcting early. The word "appraisal" in this context does not mean what it means in a lending file. Many referees are not appraisers at all. The qualification routes include attorneys and CPAs with three years of practice, and a bachelor's degree paired with thirty class hours of valuation coursework, alongside the certified appraiser route. As Gibbs put it, the referee's number is a defensible value for the court, not a full interior appraisal.
Four places, and each one matters to someone in the transaction.
The court uses it to know the value of what it is supervising. Heirs use it for non pro rata distribution, so that one child can take the house and another can take the equivalent value in securities. The IRS recognizes it for the step up in basis under IRC section 1014, which is why a beneficiary who sells shortly after death often owes no capital gains. And the statutory attorney and personal representative fees are calculated off the value of the estate.
Then there is the fifth use, the one that can end your escrow.
When the probate petition is first filed, the personal representative asks for either full or limited authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. The practical difference between the two is the degree of authority over real property.
Under limited authority, the sale goes back to court for confirmation. Probate Code section 10309(a) tells the judge what has to be true before confirming:
Miss any one of those and the judge does not have the authority to confirm. Not reluctance. Authority. A contract at 89 percent of the referee's value does not get approved, however reasonable the price looks to everyone standing in the room.
Under full authority, there is no automatic confirmation hearing. Instead the court attaches one condition: the personal representative sends a Notice of Proposed Action, form DE-165, to everyone entitled to notice. Section 10586 requires it at least 15 days before the action. If no one objects, the sale closes without court involvement. If an heir does object, section 10589 sends the personal representative back into court supervision for that action, and the referee's value becomes the benchmark after all.
So the 90% rule is not a limited-authority problem. It is a limited-authority certainty and a full-authority risk. Heirs can waive the notice on form DE-166 to accelerate a sale, which is worth knowing when timing is tight.
Here is the part that should change how you work a probate listing.
The referee values the property as of the date of death, not as of today. The court wants a snapshot in time. In a market that is flat or softening, that snapshot can sit above what the property is worth now, and the gap eats into your 10 percent cushion before you have received a single offer.
And the inspection is a drive by. The referee is required to visit the property and document the visit with photos and notes, because the State Controller's office audits a random sample of files before reappointment. But they do not go inside. They photograph the exterior and assume the interior is consistent with it.
You already know how often that assumption holds in a probate. Capacity declines, maintenance stops, and the house can be twenty years behind the curb appeal. None of that reaches the file on its own.
Gibbs was direct about the scale of the problem: by his estimate, 95 percent of the cases that arrive in his office say nothing about the condition of the property at the date of death. Address, legal description, please appraise.
Two smaller mechanics worth knowing. Referees use comparables from six months back or further, and unlike a lending appraiser they are permitted to use comparables dated after the valuation date. And their jurisdiction runs to the county of appointment, which means the referee valuing your listing may not know the micro-market the way you do.
The window to influence any of this is short and it opens early.
Under section 8800, the personal representative has four months from the date letters are first issued to file the Inventory and Appraisal, forms DE-160 and DE-161. Under section 8940, the referee has 60 days from receiving the inventory to return the completed appraisal or a status report. Those 60 days sit inside the personal representative's four months, which in practice means the inventory needs to reach the referee within about two months of letters issuing.
If you meet the personal representative at month five, the number is already filed.
Gibbs laid out four steps. They are not complicated, and almost nobody does them.
1. Establish the condition of the property as of the date of death. Pull the date of death first. If nothing has been done to the house since, your job is easy, because the current condition is the date of death condition. Photograph it, with particular attention to deferred maintenance: roof, electrical, plumbing, foundation, anything that reads as a line item rather than a preference.
2. Raise value with the attorney or the pro per personal representative before the I&A is filed. The conversation is short. The property is in poor condition, the referee is valuing as of the date of death, and if that value comes in high the 90% rule becomes a problem later. Attorneys are not always clear on what referees do, so this is often new information to them as well.
3. Send an information package and ask that it be forwarded to the referee. Photos, a written condition description, and your read on the local market. Route it through the attorney rather than around them. This is the single step that closes the 95 percent gap.
4. Offer to speak with the referee. Gibbs on this point, speaking for himself: he likes talking with agents, the input is valuable, and the date of death value usually sits within a range rather than on a single point. If he has had a discussion with the attorney and is aware of a potential 90% issue, he is comfortable coming in at the low end of that range, as long as the value is defensible.
That last sentence is the whole reason this is worth your time. The number is not fixed until it is filed.
This comes up constantly. Grandpa died three years ago, a relative has been living in the house, there was cash in the accounts and no pressure to sell, and the family only files probate once they realize they are sitting on an unencumbered property.
The referee still values as of the date of death. That does not change. What changes is what the court requires on top of it.
Under full authority, no reappraisal is needed, because there is no confirmation hearing. The date of death value gets filed and the sale proceeds on the Notice of Proposed Action. Under limited authority, section 10309(a)(2) is the trap: the valuation date has to be within one year of the confirmation hearing, and a three-year-old date of death is not. The court will require a Reappraisal for Sale, a current-value appraisal prepared by the same referee, and the 90% test then runs against that current number instead.
That mechanism is also the fix when a date of death value is running stale mid-transaction. The attorney can ask the referee for a reappraisal for sale. Getting ahead of it is better than discovering the problem at the hearing.
Pull the Order for Probate, form DE-140. It is one page. It tells you whether the personal representative has full or limited authority, and at line 6 it names the appointed referee. Court records are public, so you can do this on a pro per case with no attorney in the loop.
For contact details, there are two public directories, both free and both organized by county:
The Association also publishes the Guide to Using Probate Referees, a step-by-step procedures guide for preparing an Inventory and Appraisal with completed examples. It is the document Gibbs pointed people toward, and it is worth reading once even though it is written for the attorney's side of the file: probatereferees.net/page-1488252.
On ProbateData, the authority type is already on the record for Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino, so you can see limited authority before you dial rather than after you list.
We've put together a playbook for you to download: California Agent Playbook: The Probate Referee and the 90% Rule.
A probate referee is an officer of the court appointed by the State Controller to appraise the non-cash assets of a probate estate as of the date of death. Probate Code section 400 requires at least one in each county, and there were about 116 statewide as of September 2026. They are paid by the estate at one tenth of one percent of the value appraised.
Under Probate Code section 10309(a)(3), a court cannot confirm a probate sale of real property unless the sum offered is at least 90 percent of the referee's appraised value. The appraisal and its valuation date must also fall within one year prior to the confirmation hearing.
Not automatically. A full authority sale has no confirmation hearing. But if an heir objects to the Notice of Proposed Action within the 15-day window, Probate Code section 10589 pushes the sale into court supervision, and the referee's value becomes the benchmark.
No. The referee is required to inspect and photograph the property and keep that documentation on file for State Controller audit, but the inspection is exterior only. The interior is assumed to match the exterior unless someone provides evidence otherwise.
Yes, and referees generally welcome it. The cleanest route is to send photos and a written condition description to the personal representative's attorney and ask that it be forwarded to the referee. A referee may not be the appraiser on a property they are also listing, but there is no conflict in an agent supplying market and condition information on a case they are working.
Under Probate Code section 8940, 60 days from delivery of the inventory, either to return the completed appraisal or to report on its status. That window sits inside the four months the personal representative has under section 8800 to file the Inventory and Appraisal.
Pull the Order for Probate, form DE-140, from the court file. Line 6 names the appointed referee. For contact details, search by county in the State Controller's probate referee directory or the California Probate Referees Association directory.
