Encino Probate Appraisals for the Inventory, the Referee and Form 706
You have been appointed to administer an estate, and the house is the largest number you will have to account for. The court expects an inventory and an appraisal within four months of your appointment.
This page explains who values that property under California law, what their figure is for, and the situations where an independently commissioned appraisal does real work alongside it.
Secure request form. No obligation. Scope and fee confirmed in writing before any work begins.
Who Values the House
In California, the Court’s Appraiser Is Appointed, Not Chosen
Most people arriving here assume the first task is to hire an appraiser. For real property in a California probate that is not how it works, and knowing the difference early saves a great deal of confusion later.
What the court is actually asking for
Within four months of appointment, the personal representative files an inventory of estate property together with an appraisal of the fair market value of each item as of the date of death. It is filed on Judicial Council form DE-160, with form DE-161 as the attachment. The inventory is a listing; the appraisal is what gives it a number.
Who supplies that number, and what it costs
Non-cash assets, including the house, are appraised by a probate referee appointed by the California State Controller’s Office. The family does not select them and neither does the attorney. Their commission is fixed by statute at one-tenth of one percent of the value appraised, with a floor of seventy-five dollars and a ceiling of ten thousand, and the court may allow more if the referee applies and the work justifies it.
Why a date in the past is not today’s number
The value you owe the court is the value on the date of death, not the value now. Measured on one consistent index in August 2026, typical Encino values sat around 1.43 million dollars and had fallen about one and two-tenths of a percent over the preceding year. That is an index describing relative standing rather than a sale price, but the direction is the point: where a market has moved, today’s evidence misstates a past date, and it does so predictably rather than randomly.
Where the Number Gets Tested
Three Situations That Bring People Here
Each of the three below is anchored in something specific — a section of the Probate Code, or a return the estate has to file. A personal representative usually arrives already standing in one of them.
A beneficiary does not accept the figure
The personal representative or any interested person may file a written objection to the appraisal before the final distribution hearing, and the court sets a hearing at least fifteen days out. The statute puts the burden of proof on the person objecting, and a court that finds an objection was made without reasonable cause may charge the costs of defending it against them. An objection is therefore only as strong as the evidence behind it.
The property was held in trust
Property in a trust passes outside probate. There is no referee appointed to it and no inventory filed for it, which sounds simpler until someone needs a date-of-death value for basis and discovers that nobody was ever assigned to produce one.
The estate has to answer to more than the court
A federal estate tax return and a step-up in basis are answerable to the Internal Revenue Service. The inventory filed with the probate court was prepared for the probate court. The two readers are not the same, and a figure prepared for one is not automatically addressed to the other.
Independence
What Makes a Retrospective Opinion Hold Up
A probate valuation is likely to be read by people who were not in the room and who may not agree with each other. It has to survive that.
Nothing we are paid depends on the answer
The engagement is priced before the analysis starts and does not change with the figure it produces. In an estate that matters more than usual: beneficiaries frequently want different answers from the same property, and an appraiser who could be moved by any of them is of no use to any of them.
The effective date is fixed before the analysis begins
The date of death is the effective date, and it is not a variable. So is the question of who the report is written for. Both are settled at instruction, because a report developed for the court and a report developed for a federal filing are not interchangeable afterwards.
Evidence a reviewer can follow
The sales relied on, the adjustments applied and the reasoning between them are set out so that another appraiser, an attorney or an accountant can follow them and, if they disagree, say exactly where.
One standard, whoever is doing the reading
Work is carried out in conformance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, which governs how the assignment is developed and how it is reported.
The WCE Difference
We Will Tell You When You Do Not Need Us
An independent appraisal does not replace the probate referee for real property. Any page that implies otherwise is selling you something, and we would rather say so here than have you discover it after you have paid. What an independent appraisal does is give you evidence when a figure is challenged, and a valuation addressed to the readers the court inventory was never written for.
The Process
How a Retrospective Assignment Runs
A valuation of a past date is assembled differently from a valuation of today. The date comes first and the evidence is gathered around it.
We fix the effective date and who the report is for
We collect what the estate already holds
We inspect the property as it stands and record what it was
We assemble market evidence around the effective date
We weigh the evidence against the fixed date, not against today
We issue the report to the users named at instruction
Some of this evidence exists only in the estate’s own paperwork
Probate files, prior appraisals, and any record of work done to the property before the date of death all change what the analysis can rely on. Gathering them before the visit is the most useful thing an administrator can do.
Questions
Questions Personal Representatives Ask
Who appraises the house in a California probate?
