New Jersey Property Legal Questions

Sorry but title to the property was in your name and her name jointly, which means that each of you are entitled to 50% of it. It may be a matter of principle to you but legally, you need to sit down with her children and work out a deal for them to transfer their 50% interest over to you or you need to start charging them for their 50% share of the "obligations" associated with the property, including the real estate taxes, insurance, upkeep, etc. Maybe once they are presented with the "obligations" associated with the property, they may change their minds on retaining their 50% share interest. ... Read More

Experience teaches us life lessons and you are trying to explain to your daughter that what this other person has done potentially can blow up on her. In a perfect world, everything works out well and your daughter wins by paying less for the cost of her auto insurance coverage. And she then tells you that your fears were completely unfounded, and you need to trust more. In a less than perfect world (like the one you and I currently live in), people do bad or spiteful things every day and then your daughter calls you crying, saying that she cannot believe that this person has taken advantage of her. And, while you would like to tell your daughter “ I told you so”, you know that such a remark at that moment will not help. So, the best solution would be for this person to sign the title to the car over to your daughter now with your daughter holding the title in her possession, so that at any time, she can transfer title into her name and then also transfer the insurance coverage into her name alone as well ( in this setting though, it will most likely be viewed by MV as a sale and she will have to pay a tax for the sale of the car to her). Alternatively, you can draw up a simple document for both of them to sign, saying that while title to the car is in his name, he acknowledges that your daughter paid for the car, that she is the owner of it and when requested, he will promptly sign the paperwork authorizing the transfer of title into her name alone.  If you ask your daughter to draw up that paperwork, there is a 1.0000925% chance that she will do so and therefore it is better that you prepare it yourself for both to sign. ... Read More

I am a certified divorce and family law attorney by the NJ Supreme Court - meaning that I specialize in divorce & post-divorce matters, custody and child support disputes, domestic violence matters, and prenuptial agreement work. My firm also handles some estate work for clients but with the issue presented, you are better off talking with an estate law specialist. When you run your search, be careful of general practice lawyers who say that they also handle estate claims..... that is like asking a foot doctor to take a look at a brain tumor and tell you what he thinks. Not a good idea. For your purposes, I think that it will be more cost-effective and you will have a better sense of where you stand talking to a specialist. ... Read More

Before having your husband's car towed from the property, you should meet with a family law attorney to understand your rights and your obligations in a divorce setting. If you have his car towed from the property, it will cost you money to have it towed ( the police will not tow it for you), and then it will cost him money to get the vehicle from the facility handling the storage of it. And, my sense is that money is not flowing and adding an unnecessary expense to the mix because you are angry at him, will most likely cause the frustration between the 2 of you to worsen. Meet with a family law attorney and let the lawyer send a letter to your husband putting him on notice and let your husband then make arrangements to move it within a "reasonable" time frame. I am sure that it is frustrating you to see it in the driveway but dont compound an already bad setting. Be smarter and stay in control. ... Read More

The best way to understand how to proceed is to sit down with an estate law specialist ( not a general practice lawyer who also handles estate issues) and let him / her review the terms of the will to see if the estate is responsible for the payment of taxes on transfers of assets or whether it is your husbands responsibility to pay for any tax liabilites. Since I dont know your father in laws asset structure or the terms of the will / estate plan, its impossible and inappropriate for me or any other lawyer to tell you whether there is or is not a tax issue. Again, best way to handle it is to schedule a consultation with an estate law specialist - it is worth the expense of the consultation for peace of mind. ... Read More

Since the car loan is in joint name, presumably title to the car is in joint name as well. If so, then you are going to need to put in place an arrangement with the lender to remove his name from the loan and to get him to agree ( in writing) that he will cooperate with his name being taken off of the title to the car as well.  Simply by getting his name off of the loan does not guarantee that he will agree to sign the paperwork to remove his name from the title so make sure that any discussion between the 2 of you on this subject is confirmed in a writing. ... Read More

Your starting point is the language of your divorce settlement agreement or final judgement of divorce. If the agreement or court order required your husband to transfer title to the properties from joint name into his name alone and that same was to be accomplished by a specific date, you need to follow up with the lawyer who represented you in the divorce to find out if those things were accomplished. If your ex-husband was obligated to transfer the titles to those properties into his name alone under the terms of your divorce agreement or court order and he failed to do so, then you may need to take action in the NJ family court system to compel him to do so or to be responsible for the tax liability incurred by you as a result of his failure to transfer the titles as required. If the agreement or court order required him to transfer the titles into his name alone and he failed to do so, a judge has the authority to hold him liable for the financial consequences of his inaction by making him pay for your tax liabilities and the legal fees for the necessity of the application). A very different issue is presented if you and he never had a writing in place requiring him to transfer title to the properties into his name alone after the divorce. In that setting, it is tougher for a judge to require him to pay for your tax liabilities on those properties when there is nothing in writing to require him to do so. If the "agreement" to transfer title from joint name into his name alone is not in the settlement agreement or court order, then you need to check your emails and your text messages to see if you have anything from him confirming his agreement to transfer title into his name alone.  If you have that in a text message or email, bring that material to a family law specialist so that he can figure out whether he has sufficient information to file an application with the court for relief on your behalf. ... Read More

Whether or not the LL should have returned the security to you or your roomate is governed by the lease. In any event, you are still entitled to have your share of the depost returned to you by your roommate.  Consider hiring a lawyer to write him an email or a letter threatening litigation to get him to return the money.... Read More

You are not going to like my observations and my advice, but my role is to give you competent legal advice based on the issue presented. You and she were planning on getting married and in anticipation of that marriage, she put up money towards the purchase of a home. The fact that title is in your name alone does not mean that she has no equitable claim or that you simply get to keep her money. Even if she signed a gift letter, it was still money advanced in contemplation of marriage and therefore you need to address a repayment plan. The fact that you have a restraining order or that she is an alcoholic or any other bad thoughts you have about her does not change your obligation to her. My suggestion is that you need to either work out a payment plan with her for repayment purposes or you need to list and sell the house and repay her the money she advanced. If you think that you will not recoup the full amount paid for the house on a sale, then she should get back her proper percentage of the net proceeds of the sale to make her as whole as possible. Sorry, but you acknowledged that you would not have been able to buy this house without her contribution and it was given over with the expectation that she and you would be living together in the house as the marital home. Bigger issue for me are your children. From everything you said about her, it is clear that she would have presented a danger to your children if you and she were living together and they were exposed to the drinking and violence. Again, you may feel that I am overstepping by bounds, but I suggest that you consider getting counseling for yourself to help you better understand yourself and to help you moving forward with new relations. My focus is on who you decide to introduce to your children. Clearly, in retrospect, this was not someone you should have introduced your children to and I’m sure that she caused you too much stress and potentially caused your children stress as well. The goal is to try and better understand yourself so that you reduce the likelihood of letting this type of person into your life (and into the lives of your children) moving forward. ... Read More