Can I Remove An Easement From My Property?
Video Summary
Can I remove an easement from my property? Well, that’s really a good question, and easement law is a complicated area of law. An easement, first let’s define what that is. It means that someone owns the property, and then someone else has the right to use it for a particular purpose. So you have the burdened property, which is the person who owns it, and then you have the benefited property or a benefited person who has a right to use your property for particular purposes. If they’re private easements such as utility easements, things such as that, or usually you have ingress and egress easements, meaning a way to get in and out of property, those cannot be eliminated from your title unless you own both the burdened property, where the easement is situated, as well as the benefited property. So an easement going from Parcel A to Parcel B, you can’t eliminate that private easement. However, if you own both A and B, well, then you can extinguish the easement, or the easement goes away since it’s no longer needed since you own both parcels.
Now, if you’re talking about an easement or a road right of way that the public – that’s shown on a plat or something like that with the county, you can petition the county to vacate a road right of way if – that’s really not an easement. It’s usually a road right of way, and the county can issue a – if they decide to do so, can issue an order or a – well, whatever the Board of County Commissioners issues to vacate the road right of way. And then the road is then – one half of it goes to each property owner on each side of the road. But that takes a petition, and be sure that you don’t have anybody else out there that could object to it. So it’s difficult to get rid of private easements.
Road right of ways can be vacated if they’re basically abandoned or have never been used, such as an old plat. So if you’ve got an easement across your property, well, you need to see who it’s benefiting and possibly be able to get rid of it that way, but that’s most difficult to do.
Anybody have any other question about easements, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
How Do I Protect My Assets From Lawsuits?
Video Summary
How do I protect my assets from lawsuits? Well, your biggest exposure for liability and being sued is with your automobile. So whatever automobile you drive, you should be shown as the owner, and don’t hold the title in your joint names because the automobile is a dangerous instrumentality, and if it’s involved in an automobile accident, the owner or owners as well as the operator or driver of the vehicle who caused the accident has liability. So if you have more than one automobile in your family, have each spouse put the automobile which they drive in their name so that they’re the owner and operator, and that way if either of you are involved in an accident, well, then they can only sue one spouse.
I also suggest that you talk to your insurance agent about getting what they call an umbrella policy. Umbrella policy offers you protection for liability that exceeds your insurance limits. Hopefully you have $100,000.00 limits, and if you’re concerned about exposure over $100,000.00, you can get what they call a $1 million umbrella, or $2 million, and that way the umbrella policy covers any damages above the $100,000.00 limit. So depending on how much security you want is how much you should cover as far as a liability policy. And it covers not only liability for automobile accidents, but anything you would be sued upon, or most things you would be sued upon.
Be sure to include that as uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. In these recessionary times, you have any number of people out there driving, and they may not have any insurance. And if they cause an accident and you’re injured, well, you don’t have anyone to turn to, and if you don’t have underinsured motorist, well, then you don’t have anyone to recover your damages from, whereas if you do have underinsured motorist on an umbrella policy, well, you’re covered for the extent of your insurance coverage.
As far as a title to your assets, I suggest that you place them if you’re married in your name as husband and wife for tenancy by the entirety, and that way, if there is a judgment as a result of an automobile accident, they cannot reach any of your assets that you have titled as husband and wife or tenancy by the entireties.
So if you want to do some asset protection and discuss your estate plan, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Foreclosure Commercial
In his continuing efforts to educate and serve the community, Chip Waller talks about real estate foreclosure and what your options are in this commercial. If you have questions about a foreclosure or questions regarding your options with a mortgage that you are having financial difficulties paying, call our office and schedule an appointment to become better informed and make an educated decision. We are here to help you!
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos
What Is An Estate Planning Lawyer’s Role When Negotiating A Marital Settlement Agreement?
Video Summary
What role does an estate planning lawyer play in negotiations of a marital settlement agreement? Well, there’s any number of marital settlement agreements. There are marital settlement agreements that are entered into prior to the marriage, which is a pre-marital agreement. There are some that are entered into after the marriage for the parties to address each others’ rights and their spouse’s estate. And then there are the marital settlement agreements that are entered into in conjunction with a divorce proceeding. The estate planning lawyer will want to review the agreement to verify that the spouse of your client has waived their rights to claim a portion of your client’s estate in the event your client passes away or my client passes away.
That would include the waiver of the elective share that a spouse has to take 30 percent of my client’s estate. Also, as far as homestead is concerned, they waive their right to serve as a personal representative and also the right to any property that is acquired after the marital settlement agreement has been entered into and give full authority and latitude for my spouse to leave whoever they want to their property in their will or trust. And so that’s what you’re looking for whenever an estate planning lawyer looks at the marital settlement agreement, and I usually have asked a lawyer who does domestic relations to prepare these because they are tested much more stringently or could be set aside much easier or attacked in the event there’s a divorce proceeding.
So if it could pass, it will almost always pass the test of not being able to be attacked after death. So the estate plan lawyer is interested in seeing that the spouse of his client has waived their rights in his client’s estate to allow his client to leave his assets to whomever he would like, or as an alternative to be aware of what obligation he has to provide for his spouse in his will or trust. If you have any questions, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Ask Thomas Mitchell: What Documents and Information Do I Need to Gather Before Filling Out a Will?
Video Summary
Good afternoon. I’m Tom Mitchell, one of the partners here at Waller & Mitchell in New Port Richey. And I wanted to talk with you today for a few minutes about what you need to do before you come in to make out your will. Making out a will is very important and it’s part of your overall estate plan, so you need to go back over all of your various accounts, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, other personal property that you might have, jewelry, cars, get all that information together so that you know what you have. While you’re doing that, it’s very important to check to see how the asset is titled. If you have a beneficiary or it’s joint with some family member, you need to understand that that asset is going to be passed to that person by virtue of the titling.
So if you have in your will that you want your estate divided equally among your three children, but you’ve already put one child on most of the accounts, that one child is going to get most of the accounts and it’s not going to go equally to your three children. So it’s very important to know what those account statements say as to the titling. Bring all that information in. We’ll go over it with you and see what you need to do to make your estate pass the way you want it to, not just your estate through your will, but your overall estate.
This is Tom Mitchell from Waller & Mitchell. Our telephone number is 727-847-2288. We’re located in New Port Richey. Have a good day.