Georgia Real Estate Legal Questions

The Trustee of the trust needs to execute a Trustee's deed that transfers the property from the trust to the appropriate beneficiaries, and the deed needs to be recorded with the appropriate county. Get a real estate attorney to help the Trustee prepare the deed- real estate is NEVER a good do-it-yourself project.... Read More

A quitclaim deed is 'legal' even if it has not been recorded. If a party who does not know about the quit claim deed buys the house from the estate of the parent and then records their deed, this claim may come in front of yours. See a Georgia attorney to understand your options and risks. ... Read More

If only a life estate was actually sold, then the deed to the property that sold the life estate should state that. If it doesn't, it may mean that more than a life estate was actually sold. Or there may have been a subsequent transaction that transferred the remainder interest. You likely need to get a title search done in order to determine how the property title actually passed and who holds rights in the property right now. Consult a real estate attorney for help with that. Please also note: I changed the practice area on your question to Real Estate, because this is not a Wills and Probate related question.... Read More

Why have you been paying property taxes on property you don't own?   Unfortunately, you may not be able3 to recoup what you've paid, at least not easily. You will need to figure out who owns the property. That is not at all clear from your post, and you may need to have a real estate attorney do a title search. You may also find out that the property has many, many owners, each of whom received their share from a deceased prior owner and that title is not clear. If you can figure out who owns the property, then you can try to sue the owners to recover the amounts that you paid. If you are an owner yourself, then you won't be able to fully recover, because part of the payments will likely be your responsibility, but you can still try to recover the other owners' shares. But if you did not have a written agreement with the other owners under which you would pay the taxes and get reimbursed, you may well be deemed by a jury in a lawsuit to have made a gift by paying the taxes.   You need to get a real estate attorney involved, and possibly a probate attorney as well. Don't wait, and don't just keep paying these expenses. Best wishes to you- I hope you can get things figured out and get repaid.  ... Read More

If your grandfather's estate is still open and the house has not yet been transferred from the estate to your parents, then the Executor needs to have your sister and her husband evicted, and then consult a real estate attorney for help getting the lien cleared off of the property title. If the lien is the result of a personal liability that either your sister or her husband had, it should not have been placed against a property that did not belong to them. However, they may have forged paperwork showing that they did own the property, or otherwise lied to the lienholder, and that means that the title to the property will need to be cleared. If the property had already been transferred to your parents from your grandfather's estate, then your parents will be the ones who need to take the next steps. But start by getting the sister and her husband evicted as soon as possible. Either way, consult a real estate attorney for help.  ... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your brother. As for your question, I am sorry, but I have no real idea what you are asking.   You would not normally execute a quit claim deed on behalf of a deceased person. The representative of the deceased person's estate would need to execute anything that deals with the deceased person's interest in the property. If it is you who would be executing a deed for some reason, and if the property that the deed relates to is located in Michigan, then the deed would need to comply with Michigan law and be recorded in Michigan, but you generally should be able to actually SIGN it in Georgia, if Georgia is where you live and where the deed is being sent to you. But please note: I strongly advise you to consult a Michigan attorney who works with real estate titles to determine the best way to handle any deeds that relate to Michigan real estate. Do not rely on information on the internet for that. Messing up the title to real estate can be an expensive mistake to fix.  ... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your father.   As for your question, if your mother has a court order or divorce decree that says the land was to have been transferred to her, but the land never was transferred to her, then she is effectively a creditor of your father's estate. You (or someone else) will likely need to get appointed as the Executor or Administrator of your father's estate, get the estate administration started, and, assuming that the land does not need to be liquidated in order to pay creditors that have higher-priority claims than your mother's claim (she would be an unsecured creditor with a lower priority than certain other creditors), eventually turn the property over to your mother in satisfaction of her creditor claim. The rest of the estate, if there is any, can then be distributed to the beneficiaries or heirs.   Get the help of an experienced probate attorney if you want to take on the estate administration. It's not a good do-it-yourself project. Best wishes to you and your family.  ... Read More

If I understand your post correctly, you currently own a home subject to a mortgage, and you want to sell the property to a potential purchaser for more than you owe on it. Assuming all that is correct, I would strongly advise you to consult a real estate attorney for help with the sale and the transfer. In most cases, the purchaser of the property will want to receive ti under a Warranty Deed or Limited Warranty Deed, not a Quit Claim Deed, because the purchaser will be better protected under those kinds of deeds than under a quit claim deed. The purchaser will also want to make sure that the mortgage gets paid off properly and that the lender issues an appropriate release of their security interest. The purchaser may also want to get title insurance on the property. A real estate attorney can help with all of those issues. Please DON'T try to do anything yourself, however- mistakes in real estate transactions can be very expensive to fix and can make it impossible for someone to sell or borrow against the property in the future.  ... Read More

