Georgia Probate Legal Questions

You are correct.  No one can give away something they do not have.  There is no reason for you to sign away your interest in the house.  If your sister wants to sell the house and you do not, your sister must first file a suit for partition.  You may want to buy her interest.  You may prefer to let her force a sale and take your share of the proceeds.... Read More

The simple answer is that the will may give you powers more fully set forth in OCGA 53-12-262. If so, you ahve the power to sell without consent of the beneifficaires; b ut you must sell at a fair price.  When confronted with a situatoin as you describe, I woudl offer to sell the hosue to the heirs wanting to maintian it so that the remaining members of hte family can get their inheritance without delay.  Typically, you could get a market appraisal by a real estate agent.  From there, you coudl knock of 10% for the house not being sold with a commission due, and sell the house to the hiers  who want to maintian it for sentimental reasons.  I'm not sure what this sentiment is going to feel like when taxes are due, repairs are needed and the new owners pass away and their chidlren need to figure out what to do.  If they really want to keep the house, I assume it will be rented out, or sold to only one heir whod elects to make that home his/her home.  Once rented out, it quits looking like Mom and Dad's house.  Once owned by one heir, it quits being Mom and Dad's home also.   It is a tough situation to be in, but your job is to get everybody thier inheritance.  You usually can't do that withotu selling the real estate.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your mother. As for your question, you may well have to offer your mother's Will for probate, but without knowing what she owned and how she owned it, it is not possible for anyone to actually tell you whether you need to do so or what else you need to do. The reason for that is as follows: When a person dies, there are three basic possibilities as to how what she owns transfers to others. 1. If your mother owned anything with another person as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (which is the default form of ownership for joint accounts in Georgia but NOT the default form of ownership for jointly owned real estate), then the surviving owner already owns 100% of those assets, any may not need to do anything (other than make sure her name and Social Security number are no longer showing on any accounts). 2. If she owned anything like life insurance, an IRA, or certain other accounts under a beneficiary designation, which includes a payable on death (POD) designation or a transfer on death (TOD) registration, then the beneficiary needs to contact the insurance provider or institution that holds the account or the security and find out what paperwork needs to be provided for the beneficiary to collect the assets. 3. If she owned anything that was not subject to a right of survivorship or a beneficary designation, then those assets must be controlled by her Will, and you will need to have the Will admitted to probate and thereby made legally binding in order to receive those assets. You may also need to file final income tax returns or other returns for her, and to pay bills and expenses out of the estate's assets. Find a probate attorney and schedule a consultation. The attorney can help you figure out what you need to do and how to proceed.   Best wishes to you.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on your mother's terrible situation.   As for your question, the advance directive, if it is newer, should probably be what you look to as evidence of her wishes regarding burial versus cremation. If the Will is newer than the advance directive, then you should probably look to the statement in the Will. Ideally, ask her what she prefers now, if she can answer the question for you.... Read More

I'm sorry you lost your husband. You should have your lawyer explain why the will was declared invalid. Given the fact courts are generally closed, it sounds like the will was improperly witnessed and therefore,  never a will to begin with. As for your year's support. if the children have objected to it, a trial is required. These usually do not occur sooner than 3-6 months after you you file the petition.  A year's support claim can be handled on a contingency fee to make it more affordable for you. ... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your mother. Without seeing actual documents, it's not really possible for anyone to tell you exactly what's going on. However, it sounds like the check that your mother received was intended as the final distribution to her from your aunt's estate, and that the Acknowledgment you mention was supposed to be her statement that she understood her interest in the estate had been fully satisfied and that she was okay having the executor of your aunt's estate (or administrator) discharged from that role and released from liability with regard to the estate. If my guess as to what your mother was sent is correct, the executor or administrator of your aunt's estate is filing a Petition for Discharge (assuming it was a Georgia estate) and now needs to have the sheriff serve the executor or administrator of your mother's estate with notice that the Petition is being filed, since your mother passed away without signing and returning that Acknowledgment. If your mother's estate has had an executor or administrator appointed, then that person may be able to sign the Acknowledgement on behalf of the estate and return it, which would avoid having to have notice served by a sheriff. But I really think that you (or the executor or administrator of your mother's estate, if you aren't it) needs to have an attorney review the situation and anything that was sent by your aunt's estate's representative, to be sure what is going on and whether signing the Acknowledgment is the right thing to do.... Read More

