QUESTION

my mother was common law married for 10 year then they married in 1987 built a house together she passed away he got everything then he passed 2 year

Asked on Nov 12th, 2014 on Wills and Probate - Georgia
More details to this question:
Later and his children got everything.. is there a childs part somewhere that i am entitled to??
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1 ANSWER

Wills Attorney serving Alpharetta, GA
4 Awards
If your mother had a Will which left everything to her common-law spouse, then it all belonged to him and was his to do with as he wished at his own death. The same result applies if your mother and her spouse owned their house or other assets with rights of survivorship or she had named him as her beneficiary on any life insurance, retirement accounts, or other assets. If she had no Will, however, then assuming she had her principal residence in Georgia at the time she died in 1987, her children would have had some rights to her probate assets (those that she owned in her name, without any beneficiary designation or right of survivorship applying to them). However, her spouse might have been able to claim the assets under a year's support and thus bypass the children's rights anyhow. And again, no matter how he obtained ownership of an asset, once it became his, neither your mother nor anyone she might have wanted to benefit has any rights at all to those assets. So, most likely you are not entitled to anything. The only way you might be entitled to something is if there was an asset that became part of your mother's probate estate, was not awarded to your mother's spouse under a year's support claim, and did not pass to him under her Will. In that case, there may be some lost asset out there in which you have an interest. The most common way this happens is with real estate. If the real estate was owned by your mother and her spouse as "tenants in common," then her half of the property stayed in her probate estate and did not pass to her spouse automatically. Tenants in common is the default form of joint real estate ownership in Georgia, but not in some other states. If the deed only lists the names of the owners and does not clearly indicate that they are intended to hold the real estate as "joint tenants," "with rights of survivorship," or something very similar, then it was tenants in common. If that was the case with real estate, and if her estate was not administered properly and she had no Will, then portions of her interest in the real estate may actually have become the property of her children, as well as her spouse, at her death and not passed to him only. If that is the case, then both your mother's children and her spouse's children may actually own interests in the property. It will then be a mess to clean up. You might be able to find out by having a title search performed with regard to the property.
Answered on Dec 10th, 2014 at 1:04 PM

This answer is being provided as general information and not as legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this answer.

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