Cal. Sts. & High. Code § 8048

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the person owning the fee or the person in whom, on the day any protest or petition is filed, the legal title to real property appears, by deed duly recorded in the county recorder’s office of the county in which the city is situated, shall be deemed to be the owner thereof for the purpose of this part. But any person in possession of real property as the executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, or other legal representative of the owner, or any person in possession of real property under a written contract of purchase duly recorded, shall be deemed to be the owner thereof for the purposes of this part.