To give the short answer to your question: No, you can't sell the whole property as is- all you can sell is what you own, which it sounds like may be a fairly small interest. You do need to get the title cleared up, and then all of the current owners of the property will need to join in the sale to transfer the entire property. There's no possible way for anyone to be able to tell you in this kind of forum what that will cost or how long it will take, unfortunately.   The title search results will likely be helpful, along with the death certificates. If there was ever any administration of any estates connected with the property, that documentation would be helpful, and if you can get death certificates and lists of possible heirs for each currently deceased person who likely inherited an interest in the property, that will likely also help.    A real estate or probate attorney who works with Heirs Property may be able to help you and your family sort this out. You may also want to contact the Georgia Heirs Property Law Center- they are a group that works on exactly these kinds of issues. Here is their website: https://www.gaheirsproperty.org/   Best wishes to you. I hope you and your family are able to get this worked out without too much trouble and get a good result.  ... Read More

You need to adversely possess the property, but without exclusive and adverse possession for 17 years, you don't have any rights. You probably should try to buy it at a tax sale.  You will pay an auction price rather than just the taxes, but you can own it a year after you buy it that way.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your parents. As for your question, it's not really a probate question; it's a real estate title question. However, it is sort of related to probate.   You appear to state in your post that the real estate attorney told you that, because your mother owned an interest in the property, you need all of your siblings to sign off before the property can be sold. That makes me think that (1) your mother did not have a Will (even though your father did); (2) that your parents owned the property jointly, but as tenants in common and not as joint tenants with rights of survivorship; (3) that your father did not take any steps after your mother's death to make a claim for year's support or to otherwise have her interest in the property transferred to him (He may, like many people, have incorrectly assumed that because the property was jointly owned, he did not need to do anything); and (4) that your father therefore received 1/3 of your mother's interest while her children (all 6 of you) received the other 2/3 of her share. If my assumptions are true, then (A) your mother's 1/2 of the property passed to her heirs under GA intestacy law, and (B) your father received 1/3 of her 1/2 and the 6 kids received the other 2/3 of  her 1/2 . Since your father would already have owned his 1/2, that would mean his estate (with you as Executor) only owns 1/2 + 1/3 (or 4/6)  of the property at his death, and you and your 5 siblings collectively own the other 2/6 of the property directly. So, if my assumptions are correct, then you, as Executor of your father's estate, cannot sell the property by yourself, because his estate does not own 100% of the property. You can get a second opinion from a different real estate attorney, if you want. However, it's entirely possible that your father just made a mistaken assumption about how the property would pass at your mother's death and that as a result he did not become the sole owner of the property.... Read More

I would think that if the foreclosure was on the 1st. mtg. and the suit was on the 2nd. then the liability to reapy the 2nd. underlying indebtedness was not impacted by the foreclosure and the obvious question is did you defend the suit on the 2nd. why didn't you raise this issue then and if you, in fact, failed to raise it, it would be waived. Your friend's advice might apply if the suit was on the 1st. mtg.  ... Read More

Anyone can pay taxes on any property but why would you? If you reside there pursuant to a lease, even if the property is sold your lease will stay in effect. If however you do not have a lease then you may be evicted. Paying the taxes doesn't prevent you form being evicted by the present owner or subsequent owners. If you do not have a lease I would recommend you reach out to the present owner to give you one. It is no disadvantage to him to protect you especially since it appears he/she may be loosing the property.... Read More

These agreements are very difficult to terminate.  Your best option to get out of this agreement likely is to sell the timeshare. This is not intended to be legal advice, and is general in its nature. No attorney-client relationship exists or is formed by this information. Furthermore, this does not represent the views or opinions of LexisNexis or its affiliated companies.... Read More

You have not provided enough information to know what the circumstances are.  Is your name the only one on the deed?  If so, it would seem you are the owner and no other person can pass title to it whether by deed or by will. If you own only a partial interest in the house, the owner of another partial interest in the house can certainly pass his/her interest to another person by will.  I think you should confer with a good real estate attorney in your area.  It would be worth a modest conference fee to learn your status.... Read More

Under Georgia law, a trust agreement is not required to be recorded.  However, a trust can not convey title to property.  The Trustee of the trust must convey title.  For example, the conveyance would be Joe Smith as Trustee for the Brady STreet Land Trust.  You might search the real estate records and see if there have been any conveyances of property owned by the trust.  Some closing attorneys record part or all of the trust agreement to put on the record that the trustee had authority to convey the property.  ... Read More

Your options are either to reach an agreement with him or sue him in Court.  A possible agreement would be for you to buy out his interest in the property.  What is his share of the property worth less what he owes you for the property maintenance?  He can then convey the condo to you.  You probably will not be able to get him off of the mortgage until you refinance the property.... Read More

To be a part of the HOA there would be a recorded Declaration in the real estate records that described what property is included under the HOA.  First, is there a Declaration recorded?  A real estate attorney could search title and confirm it or not.  Second, if the bank loan was recorded prior to the Declaration or the bank did not consent to the Declaration then a foreclosure would wipe out the Declaration.  If the Declaration is in place then a new developer could follow the provisions of the Declaration to amend the Declaration.  Depending on the terms of the Declaration the new developer may be able to step into the shoes of the old developer and have some unilateral right to amend the Declaration.... Read More

The owner of the property where is the tree is located is liable for the damage if they knew the tree was rotten or diseased.  I would suggest that you contact the property owner (not the renters) and make a claim on the property owner's homeowner's insurance.  You should also contact your car insurance company and make a claim on that policy.  ... Read More