It sounds like you are an heir to the estate and rightlfully are entitled to a protoin, if not all, of the estate.  You cannot be forced to give anyone a quit claim deed.  You should begin proceedings to open your brother's estate and handle his affairs, including tranferring the real estate to the heirs.... Read More

I’m sorry your husband passed away. You need to open an estate in Georgia before you have to open an estate in Florida. You also need to consider filing a Petition for Year’s Support.  You have a lot going on and need to get help from a lawyer specializing in probate and probate administration.... Read More

I'm sorry, but this is not a probate question. Probate is the area of law that deals with Wills and deceased person's estates. You are asking a question about probation, a criminal law topic about which I, as a probate attorney, know nothing. Please try reposting your question using Criminal Defense or something similar as the topic, so that the right attorneys will see it. Best wishes to you.... Read More

As long as your mother is competent, she can execute a new POA no matter what state she lives in, and it will generally revoke any previously-executed POA. You cannot prevent your mother from revoking a power of attorney. In fact, if your mother is now living in a different state, she ideally SHOULD update her POA, because a power of attorney done in Georgia, under Georgia law, may not work as well under the laws of the new state. If she still wants to name you as her agent, she can, but if she wants to change her agent when she updates the POA, she is free to do so.... Read More

Please accept my condolences on the loss of your mother.   Not all Wills need to be offered for probate, but even if your mother's turns out not to have to be offered for probate, you are still required by law to file the original Will for informational purposes only with the probate court of the county where she had her principal residence. To determine whether the Will must be offered for probate, you need to determine exactly what she owned, and whether any of it passed directly to someone other than her estate under a beneficiary designation or a right of survivorship. If an asset was jointly owned by your mother and another person as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (which is ONLY likely to be the case with some property that was jointly owned, so be careful and don't assume that jointly owned property passed automatically- you have to actually review any joint titles to see how the property was owned), then it's not controlled by her Will. If an asset passed directly to someone other than your mother's estate under a beneficiary designation, that asset is not controlled by her Will. However, if any asset, whether real estate, a bank account, or something else did not pass to someone directly under a beneficiary designation or a right of survivorship, then the Will controls that asset, and the Will will likely have to be offererd for and admitted to probate before that asset can be dealt with. I urge you to get a consultation with an experienced probate attorney before trying to do anything else. Probate and estates have a lot of potential pitfalls that lay people can fall into without good legal guidance. An experienced probate attorney can help you avoid those and save yourself and the estate time and money. ... Read More

How a property is owned is what determines how it passes at the death of its owner. If your father owned his residence in his own name before he married your stepmother, then the question is whether at some point during his life he gave her an interest in the property by signing a deed that transferred the property from his name to the names of himself and his wife. If he did so, and if the deed that he signed gave the property to the two of them as joint tenants (this is determined by the language of the deed), then they would have from that point on owned that property as joint tenants, and it would have passed automatically to his wife at his death if she survived him. If he never added her name to the deed, then the property became part of his estate at his death. She could then try to have the probate court award it to her as part of a year's support. If he transferred the property to both names, but the deed did not contain the right language to create the right of survivorship, then half of the property was already hers, and the other half became part of his estate. The short answer is that you need to find out whether there was a deed signed by your father and recorded before his death that gave the property to himself and his wife, and if so, exactly what that deed says. You can find a copy of the deed in the real estate records for the approrpriate county. You may also be able to find it online in the Georgia Superior Court Clerks Cooperative Authority website- gsccca.org.... Read More

Hi- I am sorry to hear about your friend, but this is not a probate question. It's a probation question. Most probate attorneys don't know anything about probation- it's a criminal attorney issue. Please try reposting your question with a different topic or editing your original post so you get attention from the right kind of attorneys.... Read More

Someone needs to open an estate to insure that everything is handled properly.  The wife has a right to keep you from the house if she owns some or all of the house.  No one has a right to deal with your father's property until he/she is appointed personal representative of the estate.... Read More

Michael, Thank you for your in inquiry. I do not know what county the deceased person residing in and that matters when it comes to pricing and length of time things will take. We charge a flat fee of $2,000 to probate a will. Added onto that charge on the fees charged by the probate court. Assuming all siblings are in agreement and all will sign the necessary documents, it will cost about $200 in fees to the probate court. The trickier part of your question is about how long it will take. This depends almost entirely on the county where we must file the petition.  Generally though, you can count on about a month from date of filing for Letters Testamentary to be issued.  ... Read More