Video Summary

How am I notified if I’m a beneficiary? If you’re a beneficiary under a will that is going to be admitted to probate, the probate rules provide that you will receive a notice of administration, and you will receive the will and that will set forth that you are a beneficiary under the will. If you’re a beneficiary under a trust after the person who set up the trust and you are a beneficiary then, the trustee is, under the Florida statutes, supposed to send to you a notification, and what I recommend is send you a copy of the trust. Therefore, you then know that you are the beneficiary, that you’re entitled to an accounting once a year which will set forth what assets are in the trust, and then unless you get a distribution, then you no longer any right to receive the trust information.

I’m often asked how can I get a copy of the trust because the trustee isn’t sending it to me, or won’t tell me if I’m in it, if I’m a beneficiary. And that is very problematic because if you don’t know whether you’re a beneficiary or not under a trust, it’s not administrated through the court system and the trust is not public information. So that is a problem when it comes to being a beneficiary under a trust, or knowing whether or not you’re a beneficiary under the trust.

If you have any questions, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

If a contractor runs off with my money, well, it’s difficult to try and recover this. But if it’s a licensed contractor, you can submit a claim to the Construction Licensing Board. It’s under the Department of Professional Regulations, and they have a fund. I don’t know if that fund has any money in it. During the recession, it did not have any money, so the claims would have to be paid later on.

Before you’re able to make your claim, though, you need to sue your contractor and get a judgment against him in order to file your claim. Also, you’re not entitled to recover any attorney fees for filing your claim against a licensed contractor. The best thing to do is to make sure that the contractor is licensed so that you do have a recourse, and then if he runs off with your money, then you file a complaint with the building department in the Department of Professional Regulations and maybe pulled his license and complaint, and then sue him and get a judgment and make your claim with the Florida Department of Professional Regulations as far as whatever type of contractor he is.

If you have any other questions, you give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Between an easement and an offset or setback. An easement is where you have granted a right to use your property to someone. Usually it has to do with utilities and it’s shown on your plat or whenever you purchased the property, the developer set aside, let’s say, ten feet on the back of your property and allows the utility companies, like water, sewer, cable, to use that property. You own it, but someone else has the right to use it. Also you could grant a private easement for someone to drive in across your property, which would also be an easement, whereas an offset or a setback is something that’s imposed by the building department and the county or city where you’re situated, and they prescribe how close you can build to a property line or construct things close to the property line, and that’s called a setback, and that’s controlled by what kind of zoning you have, and as far as commercial property or residential property. And that’s how close you can build your structures.

Some of this is based upon public health and safety, and that they need … you talk about putting a fire truck or whatever between the properties on the rear setback, that has to do with your neighbors being able to, as far as view, and things such as that. So hopefully that answers any questions you have on the difference between an easement and an offset, which is really a setback, which is prescribed by a county or city as to how close you can construct something. If you have any other questions, give me a call at 727-847-2288

Video Summary

If I live in an unincorporated area, that means that you don’t live within the city limits of a city, so you live in the county. So that is what an unincorporated area is, and so you’d be governed by the county ordinances and pay the county taxes. If you’re in an incorporated area or an area where you’re in a city, well then you’re governed by both county and city ordinances and you pay both city and county taxes. So if you have any other questions, give me a call at 727-8417-2288.

Video Summary

What happens if I do work myself without a permit to my home?

Well, if you get caught, well, the building department would then require you to pull a permit, which they would charge you for that. You have to submit plans in order to be able to keep the work or whatever you do without the permit in place. Or, you have to take it all out and remove whatever improvements you made to the property without the permit.

The first thing you would need to do is determine whether or not you’d need a permit to do the particular work. Then, if you proceed without a permit or have someone do it that doesn’t get a permit, that’s the problem that you face.

Usually, un-permitted work is not discovered unless someone reports you. As far as that’s concerned, they investigate a complaint, but those are the consequences if the county finds out about it and sends a code enforcement officer out to look at the property.

You don’t have to let the code enforcement person in your property or on your property without a search warrant, which slows things down, but if they can see it from the road, well, that’s a problem. Then they can cite you.

If you have any other questions, well, give me a call and I’ll be glad to answer them at 727-847-2288