Houston Living Trust: Harris County Probate Court 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 Harris County. The City of Houston's Facts and Figures page describes the Houston metropolitan area as nine counties: Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller. Probate is filed, and deeds are recorded, in the county where the person lived or where the land is, not in the city. If your Houston address is in Fort Bend County or Montgomery County, that county's probate court and county clerk apply, not the Harris County offices below:

• Montgomery County. The Montgomery County Clerk serves as clerk of Probate Court No. 1, the county's only statutory probate court, which has jurisdiction over all probate, guardianship and related matters. Deeds are recorded only at the clerk's Conroe office, 210 W. Davis Street, Conroe, first floor, or by mail to P.O. Box 959, Conroe, TX 77305, with a check payable to Montgomery County Clerk and a copy of your ID; no cash by mail. See the clerk's probate page and recording page.
• Fort Bend County. The Fort Bend County website would not load when this page was written, so its offices are not described here. Start at the county's official site, fortbendcountytx.gov, for the County Clerk and the county courts at law.

Probate in Harris County

Under Texas Estates Code Section 32.005, in a county that has a statutory probate court, that court has exclusive jurisdiction of every probate proceeding, whether or not it is contested. Harris County has statutory probate courts. The Harris County Clerk's Probate Courts department serves as their clerk: it files and dockets each case, assesses costs, issues and records citations, notices and letters, keeps the case records, and attends each court docket. The clerk's Judges and Staff page lists Probate Court 1 through Probate Court 5, all at the Harris County Civil Courthouse.

Filing and e-filing

Since January 1, 2014, attorneys must file electronically in the Harris County Probate Courts through the state portal, eFileTexas.gov, using an approved electronic filing service provider. The clerk's page also carries the probate courts' administrative order on e-filing wills and annual accounts, and downloadable forms for deceased estates and guardianships. The clerk's staff can help you file documents and find records but cannot answer legal questions.

Court fees listed by the clerk

Letters can be requested only at the clerk's main location; copies can be viewed and printed free, with a watermark, through the clerk's document portal, or bought in person at any annex, by fax, or by mail. A 4% surcharge applies when a credit card is used without the cardholder present.

Recording a deed in Harris County

Putting a Houston home into a living trust means signing a deed from yourself to yourself as trustee and recording it with the Harris County Clerk's Real Property department. That office records every document that pertains to real property in the county and must accept a document for recording when a statute authorizes it.

Recording fee

The clerk's schedule, citing Texas Local Government Code Section 118.011, lists $25.00 for the first page, $4.00 for each additional page, and $0.25 for each name over five that must be indexed. A conveyance must show a mailing address for each grantee, in the deed or in an attached writing signed by a party, or a penalty fee equal to the greater of $25 or twice the recording fee is charged (Texas Property Code Section 11.003, as quoted on the clerk's page).

How to submit

• In person. Original documents with original signatures only; photocopies are not accepted. Photo identification is required under Local Government Code Section 191.010.
• By mail. Send the original with a cashier's check or money order payable to the Harris County Clerk to P.O. Box 1525, Houston, TX 77251-1525. The clerk asks that cash and personal checks not be mailed.
• E-recording. Accepted only through an e-recording vendor that submits to Harris County. Local Government Code Section 195.003 limits electronic filing to attorneys licensed in Texas, banks and lenders, title companies, state agencies and municipal clerks, so a homeowner recording their own deed files on paper. Documents queued before 2:00 p.m. central time are processed the same business day.

Payment in person can be cash, cashier's check, business check, money order, a personal check with a pre-printed local address and matching Texas identification, or a credit card with valid identification.

What this means for a Houston homeowner

A will alone sends a Houston estate through the probate courts above: application, posted citation, hearing, oath, notices and inventory, as described in the Texas probate process guide. A home and accounts that were transferred into a living trust while the owner was alive are not part of that estate, so the successor trustee can act without the court. The trust deed is recorded once, while the owner is alive.

The Texas Complete Estate Plan includes the trust, a pour-over will for anything left outside the trust, and funding instructions that explain the deed. Preparing and recording the deed itself is the owner's step, at the fee above.