Do I Need An Attorney To Evict A Tenant?
Video Summary
Do I need an attorney to evict a tenant? Well, the answer to that is no, you don’t if you know how to evict them. Usually, you evict tenants because they haven’t paid the rent, and that starts by the landlord giving the tenant a three-day notice. A three-day notice is spelled out in the Florida statutes, and it can only be for rent. So if you’re going to do the eviction yourself, you need to look up that notice and deliver it to the tenant and give them three days from the date that you deliver the notice. You don’t count the day you give it to them, and then you start counting the days. You can’t count Saturday or Sunday or a legal holiday, and after the three days have expired and they haven’t paid the rent or vacated, you’re then in a position to file a complaint for eviction, and that’s where you can try and find the law suit or complaint. I think there’s some forms out at the law library or whatever, and you can complete those and basically attach the notice to them saying that they haven’t paid the rent and that they owe you the money, and then you can file that in court.
And then after that, you then have to see if they file a response. If they do file some response, the judge will then usually set a hearing to determine the amount of rents owed, and you have to appear in court. Sometimes it just sits there and nothing happens, and that’s whenever you get frustrated or need to talk to a lawyer, or you go to a hearing and the judge doesn’t evict them and sends you on your way. So at that point, you probably do need a lawyer, and then we’ll have to look at your handy work to see whether or not – how good a lawyer you are.
So no, you don’t need a lawyer if you know what you’re doing. Some landlords who have multiple properties are a little pro at it and so that they’ve been doing it by themselves for some time, whereas if this is the first time that you’ve tried to evict a tenant, you probably need to go ahead and hire a lawyer and then copy what he does so that the next time you’ll be able to do it ’cause hopefully he’ll make it look easy for you.
So no, you don’t need a lawyer. But if you do need one, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
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
How Do I Protect My Assets From Creditors?
Video Summary
How do I protect my assets from my creditors? Well, the first thing you need to do, particularly if you’re married, is to have the credit in just one spouse’s name, and that way, if there’s any credit problems, they can’t attach the assets that are held jointly as husband and wife. So you need to title your assets as husband and wife, and that includes your bank account. So whenever you go to the bank, the next time you go to the bank, if you’re married, be sure that you talk to your bank representative. Ask them to pull your signature card, and be sure that the card provides that you are – you hold the account as tenancy by the entireties or you have it as husband and wife rather than as joint tenants with right of survivorship.
If the account is held as joint tenants with right of survivorship, that means that both of you have a one-half interest in the account, whereas if you hold it as husband and wife or tenancy by the entireties, you do not have a half-interest in the account or the property; you have an undivided interest in the whole. So it’s important that you have the accounts or your assets held as husband and wife and therefore any creditor who is against only one spouse cannot attach the assets that are held as husband and wife or held up by tenancy by the entireties.
You say, “Well, I don’t have the luxury of being married,” or, “if I’m married I want to keep my assets separate.” Well, some of the investments that you can have to protect them against creditors is if you invest in annuities. Annuities are something that cannot be attached. But the main asset that can be protected from creditors, and it doesn’t matter how much you owe them or how many judgments you have, is your home. Your home is your biggest asset. You can own your home. Creditors cannot take your homestead away from you, and even if you don’t owe any money on it, they still can’t take it. When you pass away, if you leave it to your children or your heirs, well, they still don’t get paid whenever you pass away, and it is passed on to your heirs. So your homestead is your very best investment as far as protection from creditors.
So if you have anymore questions or need to do some estate planning as far as asset protection and estate planning, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
How Do I Protect My Home From Nursing Homes?
Video Summary
How do I protect my home from nursing homes? Well, this is a question I get asked quite often in that nursing homes do not take your home away from you. Now, this is Florida specific, in that your home is considered your homestead and cannot be attached by any of your creditors. But a nursing home is going to require payment for you to stay there, and if you have to be in a nursing home, you do need skilled nursing care. So the question is: how do we pay the nursing home if you don’t have to sell your house? Well, that comes in as far as applying for Medicaid, and you can make application for Medicaid provided that you meet certain asset tests and income tests and your homestead property does not count as far as your assets are concerned.
So if you’re concerned about your skilled nursing care and nursing homes taking your home away from you, you don’t need to worry about that. However, it might be well to do some planning as far as Medicaid planning and qualifying or being qualified to get assistance through Medicaid for your skilled nursing care.
If you’d like to do some Medicaid planning, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Medicaid Planning, Videos