Notice of Proposed Action: How Many Probate Sales Skip the Hearing

No California court publishes a count of how many probate house sales skip the confirmation hearing, so any percentage you read is an estimate, not a record. What the Probate Code does settle is which sales can skip it: a personal representative with full authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act can sell real property after a notice of proposed action (Judicial Council form DE-165), delivered at least 15 days before the sale. The sale goes to court only if someone entitled to the notice objects in writing or serves a restraining order; limited authority, or no IAEA authority at all, means a confirmation hearing.

This article explains the notice, who receives it, what it must disclose, what an objection does, and what skipping the hearing changes for a cash offer. It is general information. Whether the estate has full authority, and whether a notice is the right tool, are questions for the estate's attorney.

What is a notice of proposed action?

It is the written notice a personal representative gives before taking certain steps without court supervision. Under section 10510, the powers that need it, which include selling or exchanging real property under section 10511, can be used only after the notice procedure in sections 10580 and following is met. Most estates use the Judicial Council's form, DE-165; section 10585 allows a different form only if it is substantially similar and includes an objection form.

For a house sale, section 10585 requires the notice to state the material terms of the transaction, including the sale price and any agent or broker commission, or how it is calculated. The DE-165 form adds two things heirs should read closely: a box for the value of the property in the probate inventory, and a printed warning that a sale without court supervision will not be presented at a hearing where higher bids could be made.

Who receives the notice, and when?

Section 10581 lists who is entitled to it:

• known devisees (people named in the will) whose interest is affected by the sale;
• known heirs whose interest is affected;
• anyone who has filed a request for special notice in the estate; and
• the Attorney General, if part of the estate will escheat to the state and the state's interest is affected.

Section 10586 requires the notice to be delivered at least 15 days before the date stated in it as the date on or after which the sale will happen. A person can also waive notice or consent to the action, which section 10590 treats as giving up the right to object later.

Which probate sales can skip the hearing?

A sale stays off the court's calendar only when every condition below holds. If any one fails, the sale goes through confirmation.

ConditionWhere it comes from

The letters grant full authority, not limited authority

Limited authority excludes selling real property (section 10403)

The will does not restrict the power to sell

Section 10502

The buyer is not the representative or the representative's attorney

Those sales need court supervision under section 10501, subject to narrow exceptions

The notice was properly given, and no written objection or restraining order arrived in time

Sections 10586, 10587 and 10589

When those hold, section 10503 exempts the sale from the published notice of sale, court approval of commissions, the confirmation hearing and the 90 percent appraisal floor. The confirmation track the notice avoids is laid out in the pillar, probate sales in California, and in the probate sales knowledge center.

What happens if an heir objects?

Under section 10587, a person entitled to notice objects by delivering a written objection to the representative at the address in the notice. The objection form on the back of the DE-165 works, and so does any other writing that identifies the action with reasonable certainty. It counts if the representative receives it before the later of the date in the notice or the date the action is actually taken.

An objection does not cancel the sale. Section 10589 means the representative may still go ahead, but only under court supervision, and an objector must be given notice of any hearing on the petition. The house moves to the confirmation track, with its published notice, its hearing date and its overbid. How much time that adds is in how long probate takes in California.

Not objecting has a cost too. Section 10590 says a person who received proper notice and did not object generally cannot ask the court to review the sale afterward. The exceptions are narrow: a person who never actually received the notice in time, or an heir who was a minor or lacked capacity and whose representative never received it.

What skipping the hearing changes for a cash offer

On the full-authority track, there is no overbid, so a buyer is not exposed to losing the house in a courtroom, and no hearing date to wait for. Those are the two reasons financed buyers fall out of confirmation sales, and both disappear. That cuts both ways for cash: the certainty premium a cash offer carries on the confirmation track is worth much less here.

What replaces the courtroom is the heirs' scrutiny. The notice puts the price, the commission and the inventory value on one page and mails it to everyone with an affected interest. An heir who sees a cash price under the inventory value, with no reasoning attached, has fifteen days or more and a ready-made objection form. The practical defense is paperwork: the comparable sales, every line-item deduction for condition, and the net, in a form the attorney can attach or send to the heirs before the notice goes out. That is the shape of every written offer here.

A buyer should also accept the notice period as part of the contract. A purchase agreement that assumes escrow can close before the date in the notice, or that cannot survive an objection and a move to the confirmation track, is written for the wrong sale.

When the notice route makes listing the better choice

Full authority is exactly the situation in which a listed probate sale behaves most like an ordinary sale. With no hearing to survive, an owner-occupant buyer with a loan is a normal buyer again. If the heirs agree, the house is in good order and the estate can carry it while it is marketed, the open-market read will often net more than an as-is cash offer, and the written recommendation says so. The administrator is then introduced to a designated local expert, an independently licensed California agent who handles probate listings in that area. Mr. Cali Offers never lists a house.

Cash still tends to fit when the house would struggle to finance, when it is full of contents the heirs cannot clear, or when the family has decided certainty matters more than the last dollar. Both numbers are on the same report, so the heirs reading the notice can see why.

What this looks like in practice

These are the kinds of files that come in, described without names or figures.

• An heir in another state receives the notice for a Claremont house north of Foothill Boulevard, a post-war ranch with an original electrical panel and galvanized supply lines. The cash price is under the inventory value, and the attorney sends the deduction lines with the notice so the heir can see where the difference is.
• A Pomona house in Phillips Ranch where one heir objects and the sale moves to confirmation, so the offer has to be rewritten to stay open through a hearing and an overbid.
• A Glendora Village house in good condition with full authority and agreeing heirs, where the open-market read nets more and the recommendation is to list.

Before the notice goes out

If the estate's attorney is preparing a notice of proposed action for a house in Southern California, the two numbers and the written report can be in hand first. See how probate sale offers are documented for heirs and the court, or call (909) 498-3977. There is no cost and no obligation to get the two numbers and the written report. For what happens when the floor and the inventory value matter, read the 90 percent rule and the referee's appraisal.

Sources

• California Probate Code section 10403 (limited authority): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10501 (matters requiring court supervision): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10502 (powers; will may restrict them): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10503 (sales exempt from confirmation rules): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code sections 10510 and 10511 (powers exercised after notice of proposed action; sale of real property): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10581 (persons entitled to notice): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10585 (contents of the notice): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10586 (delivery at least 15 days before the action): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10587 (written objection): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10589 (objection requires court supervision): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Probate Code section 10590 (effect of failing to object): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• Judicial Council of California, form DE-165, Notice of Proposed Action: courts.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026

Mr. Cali Offers is not a law firm and does not decide whether an estate should use a notice of proposed action. Cash offers come from independent buyers and investors who buy for their own account and may resell for profit; a cash offer is generally below what the open market would bring. Any value shown is a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice.