How long does a creditor have to sue after a claim is rejected in California?

Ninety days. Probate Code section 9353 bars the rejected part of a claim unless the creditor commences an action, or the matter goes to a referee or arbitration, within 90 days after notice of rejection — or within 90 days after the claim becomes due if it was not due when rejected.

Does the executor have to respond to a claim?

Yes. Section 9250 requires the personal representative to allow or reject each filed claim in whole or in part, in writing, to file that with the court clerk, and to give notice to the creditor with a copy.

Does the 90 days ever pause?

Yes. Section 9353 excludes any period during which the office of personal representative is vacant.

What if the executor simply ignores the claim?

Inaction is its own problem. A claim that is neither allowed nor rejected leaves the estate unable to close and exposes the representative, and a creditor can petition the court rather than wait indefinitely.

Creditor Claims: Allowance, Rejection and Suit

A California personal representative must allow or reject every creditor claim in writing and notify the creditor. A rejected claim is then barred unless the creditor sues within 90 days — a deadline that runs whatever the ordinary statute of limitations would have allowed.

A leather document folder tied shut with cord on an otherwise empty dining table, an empty chair pulled up on the far side. — A rejection letter starts a ninety-day fuse. Most people who miss it never realised one had been lit.

Two clocks, and they are different

Estate creditor work runs on two separate deadlines that get confused constantly. The first is the window to file a claim at all — under section 9100 that is the later of four months after letters issue or sixty days after notice of administration reaches the creditor, and it is covered on the timeline page. The second, dealt with here, only starts once a filed claim has been rejected: ninety days to sue. A creditor who files on time and then waits to negotiate can still lose everything by letting the second clock run out.

What the representative must do

Probate Code section 9250 makes the response mandatory and formal. When a claim is filed the personal representative shall allow or reject it, in whole or in part, in writing, file that allowance or rejection with the court clerk, and give notice to the creditor together with a copy. The statute prescribes the contents: the creditor’s name, the total amount of the claim, the date letters issued, the date of death, the estimated value of the estate, the amount allowed or rejected, whether the representative is authorised under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, and a statement that the creditor has ninety days in which to act on a rejected claim. Section 9353 supplies the consequence. Regardless of whether the otherwise applicable statute of limitations would expire sooner or later, a rejected claim is barred as to the rejected part unless within ninety days of the notice the creditor commences an action, or the matter is referred to a referee or to arbitration.

Sources: Probate Code s.9250 - Allowance or rejection of a creditor claim · Probate Code s.9353 - Ninety days to sue on a rejected claim · Probate Code s.9100 - Time for a creditor to file a claim · Verified 2026-08-20.

The sequence

Step	Who acts	Deadline
File the claim	Creditor	Later of 4 months from letters, or 60 days from notice — §9100
Allow or reject, in writing	Personal representative	§9250 — no fixed period, but required
Notice of rejection served	Personal representative	With a copy, to the creditor
Sue, or refer to arbitration	Creditor	90 days from notice — §9353
Claim not yet due when rejected	Creditor	90 days from when it becomes due

Why the ninety days overrides everything

Section 9353 opens with the words that matter: regardless of whether the statute of limitations otherwise applicable will expire before or after. A creditor holding a written contract with four years left on it does not get four years. Once the rejection notice is served, ninety days is the whole of it. The only pause the statute recognises is a vacancy in the office of personal representative, which is excluded from the count.

Reading it from the estate’s side

For a personal representative the rejection is a tool, not a formality. Rejecting a doubtful claim in writing starts a short clock that most marginal creditors will not fund a lawsuit to beat. Allowing a claim that should have been examined, by contrast, is a decision beneficiaries can later question, and paying it is the kind of act a surcharge analysis reaches. Section 9250 also asks whether the representative acts under the IAEA, which ties back to what can be done without court supervision.

Where these become disputes

Claims filed by the personal representative themselves, or by family members asserting loans nobody documented, are the recurring flashpoints. So are medical and long-term care claims arriving late in administration. When a beneficiary believes debts were paid that should have been challenged, or a creditor believes a valid debt was rejected to protect the family, the argument lands in contested probate.