[lit-ideas] Re: Calling all attorneys.....
- From: "Julie Krueger" <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:07:53 -0500
Thanks, John. I'm trying to find a local lawyer whom I trust (cue for joke)
to know his/her way around the mess. When Mom passed away last November,
she was going to have a new will drawn up but became too ill too quickly to
be cognizant enough to deal with it. She and her husband (my step-dad) did
have a will drawn up 3 or 4 years ago, through a local atty's office -- but
(get this) his office says they have no record or copy of it. My step-Dad
(who is 82 and losing a lot of his mental and physical strength) cannot
locate his copy of it -- Mom had a fairly idiosyncratic way of keeping her
files, and minimalist that he is, he dumped loads of papers that he thought
worthless from his house after she died -- the will could very easily have
been mixed in with some other papers he thought of no value. My home is in
my Mom's name (it was what she wanted me to have, and he agrees with that,
knows that, acknowledges that) and for some unclear reason my step-Dad's
name is not on the deed. Hence, the probate court has apparently issued a
demand that the house be sold out from under me to address any debts she had
at the time that she died -- the bank loan on the house being a major part
of said debt. According to my step-Dad even if I had a good deal of money,
unless I were able to refinance and purchase the house in my name, the court
has the prerogative to force the sale of my home. I find this a tad
disconcerting. I'm going to do a good bit of on-line research, but my
experience with the legal system is that atty's generally know more about
what actually transpires than one can glean from the what is supposed to
transpire scenario. My step-Dad's perception, though, is that the house
does not "belong" to anyone but my Mother, and the court can sell it out
from under me tomorrow if they wish. It's been my home for 15 years.
Julie Krueger
On 9/29/07, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi, Julie,
>
> I'm not a lawyer, but I have been working with my brother on my
> father's estate. The big lesson is that you need a lawyer familiar
> with the way in which probate is handled in your state. Legally
> speaking, probate is normally a state and not a federal matter, and
> details vary from state to state.
>
> Virginia's are a real tangle, with, for example, a mandatory 16-month
> waiting period to allow all outstanding claims by and against the
> estate to be settled prior to final disposition. In the case of my
> father's estate, this has actually turned out to be advantageous to my
> brother and me. We have, for example, going through my dad's papers
> found several old insurance policies that we didn't know existed. Our
> lawyer has been able to track them down and secure payments for us.
> Anyway, there's a lot of messy stuff to deal with here. You want a
> local lawyer familiar with the ins-and-outs of settling estates.
>
>
> John
>
> On 9/29/07, Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Are there any attorneys on the list who know a fair amount about probate
> > court and wouldn't mind a couple questions?
> >
> > Julie Krueger
> >
>
>
> --
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> Tel. +81-45-314-9324
> http://www.wordworks.jp/
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