Appellate Practice Attorney serving New York, NY
Assuming that your father intended to make a non-contingent inter vivos (that is, not in contemplation of death) gift, that he was competent, that you neither defrauded him nor exercised undue influence over him, nor promised anything to him in consideration for the property, that the gift did not defraud any of your father's creditors, that your father was the sole owner of all of the property, and that there were no restrictions on your father's right to transfer the property (for example, that nobody held a right of first refusal over your father's house), his gift to you would be legal. As you can see, there are a lot of "ifs". Someone who would have inherited had your father not transferred everything to you could always challenge the transaction claiming that you exercised undue influence over your father, that you father was not in his right mind when he made the gift, that you defrauded your father, etc. Moreover, you would only get as good title as your father had. Thus, for example, if there was a recorded mortgage or other lien against any of the property you acquired, you would not get the property free and clear, but rather it would still be subject to the lien. Also, there may be some property (real estate) which requires more than just notarization to transfer. Finally, in some states (I don't know about Florida), a surviving spouse may have rights to some of that property when it is transferred to close to death.
Answered on Oct 24th, 2013 at 12:55 PM