San Diego County Certificate of Trust Form (California)
All San Diego County specific forms and documents listed below are included in your immediate download package:
Certificate of Trust Form
Fill in the blank form formatted to comply with all recording and content requirements.
Included San Diego County compliant document last validated/updated 4/3/2025
Certificate of Trust Guide
Line by line guide explaining every blank on the form.
Included San Diego County compliant document last validated/updated 6/30/2025
Completed Example of the Certificate of Trust Document
Example of a properly completed form for reference.
Included San Diego County compliant document last validated/updated 4/25/2025
The following California and San Diego County supplemental forms are included as a courtesy with your order:
When using these Certificate of Trust forms, the subject real estate must be physically located in San Diego County. The executed documents should then be recorded in one of the following offices:
San Diego Clerk/Recorder Main Office
County Administration Center - 1600 Pacific Highway, Suite 260, San Diego, California 92101
Hours: Monday to Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
Phone: (619) 236-3771, 238-8158; (760) 630-1219 North County
Mail to: San Diego Assessor/Recorder/Clerk
P.O. Box 121750, San Diego, California 92112-1750
Hours: N/A
Phone: mailing address
El Cajon Branch Office
200 S Magnolia Ave, El Cajon, California 92020
Hours: Monday through Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
Phone: (619) 238-8158 or (619) 236-3771 Assessor
San Marcos Branch Office
141 E Carmel St, San Marcos, California 92078
Hours: Monday through Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
Phone: (619) 238-8158 or (760) 630-1219 North County
Chula Vista Branch Office
590 3rd Ave., Chula Vista, California 91910
Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays.
Phone: (619) 238-8158
Local jurisdictions located in San Diego County include:
- Alpine
- Bonita
- Bonsall
- Borrego Springs
- Boulevard
- Camp Pendleton
- Campo
- Cardiff By The Sea
- Carlsbad
- Chula Vista
- Coronado
- Del Mar
- Descanso
- Dulzura
- El Cajon
- Encinitas
- Escondido
- Fallbrook
- Guatay
- Imperial Beach
- Jacumba
- Jamul
- Julian
- La Jolla
- La Mesa
- Lakeside
- Lemon Grove
- Lincoln Acres
- Mount Laguna
- National City
- Oceanside
- Pala
- Palomar Mountain
- Pauma Valley
- Pine Valley
- Potrero
- Poway
- Ramona
- Ranchita
- Rancho Santa Fe
- San Diego
- San Luis Rey
- San Marcos
- San Ysidro
- Santa Ysabel
- Santee
- Solana Beach
- Spring Valley
- Tecate
- Valley Center
- Vista
- Warner Springs
How long does it take to get my forms?
Forms are available immediately after submitting payment.
How do I get my forms, are they emailed?
Immediately after you submit payment, the San Diego County forms you order will be available for download directly from your account. You can then download the forms to your computer. If you do not already have an account, one will be created for you as part of the order process, and your login details will be provided to you. If you encounter any issues accessing your forms, please reach out to our support team for assistance. Forms are NOT emailed to you.
What does "validated/updated" mean?
This indicates the most recent date when at least one of the following occurred:
- Updated: The document was updated or changed to remain compliant.
- Validated: The document was examined by an attorney or staff, or it was successfully recorded in San Diego County using our eRecording service.
Are these forms guaranteed to be recordable in San Diego County?
Yes. Our form blanks are guaranteed to meet or exceed all formatting requirements set forth by San Diego County including margin requirements, content requirements, font and font size requirements.
Can the Certificate of Trust forms be re-used?
Yes. You can re-use the forms for your personal use. For example, if you have more than one property in San Diego County that you need to transfer you would only need to order our forms once for all of your properties in San Diego County.
What are supplemental forms?
Often when a deed is recorded, additional documents are required by California or San Diego County. These could be tax related, informational, or even as simple as a coversheet. Supplemental forms are provided for free with your order where available.
What type of files are the forms?
All of our San Diego County Certificate of Trust forms are PDFs. You will need to have or get Adobe Reader to use our forms. Adobe Reader is free software that most computers already have installed.
Do I need any special software to use these forms?
You will need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer to use our forms. Adobe Reader is free software that most computers already have installed.
Do I have to enter all of my property information online?
No. The blank forms are downloaded to your computer and you fill them out there, at your convenience.
Can I save the completed form, email it to someone?
Yes, you can save your deed form at any point with your information in it. The forms can also be emailed, blank or complete, as attachments.
Are there any recurring fees involved?
No. Nothing to cancel, no memberships, no recurring fees.
California Certification of Trust
In California, the certification of trust is governed by Probate Code Section 18100.5.
A certificate of trust is used by an acting trustee or trustees of a trust to prove to financial institutions or other third parties that he/she/they has/have the authority to act on behalf of the trust. The certificate is used in lieu of the full trust document to keep nonessential information about the trust, such as the identities of trust beneficiaries, confidential.
