Sonoma County Personal Representative Deed (Will Annexed) Form

A will that names no executor, or names one who cannot serve, sends the estate to an administrator with the will annexed, and California Probate Code Section 8442 gives that administrator the same authority over the decedent's estate an executor named in the will would have. This California personal representative deed is built for that office: one grantor signing as administrator with the will annexed, a recital of the case and the letters issued, and a section that carries the authority the sale rests on.

The office the will left open

Probate Code Section 8440 provides that an administrator with the will annexed is appointed where no executor is named in the will, or where every executor named has waived appointment or cannot act. Section 58 lists that office among those the term personal representative covers, which is why the deed carries that caption. Section 8442 then draws the line between the two offices: subdivision (a) grants the same authority a named executor would have, while subdivision (b) withholds a discretionary power the will confers on an executor alone and does not extend to other personal representatives, leaving the court discretion to authorize its exercise. A power of sale written for the named executor is the everyday example, which is why this form puts the authority relied on in its own section.

Two roads to the sale, one deed

California sends estate real property to market by either of two routes, and Section 3 carries a line for each. On the court supervised route the sale is reported and confirmed: Probate Code Section 10309 conditions confirmation of a private sale on an appraisal within one year of the hearing and an offer of at least 90 percent of appraised value, and Section 10314(a) directs the personal representative to execute a conveyance referring to the order confirming the sale and directing the conveyance to be executed. On the independent administration route, Section 10511 gives a representative with full authority the power to sell, exercisable after the notice of proposed action in Sections 10580 and 10581. The line in Section 3 that does not apply carries an entry of None., so the deed states which route produced it.

What the purchaser takes

Probate Code Section 10314(c) measures what a conveyance made under an order confirming sale vests in the purchaser: all the right, title, and interest the decedent had at death, together with the interest the estate acquired afterward. This form conveys on that measure and no wider. It conveys without covenant or warranty and restrains the two covenants California Civil Code Section 1113 would otherwise imply from the word grant, the mechanism Section 1113 itself provides. Liens, easements, and recorded covenants ride with the property, and Section 8 lists matters of record with a sentence stating that the listing creates no warranty.

How the form is configured

The form recites exactly one grantor and carries one signature line and one acknowledgment certificate drawn to the California statutory form: the Civil Code Section 1189(a)(1) notice in its enclosed box at the top, the Section 1189(a)(3) officer insertion, and the closing certification under penalty of perjury. The capacity recital in Section 1 names the estate and the office, and the same name and capacity carry into the certificate. Section 4 collects the purchaser names with a separate vesting line, so a sale to two buyers taking as community property with right of survivorship and a sale to one buyer taking sole ownership both present the pattern this deed recites. An estate whose representative was appointed as a named executor, and an estate with no will at all, recite a different appointment than this form states.

Recording in California

The title sits immediately below the top 2.5 inches reserved for recording information, where Government Code Section 27324 places the title the recorder indexes. Section 27321.5(a) puts the address for future tax statements on the first page, and Revenue and Taxation Code Sections 11932 and 11933 put the signed documentary transfer tax declaration on the deed's face; the form carries a block for each. On a court confirmed sale a certified copy of the order is recorded with the deed under Section 10314(a); that copy comes from the probate clerk, is prepared separately, and is not included here.

This package contains the fill-in-the-blank deed, a completed example filled in for a San Diego County probate sale, and a guide that walks the form section by section. It is informational and is not legal advice.