Video Summary

This is a follow-up question is can I remove an easement from my property? The question was is that the … but sound like a family situation where there’s a 50 foot easement across the property and the sound like adjoining properties with this follow-up question. The location of it appears to be across certainly a portion of one of the properties and is being sold, the parents are selling their portion.

My experience has been that usually easements are split down the middle so 25 feet on each side of the easement. In this instance, if you came in, they eat 25 feet of the 50 feet, it would run right through the middle of this party who is not selling property. And this question was is whether or not they could put anything on that 50 foot easement. The answer is no, they cannot. The easements are usually for specific purpose such as ingress and egress and so they are not even allowed to park cars on the easement. They can only use it for the specific purpose that is set forth in the document that created it. They can’t use it for any other purpose. I suggest that you probably get some surveys or whatever to try and to find exactly where the easement is and try and make peace with whoever the new purchaser is of the property. They can only use it for whatever specified use that is set forth in the document that created the easement. If you have any questions, give me a call. It’s 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

This is a follow up question on the previous post of, and I’ll have to read it because it’s rather long. Am I allowed to trim my neighbor’s tree, if it hangs over my property line? One of the followers has asked us, what about an invasive species? His neighbor is growing bamboo, and it has grown over into his property. He’s causing him frustration in that he can’t get the neighbor to cut it. I guess it’s a real problem on trying to cut bamboo out on your property.

The legal remedy for this is not inexpensive. We would probably file a nuisance [inaudible 00:00:56] property. [inaudible 00:01:05] ask about [inaudible 00:01:10] property. If that would be the case, you could file what they call an ejectment action to require them to remove the shed. If you have any questions, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

[inaudible 00:00:05] follow up, one of the followers asked a question about his parents. His parents passed away, and they are trying to deal with the mortgage company that has a lean against their parents’ house. The lender will not give them any information as far as the loan’s concerned. They would like to keep the house, be able to continue to make the mortgage payments and get the information.

One of the first questions that I have to ask with this follow up question of the follower, has there been a probate proceeding whereby your parents’ estate has been probated. If not, once the probate is started, the personal representative or the executor of your parents’ estate would be able to obtain this information from the mortgage company.

If, however, your parents executed what they call a life estate deed or a ladybird deed, so you wound up with the property as a result of their passing away, and there was no probate and they had previously conveyed it to you or you are joint tenant, this is problematic as far as getting the lender to deal with you, and this gets us on the topic of a quick-claim deed, but there is no easy solution to this.

There is a federal statute which is called the Garn-St Germain Act which says that the lender cannot call the loan due and payable whenever someone passes away and the homestead property goes to the children. Unfortunately, most lenders, whenever you try and deal with their service department, are not familiar with this, and you really have to take it to the next level. If you find yourself in that situation, I suggest you contact the lender or whoever has your loan and talk to them about, use the word Garn, G-A-R-N, and St Germain, those are legislators that passed this. That statute is 20 or 30 years old, and it’s a federal statute.

I tried to help somebody in this situation and, unfortunately, the amount of time that I spent on it turned out to be a fairly expensive proposition for me to handle it. I think I was will Wells Fargo, and I went all the way to the President’s office and they finally agreed to give the loan information to the beneficiary.

Hopefully I’ve answered your question, although I haven’t given you good news. By the way, you can’t use a quick-claim deed to transfer property out of a descendant’s name into your name. You have to go through a probate proceeding.

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

Video Summary

This is a follow up question on, can I remove an easement from my property? One of the followers wants to know, does the property owner have a right to use the easement? Yes, as long as it’s not an exclusive easement. If the wording in the easement language is exclusive, that means what it means and no, the owner can’t. Almost every easement that I have seen, particularly for ingress and egress, would allow not only the owner of the property to use the easement but also the benefited parcel, the person who the easement or the property it runs back to that needs to use it for ingress and egress.

The other question has to do with maintenance. It is the duty of the person who is using the easement, meaning the benefited party who uses it for ingress and egress to their property, to maintain the easement. The owner can also maintain the easement, if they want, but that’s up to each party as far as maintaining the easement. The owner has no obligation to maintain the easement for the benefit of the party that is using the easement to get to their property.

Hopefully, I’ve answered these follow up questions. If you have any more questions about easements, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Can you keep other beneficiaries from knowing what you receive from an estate. You cannot and that the will that you have probated is public records, so that will show if you’re receiving what everyone’s receiving. If it’s a part of whatever’s left over after paying the creditors, which is called the residuary portion of the estate, and not set forth in the will, whenever there’s a petition for distribution, well, then attached to that it shows how much each beneficiary is receiving and that’s sent to everyone and hopefully all the beneficiaries are the ones that will agree to the distribution so that it does not have to be filed with the court.

The inventories for an estate’s are sealed and are not public record so only the beneficiaries will know what everyone receives and that they received the will as well as a petition for distribution and discharge.

So, if you have any questions about an estate administration give me a call at 727-847-2288.