Hurricane Irma and fallen trees.
Video Summary
Hurricane Irma and trees. Well, we’re getting calls about trees that have fallen, either that your tree has fallen on your neighbor’s property, or your neighbor’s tree has fallen on your property, and the question is: who’s responsible for the damage, or the cleanup of the debris of a tree that’s fallen on your property?
Well, the answer is, is that you are responsible for taking care of the cleanup, as far as a tree falling on your property, whether it’s your tree, or your neighbor’s tree, since it is caused by an act of God. Your neighbor is not negligent as a result of hurricane Irma, or possibly hurricane Marie, or any other hurricane or natural disaster coming through, just a small tornado or any other storms that comes through. The damage is caused as a result of an act of nature, or an act of God, and therefore they are not negligent and not responsible for the damage that the tree has caused to your property, and you’re not responsible for any damage that your tree fell on your neighbor’s property.
So, the unfortunate part of it is, is if the tree falls on your property, or even hangs over your property line, looks like it’s about to fall on some of your property, well, you are stuck with having to clean the thing up, particularly with these giant oak trees that can run into thousands of dollars with tree surgeons and hauling out great big oak trees, and having to use certain care so it doesn’t damage any more property. So the cleanup of debris is a particular problem, but your neighbor is not liable for it.
Now, if the tree falls on your house, or damages your property, well then what? Well, you need to call your insurance company, and unfortunately this is gonna be under your policy, most of them have a hurricane deductible of anywhere from three to five … Well, depending on, look at your policy, and that there’s a deductible before they would pick up the damage. So, unless it’s catastrophic your deductible is probably gonna be more than what it’s gonna cost to fix the damage or to remove the tree, depending on the extent of the damage.
There is one exception to the tree falling on your property, your neighbor’s tree; that is if he was negligent, as far ar maintaining the tree. If it was a rotted tree, it’s been sitting there, and you talked to him about it or warned him about it, and said he needs to take care of it, and then if he was negligent and maintained the tree, well then you could possibly have some cause of action against him for these damages.
I have been contacted in the past about a rotted tree on the neighbor’s property and the concern, and I suggested to the person who contacted me that they need to send a letter notifying the neighbor that he would be liable or responsible if that rotted tree fell or caused damaged to your property. So that’s the exception to the not being liable if it’s an act of God; if the neighbor was negligent or you put him on notice that he needed to attend to the matter.
Also, a lot of times, not with hurricanes necessarily but maybe a result of a leaning tree, is that you have the right to trim trees, vertical, if they hang over your property line, where you have the right to trim the tree as of whatever is hanging over your property line. But hopefully you didn’t have too much damage, and unfortunately the cost of removing some of these huge oak trees is very expensive, but you’re probably not going to be able to hold your neighbor responsible, since it was an act of God.
So hopefully you’re safe. And if you have any questions, I don’t purport to be an insurance expert, but that’s just a little quip as far as trees and hurricane Irma, and fortunately we dodged hurricane Marie it looks like. My phone number’s 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
When Is The Best Time to Buy or Sell Your Home?
Video Summary
The best time to buy or sell your home? Well, usually this is driven more by your circumstances, rather than your trying to time the market, as far as that’s concerned. Rather than saying, “When is the best time?” I don’t know, because it depends on your circumstances. If you have time to research it, I suggest that you start looking at property, even before you actually decide, in the areas that you think that you might like, or explore that. So, the more properties you look at, and come up with the values, well, the more informed you’ll be. So whenever you do find a property that you like, then you can then know what the value is. So, property you like, and also know that you’re getting good value for the property. So, the more you work at it, the better it is.
As far as selling your property, it used to be that during the winter months, whenever you had more people here, from up north, that it might be a good time, or better time, to sell the property. I don’t know that that really holds true, or not. I think whether or not, you probably do have more perspective buyers here, during the winter, than you do during the summer. So, as far as the best time’s concerned, well, that probably is when you need a house, I guess, is the best time to buy. Buy one, and selling it is whenever you have to move, or your family’s expanded, or whatever, and you have the need to move. Or, if your spouse just decides that they’d like to downsize, up-size, or just relocate, or for whatever reason, I guess that’s probably the best time to go ahead and start looking for property to purchase, and location is key as to that concern.
Some of the consideration is whether it’s in a flood zone. If you have children, the school district and what schools they’ll be going to, is critical. Of course, with charter schools now, well, that may eliminate that, but you still have the how close are you to the school, for transportation purposes. How close are you to where you work? Unless you’re retired. If you’re retired, well, how close are you to what you need, such as doctors, hospitals, and things such as that, as far as your location’s concerned. Also, whether the property’s in a flood zone, because the cost of flood insurance could drive up the cost of your home.
