Full Authority vs. Limited Authority in LA Probate Sales
Full or limited authority decides whether a Los Angeles probate sale closes like a normal escrow or goes to a court hearing where other buyers can overbid.
If you have just been appointed executor or administrator of a parent's estate in Los Angeles and there is a house to sell, one line on your court papers is going to shape the next several months. It says whether you have full authority or limited authority, and most families do not learn what that means until a buyer is already waiting on them.
I am a broker and a Certified Probate Specialist, not an attorney, so this is the view from the real estate side of the table: what each path looks like once the sign goes up. Our probate guide covers the big picture, including costs and the simplified petition for a primary residence valued at $750,000 or less. This post goes one level deeper, into the sale itself.
What is the difference between full authority and limited authority?
Both come from one California law, the Independent Administration of Estates Act. The idea is simple: let the person running the estate (the court calls you the personal representative) handle most of the estate's business without asking a judge for permission every time.
Limited authority gives you nearly all of those powers, with one big exception. Under Probate Code section 10403 it does not include the power to sell real property, exchange it, grant an option on it, or borrow against it. For any of those, you go back to court.
Full authority includes the power to sell the house (section 10511). Section 10503 spells out what falls away when you use it: no published notice of sale, no court approval of the brokers' commission, no rule that the price be at least 90 percent of the appraised value, and no confirmation hearing.
Which one you get is decided at the very beginning. The court is supposed to grant the authority the petition asks for unless an interested person objects and shows good cause (section 10452). So how does a family end up with limited? The petition only asked for limited. Someone objected. Or bond. With full authority, any bond the court requires has to account for the value of the real estate (section 10453). If the will does not waive bond and the representative cannot qualify for one that size, limited authority is sometimes the practical answer. Have that conversation with your probate attorney before the petition is filed, not after.
How does a full authority probate sale actually run?
Very close to a regular sale, with one extra step that matters.
You get your Letters from the court. The court-appointed probate referee appraises the house. We prepare it, list it, market it, negotiate, and accept an offer, the same way I would for any seller.
Then comes the step that makes it probate. Before the sale can close, the representative sends a Notice of Proposed Action to every heir or beneficiary whose share is affected. It is a Judicial Council form, DE-165, and the law requires it to state the material terms, including the sale price and the commission (section 10585). It has to go out at least 15 days before the date the sale can move forward (section 10586).
Three things can happen from there:
- Nobody objects. The 15 days run and escrow closes. The form says it plainly: "If you do not object in writing or obtain a court order preventing the action proposed below, you will be treated as if you consented to the proposed action and you may not object after the proposed action has been taken."
- Everybody signs the consent. Cooperative families do this, and it takes the uncertainty out of the wait.
- One person objects in writing. That single letter is enough. Under section 10589, the sale now has to go through the court-supervised process described below.
So full authority is not a way around the family. Every heir sees the price and the commission in writing before anything closes. What it removes is the courtroom.
Here is what that is worth on the ground. This summer I listed a probate property in South LA with full authority: a 1920 house on an R2 lot a couple of miles from USC, listed at $485,000. The first buyer went into contract and never delivered the deposit. The seller cancelled, we went back to the market, and by September we were in a new escrow with a different buyer. No new hearing date. No republished notice. With limited authority, a buyer who falls out can put the family right back on the court's calendar.
What happens in a limited authority sale?
You still list the house and accept an offer. But that acceptance is only a starting bid, because the sale has to be confirmed by a judge.
The notice. A notice of sale has to be published in a newspaper before the sale (section 10300).
The 90 percent rule. The court will not confirm a private sale unless the offer is at least 90 percent of the appraised value, and that appraisal has to be dated within one year before the hearing (section 10309). If the referee's number is $800,000, the floor is $720,000. If the house needs a roof and a foundation and the market says $690,000, you may need a new appraisal before the court can confirm anything.
The hearing. The attorney files a Report of Sale and Petition for Order Confirming Sale of Real Property (Form DE-260), and the court sets a date. Notice of that hearing has to go out at least 15 days ahead (section 1220). In Los Angeles County these hearings are typically at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown. Plan on roughly four to six extra weeks. The court's calendar gets the final say.
The overbid. At the hearing, the judge asks if anyone in the room wants to bid higher. Section 10311 sets the first overbid: at least 10 percent more on the first $10,000 of the accepted offer and 5 percent more on the rest.
| Accepted offer | First overbid must be at least |
|---|---|
| $485,000 | $509,750 |
| $776,500 | $815,825 |
| $1,000,000 | $1,050,500 |
That middle row is not a random number. $776,500 is the twelve-month median on my Hyde Park page, where 168 single-family homes closed on the MLS at 100.0 percent of list. Picture a buyer who negotiated in good faith at that median, paid for inspections, and waited weeks for the hearing. A stranger with a cashier's check can stand up and take the house for $815,825. That is $39,325 more for the estate, and the first buyer goes home.
The commission. In a confirmed sale the judge sets it. Under the Los Angeles court's local probate rules, Rule 4.39(d), the court will not allow more than five percent on improved property "unless justified by exceptional circumstances."
Put it together and you can see why some buyers skip these listings. A buyer with a loan and a rate lock has a hard time waiting on a court date for a house someone else can take at the hearing. The buyers who stay tend to price that risk into what they offer.
Is court confirmation ever the better choice?
Sometimes, and I will tell a family so.
A representative with full authority can still ask for court supervision of a sale (section 10500). There are good reasons to. When heirs do not trust each other, a judge's order confirming the price ends the argument about whether the house sold for enough. And an overbid, when it happens, raises the price in open court where everyone can watch.
If your family is headed for an objection anyway, plan for confirmation from day one. That beats being pushed into it in the middle of an escrow. Full authority has a lot going for it, but only when the family is on the same page. If they are not, the courtroom is doing a job.
What to do next
Read your Letters. Form DE-150 says whether you are authorized "with full authority" or "with limited authority." If you are not sure, ask your attorney today.
If nothing has been filed yet, ask two questions. Are we requesting full authority? And how is bond being handled? I am not giving legal advice here. I am telling you what to ask.
Talk to the family before the notice lands in their mailbox. A phone call ahead of time is the cheapest way I know to prevent an objection.
Get a real number on the house. The referee's appraisal sets the 90 percent floor in a confirmed sale, and it is not always what the market will pay. I walk through how I price in how much your South LA house is worth, and if the house came to you without a plan, start with our inherited property guide.
If you want a second set of eyes, ask for a free home review. Tell me whether you have full or limited authority and I will show you what the sale looks like from here. Circle back whenever the Letters are in hand.
Ownership is power. Let's build.
Jamial Clark, Broker · Renaissance Realty Group · DRE# 01292443 · 323.559.0063. Sources: California Probate Code sections 1220, 10300, 10308–10311, 10403, 10452, 10453, 10500, 10503, 10511 and 10580–10590; Judicial Council forms DE-165, DE-150 and DE-260; Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rules, Chapter 4; Renaissance Realty Group closed-sales data as of publication. Overbid figures are arithmetic illustrations, not a prediction of any sale. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Please talk with your probate attorney or CPA about your own situation. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Broker/Owner of Renaissance Realty Group and developer of The Clark on 54th, 48 apartments rising on the Crenshaw corridor lot his mother bought in 1995 after ten years as its salon tenant. Certified Probate Specialist. He writes every post here from his own files and his own neighborhoods — not from a content farm. Ask him about your property →
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