Galt, CA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

If title to the house is in the trust, and you are the TRUSTEE of the trust, no. But be sure you're fulfilling all your responsibilities as trustee. If title was merely in your mother's name, then yes, you presumably will need letters testamentary.

If you are the successor trustee of your father's living trust, you can sell the property and distribute the proceeds to whomever the trust specifies.  (I assume here that your father did not have some specific instructions in his trust concerning this particular property.)  If you are not the trustee, and someone else is named in the trust as successor trustee, that person can sell the property.  If there is no named successor trustee, you (or someone else) need to file a petition with the probate court for the appointment of a successor trustee. I assume the trust was wholly revocable by your dad before he died; if that is the case, the property received a new income tax basis at the time of his death; that basis is the property's fair market value at the date of his death.  So if he didn't die too long ago, you could be facing little or no capital gains tax.

Your summary is very confusing. The land DOES have title. Ownership can be confirmed with the county register of deeds. The question is who gets title, based on your circumstances. You do not mention whether your aunt and/or uncle had a Will or Trust. You do not mention the order of death. An "illegitimate child" is considered a legitimate child, for purposes of inheritance. There is a presumption that a child born to the wife during a marriage is the product of that marriage. You may be able to prove otherwise, but the burden of proof would be on you. In the absence of a Will, a Trust, or a deed indicating who the owner was to be upon the death of the prior owners, state law would apply. The intestate law dictates who is the "next of kin," for inheritance purposes. That might be you, or it might be you and a bunch of other people, or it might be someone else, completely, depending on the facts which are not included in your summary. You appear to be long overdue for a meeting with an attorney. I believe that is the only way you will be able to make sense of this.