Dallas Living Trust: Dallas County Probate Courts and Deed Recording

By Rozsa Gyene, California estate planning attorney, State Bar of California #208356. Published September 28, 2026. Last reviewed September 28, 2026.

Which county this page covers

This page covers Dallas County. A Dallas address in a neighboring county is served by that county's probate court and county clerk, not by the offices below; this page does not name those counties because no official page stating which counties the city extends into could be opened when it was written. Fort Worth and Arlington have their own pages, which cover Tarrant County.

The Dallas County probate courts

The county's Probate Courts page describes the Dallas County Probate Courts as a statutorily created probate court system, and under Texas Estates Code Section 32.005 a statutory probate court has exclusive jurisdiction of all probate proceedings in its county. The page lists three courts, The Probate Court, Probate Court No. 2 and Probate Court No. 3, at the George Allen Courts Building, 600 Commerce Street, 7th Floor, Dallas, TX 75202, in Suites 100, 200 and 300. In the page's words, in general a probate court probates the wills of deceased persons, declares the heirs of deceased persons who die without a will, establishes guardianships for incapacitated persons and minors, and supervises court ordered involuntary mental health commitments in Dallas County.

The County Clerk's Probate Courts Division

The County Clerk's Probate Courts Division files the cases for all three courts. Its page says Dallas County has three county probate courts which hear all cases regarding wills, estates and guardianships, and that the county clerk also receives wills that are held on deposit until the death of the testator.

Probate fees on the clerk's 2026 schedule

The clerk's Probate Fee Schedule carries an effective date of January 1, 2026.

The division's FAQ explains that a new application includes the base fee of $360.00 and that the optional services, such as posting notice, are selected when the application is submitted so that their fees are included. The clerk's Fees and Payments page lists money orders, personal checks payable to the Dallas County Clerk, and credit and debit cards.

Recording a deed with the Recording Division

Putting a Dallas home into a living trust means signing a deed from yourself to yourself as trustee and recording it with the County Clerk's Recording Division, which is in a different building from the probate courts.

Fees and payment

The clerk's Fees and Payment page lists cash, money orders, cashier's checks and business checks payable to Dallas County Clerk, and, in person only, cards: a PIN debit card with a $2.85 convenience fee, or a credit or PIN-less debit card with a 2.05% convenience fee. No personal checks are accepted for recording.

E-recording

The clerk's E-Recording page lists Simplifile, eRecording Partners Network, CSC, Avenu Insights and Analytics, Indecomm Global Services and Hopdox as vendors, says documents will be processed within a 24 hour period, and limits e-recording to the submitters listed in Local Government Code Section 195.003, such as attorneys, banks and title companies. A homeowner recording a trust deed in person or by mail uses the Records Building address above.

What this means for a Dallas homeowner

A will alone leaves a Dallas home in the probate estate, to be administered through the steps in the Texas probate process guide. A home deeded to the trustee of a living trust is trust property and passes under the trust's terms. The trust deed is recorded once, at the Records Building, while the owner is alive; property left outside the trust still goes through the probate courts.