Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In California, if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 1 year from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 60 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in California?
| Once notice to creditors is published | No separate publication-triggered period; see note below |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 1 year from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 60 days |
“A creditor shall file a claim before expiration of the later of the following times: (1) Four months after the date letters are first issued to a general personal representative[.] (2) Sixty days after the date notice of administration is mailed or personally delivered to the creditor. [Code Civ. Proc. § 366.2:] an action may be commenced within one year after the date of death, and the limitations period that would have been applicable does not apply.”
Source: Cal. Prob. Code § 9100; Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 366.2
What makes California different
California ties its baseline period to the date letters are ISSUED (not death or publication), while a wholly separate civil statute, CCP § 366.2, imposes the true outer 1-year backstop from date of death.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on California’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | Cal. Prob. Code § 9100; Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 366.2 |
| California courts (general reference) | California judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.