Speaking to California: no hard deadline forces the retitle, but leaving the property in a deceased owner's name invites trouble later, and an estate attorney should guide the steps. A few reasons to handle it promptly: - You will have to do the work anyway. Selling or refinancing later requires documenting the death and proving you are the rightful heir, so delaying just pushes that work down the road and can complicate it. - The property tax rules changed. Transfers to family do not automatically trigger a reassessment, but Proposition 19 rewrote the parent-to-child and grandparent-to-grandchild rules. Eligibility can now depend on whether an heir makes the home their primary residence, along with value limits, so confirm the current requirements rather than relying on how it worked years ago. - Waiting creates risk. If the assessor only learns of the transfer years later, sorting out what was owed in the interim can get messy. The cleaner path is to retitle correctly and soon, with help from an estate attorney and a check with the county assessor on how Prop 19 applies to your family's situation.