So, basically, it’s a subjective test. I don’t think there’s any bright line test, as far as the best time to buy or sell your home. So, if you have any questions, well, give me a call. It’s 727-847-2288. Thank you.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos
What If A Person Dies With A Will And Both Executors Are Deceased?
Video Summary
What happens if a person dies with a will and both the executors are deceased? In that instance, the beneficiaries, the majority of the beneficiaries need to agree on who should be the personal representative. If that is not possible, then any one of the beneficiaries or any person that’s qualified to be a personal representative can file a petition to be appointed the personal representative and give notice to all the other interested parties. And if no one objects after they give formal notice which I believe is about 20 days, well then the court would then appoint whoever has petitioned for it.
If there is objection, well the court would then have a hearing to determine who would be appointed as the personal representative. So that’s how you resolve it whenever both the designated personal representatives are deceased. If we have an estate where the personal representatives do not act, whether they’re deceased or just not interested or don’t want to pay the attorney or anyone else, you can petition the court to have a curator appointed until such time as a personal representative is appointed.
The curator’s job is to maintain the estate and status quo by publishing the notice to creditors and administering the estate until a personal representative or may complete the administration of the estate whenever a personal representative has not been petitioned to be appointed.
If you have a problem with probating an estate and you’ve got deceased personal representatives or executors, well give me a call and we’ll be glad to help you out. Call at 727-847-2288.
What Happens When Someone Dies And There Is No Probate Administration?
Video Summary
What happens when someone dies and there is no probate administration? Well the Florida statues provide that if someone passes away that whoever has the will is supposed to deposit with the court. That does not mean that you have to have a probate proceeding.
Many times wills are not probated. The reason why is because the decedent does not own any assets that are in their own individual name. Many times, particularly in the husband and wife scenario the property is held in their joint name so all that’s needed is to record a death certificate in the public records which would show that the surviving spouse is receiving the, is entitled to the particular joint asset.
Or if they’re bank accounts that are joint or payable on death, then the bank simply distributes those or pays those amount to the joint owner of the account.
If there are assets in the decedent’s name, well then nothing happens and the assets will eventually be turned over to the state and then as abandoned property such as bank accounts, old life insurance policies and I’m not sure how many years have to go by before they are turned over to the state and they can always be retrieved by setting up an estate.
The other scenario is is if you have credit cards in the name of the decedent and then the question is, is well what happens as far as paying these bills if there’s not probate administration for the creditors to file their claims? If there’s no probate administration and the decedent owned debts well they just, the creditors have the option of opening an estate, of course they need to try and figure out if there are any assets that could be used to pay their debts. So a creditor can open up an estate if they so choose, if they’re owed any money however if no probate administration open and there are creditors, the creditors do not get paid since there’s no probate and no assets pay them.
Also the creditors’ claims are barred two years after the decedent’s death. Sometime probate administration doesn’t even take place until after the two years and the creditors’ claims are barred.
If you have a question about probate and what to do when someone passes away, well give me a call 727 847-2288.
Can A Parent Change Their POA If Their Agent is Not Cooperating With Their Instructions?
Video Summary
Can a parent change their power of attorney if their agent is not cooperating and following their instructions? Well, the simple answer is first is that yes, they may. They can change or revoke their power of attorney at any time, but let’s go back to what do we mean by agent. Whenever you execute a power of attorney or designating someone to act in your behalf and under the new power of attorney statute, that’s called referred to as your agent. Your agent can act in your behalf. That does not mean that you’re giving up any of your rights and you can still operate or you can still operate, but the agent is the one who can also act in your behalf.
The question that was posed is can you change who your power of attorney and the answer is absolutely, you can revoke it, advise your agent whoever you pointed that you no longer wish for them to act in your behalf. Give them notice. Usually I record the revocation in the public records and that way, you can then designate someone else to be your agent to act for you. Powers of attorney are usually referred to as durable powers of attorney. The reason why they’re durable is because you placed language in the power of attorney itself, the document that says that your appointment survives even if you’re incapacitated, so that parties do not have to determine whether you have your competency whenever the agent is executing documents for you which really may save a guardianship as far as that’s concern if for some reason you would become disabled, either physically or mentally.
Also powers of attorney are used just to simplify matters whenever folks want their child or their agent to be able to act on their behalf for whatever reason, but they are usually durable and can be changed or revoked at any time by the person who is giving the power of attorney to the agent. The new power of attorney statute, you can provide many powers in there even as to changing beneficiaries to comply within a state plan, empowering your agent to do Medicaid planning by setting up a Miller Trust, be able to deal with your 401ks, your IRAs and there’s many, many powers that you can give your agent. All of these powers need to be enumerated and they also need to be initialed by the person granting those.
You can also give your power of attorney to more than one person and designate that either of the parties who you designate can act in your behalf. If you have any questions or need to have a durable power of attorney setup, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos