This is in California. About two weeks ago my mother passed away. Was a freak accident, came out of nowhere. No trust, no will, no nothing was left. As far as we all know. Her name is on the house as the owner, though it's not fully paid off. My brothers and I are looking to keep the house. Problem is all the fees from getting a lawyer and court and the whole process is going to wreck us. I thought I'd see if anyone here has a better or more cost efficient way to go about all this. Maybe some free resources we don't know about? Anything would help.

My brothers and I are all in agreement, no in fighting, no one trying to get in the way of anything. We're just looking to keep the house and take on the mortgage and keep ownership. From my understanding, in California, if a parent passes away and there's no spouse then their assets get split up amongst the children evenly. So, do we even need to go through all this or can we do less as naturally ownership of the house would default to our names? I'm highly confused so I apologize if any of this comes off idiotic.