Video Summary

What is a suit to quiet title?  That’s a strange word, “quiet title.”  But what it means is if you have a title to property and there is any question about someone else having an interest in it, you can file an action, and that’s called a suit to quiet title, to clear up any issues.  The primary basis for that is under adverse possession.  There are two ways to be able to obtain title to property through adverse possession.  One is through returning it for taxes, and that’s a special form you file with the tax collector or property appraiser’s office, and then you pay the taxes for seven years, and then you must occupy the enclosure or cultivate the property during those seven years.

At the end of seven years, if you’ve paid the taxes, you can then file what they call a suit to quiet title to eliminate the record title owner’s interest.  Another basis for adverse possession is if you have a deed to the property and you have paid the taxes for seven years.  However, someone else also has the deed to the property.  Well, if you’ve had the property for seven years, paid the taxes and had possession, well, then you file a suit to quiet title to eliminate any of their interest in the property.

Another example of when you file a suit to quiet title is if you buy a property at a tax sale.  There’s a special statute which allows you to file a suit to quiet title by giving notice to the former owner or lenders or anyone else who had an interest in the property prior to the tax sale, and that you need to prove in the suit to quiet title they received notice of the tax sale so they had due process.  If they didn’t have notice and did not pay the back taxes, well, then the court will enter a judgment saying that you have clear title, and then you’re in a position to convey marketable title to the property with a tax deed, and you don’t have to wait the seven years.

So if you have a title problem and you need to get it cleared up and you – or you need to file a suit to quiet title, give me a call at 727-847-2288.  Thank you.

Video Summary

What is a partition action? That’s the name of a lawsuit where you want to force the sale of property that you have an interest in.  So if you only have a very small interest, say usually it’s a half interest or a quarter interest, and it’s usually a family matter where the family has inherited a piece of property from mom or dad and we have two or three sisters and they can’t seem to agree on what to do with the property. So one of them decides, “Well, I want to force sister out of the house since she’s living there and she’s not taking care of it and I just want my money.”

They then contact an attorney and say, “What can I do about that?” And I say, “Well, you can file a partition action.” And a partition action says that you have an interest in the property.  You have to name all the other people who have an interest in the property and say that you want the property sold.  And then there’s two ways to do it, you can either have it sold just like a foreclosure sale by the clerk’s office with an auction, although usually that doesn’t bring a very good price, or you can ask to have it be sold at what they call a private sale and that’s where you usually have a realtor sell the property.

So with a partition action, you ask that it be a private sale and then have a special magistrate appointed, which is usually a local attorney who then takes care of listing the property, and then once he has a contract, petitions the court for the courts approval of the contract and then he can sell the property and doesn’t need the signatures of all of the participants in that he is directed to sell the property. And so he sells the property and then divides up the money to everyone’s particular interest. 

In addition to being able to get your percentage share of that money, you can assert that you have what they call a special equity. Let’s say that you’ve been paying all the taxes on the property for the past several years and the other owners of the property haven’t contributed.  So you can assert that you have a special equity in the proceeds.  Also, a little tougher situation is when one of the owners is living on the property, the other owners can assert that they want a reasonable rental value for their share of the proceeds.

So it’s a little bit complicated as far as sorting out who gets the money.  But the partition action allows one of the property owners to force the sale of the property.  And I find that it’s a very effective tool in getting the people to negotiate some sort of buyout or getting the property sold.  So if you need to get some property sold and you can’t get along with the brothers and sisters or the co-owners, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288 and we’ll file a partition action. 

Thank you.

Video Summary

What are the implications of a mechanic’s lien on my home?  Well, they can be pretty severe because the way you enforce a mechanic’s lien, they are now called construction liens in that they’ve changed the name of these liens several years ago, but they are foreclosed upon. And so the implication is pretty severe. However, the construction lien foreclosure process is somewhat complicated and there are certain deadlines that have to be met in order to enforce a construction lien or have severe ramifications. 

Something that I run across routinely is, if someone files a lien against your property and they think well, now that’s going to get me paid.  Well, a construction lien or a mechanic’s lien must be foreclosed upon within one year of the date that is filed, and it cannot be renewed.  So many times, I advise people rather than you spending a lot of money when you don’t believe the lien is justified, just wait, if you are not going to mortgage your property or sell it, and that way, the person usually does not file a construction lien unless it’s a build or there’s a substantial amount of money involved.

So construction liens must be foreclosed in order to be enforced, and if they’re not foreclosed upon within a one-year period, they are no longer a lien against the property.  The people who are entitled to lien your property are people who have done improvements or material men such as the general contractor, his subcontractors or suppliers who have supplied the materials that are incorporated in your home. If you have a problem with a construction lien or a mechanic’s lien, give me a call at 727-847-2288.