Sibling Trustees and the Family Building in San Francisco: A North Beach and Telegraph Hill Guide

In brief: Many North Beach and Telegraph Hill families hold a flats or mixed-use building that has been in the family for decades. When one sibling becomes trustee and manages that building, disputes over rents, repairs, occupancy and sale are common. The trustee owes every beneficiary loyalty, impartiality and a full accounting.

By Michael Hackard, California trust and estate litigation attorney. Last reviewed October 28, 2026.

A family building is both an asset and a history. The sibling who manages it often feels entitled to run it as their parents did. The others may see below-market rent for a favored relative, unexplained repairs or a sale timed to suit the trustee.

California law does not let a trustee favor one beneficiary over another, even a sibling.

A bequest the executors protected

Coit Tower exists because of a will. Lillie Hitchcock Coit left one third of her fortune, about $118,000, “to be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved.” When the Board of Supervisors proposed spending it on a road at Lake Merced, her executors objected. The tower on Telegraph Hill was dedicated on October 8, 1933. It is an early San Francisco lesson in fiduciaries holding to a decedent’s intent.

What does a sibling trustee owe the other beneficiaries?

A trustee must act solely in the interest of the beneficiaries under Probate Code section 16002 and deal impartially with them under section 16003. Renting a unit to oneself or one’s children at a discount, or steering repairs to a friend’s company, can breach both duties.

Beneficiaries are entitled to information under section 16060 and accountings under section 16062. Rents, deposits, expenses and reserves for a multi-unit building should be traceable.

If the trustee will not account or keeps favoring one side, a Probate Code section 17200 petition can compel an account, surcharge losses under section 16440, or remove the trustee under section 15642.

Warning signs

• Family members living in units at old rents
• Repairs paid to the trustee or the trustee’s friends
• Rents deposited into the trustee’s personal account
• No annual accounting
• Pressure to sell to the trustee at an “agreed” price

Where a North Beach and Telegraph Hill case is heard

Every San Francisco neighborhood shares one probate court. Trust, estate and probate matters are handled at the Civic Center Courthouse, 400 McAllister Street. Regular probate appearance hearings are generally in Department 204; ex parte appearances are in Department 202. A petition about an existing trust is filed in that trust’s case. Many non-evidentiary probate hearings may be attended remotely, while evidentiary hearings and trials are in person unless the court orders otherwise. Parties generally arrange a private court reporter for probate evidentiary hearings and trials. Fee-waiver recipients may request a court-provided verbatim record by submitting a written request at least two weeks before the proceeding.

How contingency fees work

Hackard Law handles qualifying trust, estate and elder financial abuse cases on a contingency fee. You pay no hourly fees. The fee is a percentage of what is recovered, set out in a written agreement before work begins. The firm advances the costs of the case. Those costs are repaid from the recovery before the fee is calculated. If there is no recovery, you owe no fee and no costs, unless your written agreement provides otherwise.