A probate referee appointed by the California State Controller’s Office appraises the non-cash assets of the estate, including real property. The referee is appointed rather than chosen by the family or the attorney.
What does the probate referee cost?
The commission is set by statute at one-tenth of one percent of the value of the property appraised, with a minimum of seventy-five dollars and a maximum of ten thousand dollars for any one estate. The court may allow more if the referee applies for it and the reasonable value of the work exceeds the cap.
Can I hire my own appraiser instead of the referee?
Not for real property. The Probate Code allows a personal representative to elect an independent expert for a unique, artistic, unusual or special item of tangible personal property. That provision does not extend to a house. An independent appraisal is commissioned alongside the process, not in place of it.
Can the appraisal be objected to?
Yes. The personal representative or any interested person may file a written objection with the court before the hearing on the final distribution, and the clerk sets a hearing at least fifteen days later. The person objecting carries the burden of proof, and costs can be charged against an objection made without reasonable cause or good faith.
Can the referee’s appraisal be waived?
The court may waive appraisal by a probate referee for good cause. The application has to attach a copy of the proposed inventory and appraisal along with a statement of the good cause relied on, and it cannot be made later than the point at which the inventory is delivered to the referee. The referee may oppose it.
Can I see the referee’s working?
Yes. On demand by the personal representative or a beneficiary, the referee must supply the appraisal report and the backup data used, without a separate charge; the cost is treated as part of the commission.
The property was in a trust. Does any of this apply?
Trust property passes outside probate, so there is no probate referee and no inventory filed for it. A date-of-death value is still needed for basis, and in that situation an independent appraisal is not an alternative to anything. It is the only valuation there is.
Do I need a separate appraisal for a federal estate tax return?
The inventory filed with the probate court is a state court document. A federal return and a step-up in basis answer to the Internal Revenue Service, which is a different reader with its own expectations about how a value is supported. Tell us at the outset if a federal filing is intended.
Does it matter which side of Ventura Boulevard the house is on?
Materially. The two Encino postal areas sit in distinctly different price bands, and a retrospective valuation drawing evidence from the wrong side of that line is not slightly wrong. Which side the property sits on is one of the first things established.
Do you cover all of Encino?
Yes. Encino is covered north and south of Ventura Boulevard. Since the two sides sit in different price bands, which side the decedent’s property stood on is established before any comparable is considered.
When You Need One
Why Estates Commission an Independent Appraisal
To support a federal return and a step-up in basis
Where an estate files with the Internal Revenue Service, the valuation has a reader beyond the probate court and is developed with that reader in mind.
To support an objection that carries a burden of proof
Anyone objecting to an appraised value has to prove their case, and a written opinion with a stated scope, named comparable sales and reasoned adjustments is what that proof consists of.
To attach to a petition to waive the referee
Good cause is not asserted in the abstract. An application to waive appraisal by a probate referee attaches a proposed inventory and appraisal, so something has to have been prepared.
To value property that never reaches a referee
Trust property, and property passing outside administration, still needs a value fixed at the date of death, and no referee will be appointed to supply it.
To test a figure before the estate acts on it
Where the estate is considering a sale, or heirs are equalising between themselves, an independent view of value informs the decision before it is made rather than after.
Service Area
A Boulevard Between Two Price Bands
Encino runs along both sides of Ventura Boulevard, and that boulevard is also the line between two distinctly different price bands. In the postal area to the south, properties frequently list and sell above two million dollars. In the area to the north, entry points fall roughly between nine hundred thousand and one and eight-tenths of a million.
For a valuation of a past date that division is not scenery. It decides which sales are admissible evidence at all, and a retrospective figure assembled from the wrong band will be wrong by a margin no adjustment can quietly absorb.
We work on both sides of the boulevard, and estates rarely arrive neatly on one side of it. Treat the map as an orientation to the ground rather than as the edge of where we will travel.
Resources
Useful Before You Commit to Anything
The Resource Hub
Guidance written for attorneys, fiduciaries and paralegals who commission valuations as part of a wider matter.
What’s It Worth
A plain explanation of how a property valuation is arrived at, for readers who want the reasoning before they want a quote.
The Preparation Guide
What to gather before an inspection, and why each item changes what the analysis can rely on.
Coverage
Other Cities We Cover
Cities
Request Your Encino Probate Appraisal
Tell us the property, the date of death and who the report is for. We confirm the scope and the fee in writing before any work begins.
Secure request form. No obligation. Scope and fee confirmed in writing before any work begins.