The certificate verifies the existence of the trust and presents the pertinent details of the trust, such as the settlor, the trustee, the powers granted to the trustee, and, in the case that there are co-trustees, the number and identity of persons required to sign legal documents dealing with the trust. The certificate also specifies how the trust will vest title to real property.
Like all documents affecting real estate, the certification requires a legal description of the real property subject to the trust. In California, the certification also must include the trust's taxpayer ID, a number that is either the SSN of the settlor (in the case of revocable trusts) or an EIN assigned by the IRS (in the case of irrevocable trusts).
Trust law can quickly become complicated, and each case is unique, so contact a lawyer with any questions that arise.
(California Certificate of Trust Package includes form, guidelines, and completed example)
Our Promise
The documents you receive here will meet, or exceed, the San Diego County recording requirements for formatting. If there's an issue caused by our formatting, we'll make it right and refund your payment.
Save Time and Money
Get your San Diego County Certificate of Trust form done right the first time with Deeds.com Uniform Conveyancing Blanks. At Deeds.com, we understand that your time and money are valuable resources, and we don't want you to face a penalty fee or rejection imposed by a county recorder for submitting nonstandard documents. We constantly review and update our forms to meet rapidly changing state and county recording requirements for roughly 3,500 counties and local jurisdictions.
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June 30th, 2025
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Robert F.
June 30th, 2025
Breeze.... It feels silly to hire an attorney to do this for just one beneficiary. Thanks.
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Pauline C.
June 29th, 2025
Everything that was stated to be included in my order was complete. Very satisfied
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WJ H.
December 6th, 2021
The Quit Claim Deed for the state of Ohio worked for me, saving me the cost of an attorney doing it. O.K., maybe that wouldn't have amounted to more than a few hundred dollars, but anywhere I thought I could save money (and learn something new on top of it) is something I want to do.
That said, be forwarned. While I'm not an attorney I'm not averse to spending many hours researching the lingo found in this kind of form and thoroughly understanding exactly how everything has to be filled in.
I should add that my ex-wife and I remain friends and she was the one giving me the property/house (thus, technically I filled out the forms on her behalf). Because there was no personal conflict, it made it easier to undertake.
Lastly, what others have said about the county office where you must file a Quit Claim Deed not being helpful, that's true in the sense that they do not want to be instructing non-attorneys on filling out the necessary forms. I did take a preliminary draft set of the forms to the county office but was VERY CAREFUL about explaining that I only needed a couple of questions answered about procedure for submitting the final documents. They were helpful once I made it clear I wasn't asking them for "legal advice". And their help was critical as the final submittals requires stopping at three different offices (MapDocuments, Auditor and finally the Recorder's office).
So I say thank you to Deeds.com. Their service for the Quit Claim Deed was invaluable.
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Dora O.
August 27th, 2024
Best platform to buy forms. Simple and easy.
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James J.
December 27th, 2019
Downloaded and used the Ladybird Warranty Deed for a county in Florida with no issues. Cost for the download and subsequent recording fee of the deed totaled less than $40. No reason to pay hundreds. I assume the subsequent transfer upon death will go smoothly, but I of course, will never know. The "example" of a completed form was very beneficial. Also, get a copy of the current deed and make sure legal description of real estate is exactly the same on the new deed.
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Mary B.
December 1st, 2021
Great job, Deeds.com! I'm a retired lawyer, and I'm liking what I see. Well done.
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Evelyn R.
July 16th, 2020
Filing my deed through your service was great. All directions were clear and specific; it was very easy to upload the documents and most of all feedback from your office was professional and very timely. You service was excellent. Thank you!! Thank you so very much!!
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April 24th, 2022
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October 18th, 2019
Great , easy to use.
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Lori W.
December 2nd, 2020
Great resource! Nice to have these forms and information available. No problems at the recorder, in fact it was the recorder that referred me to deeds.com they like their forms so much.
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Susan M.
July 13th, 2022
Purchased and received immediately w/instructions for completion.
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DON O.
December 16th, 2020
needs to be more user friendly
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Sven S.
April 10th, 2019
great experience so far! Im using Deeds.com for e-recording. Easy to use website, document upload is a snap, you are walked through and reminded if theres something missing.
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Julie K.
September 4th, 2023
The process for obtaining document itself was easy, and the included guide and example are great! rnI do have an issue with the format itself, though. The form has pre-defined text boxes, which cannot be altered without partially rebuilding the entire document. For the 'property description' field on the Mineral Deed form, the text box is not large enough for the rather lengthy legal description entered on my original plat.rnFortunately, I have a copy of Adobe Pro, so I have been able to re-build the doc to accommodate this short-coming.
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on our legal form. We're pleased to hear that you found the process for obtaining the document and the included guide beneficial.
We understand and appreciate your concern regarding the formatting and size limitations of certain fields, especially the 'property description' field. Our forms are designed to adhere to specific formatting requirements that are often mandated for legal compliance. Making direct alterations to the document can result in them becoming non-conforming, which is why we advise customers to use an exhibit page when their legal description is extensive or does not fit.