What Happens to Personal Property if There is No Will?

 

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What happens to personal property if there is no will?  I am assuming that the question presupposes or supposes that the person has passed away and has personal property.


And so what usually happens is, whoever gets to the personal property first, if it is untitled, is the one that takes advantage of it and does whatever they want to with it.


What should happen is that an estate proceeding should be established, although rarely it is, and the children or heirs of the decedent agree as to who is going to be the executor or personal representative of the estate.  The personal representative then would inventory and list all the personal property and then sell it.


Now there is an exemption against the claims of creditors for personal property in a probate proceeding so that it goes to the children as far as that is concerned.


So my experience has been that if their only asset that the decedent has is personal property, usually the relatives or the caregiver or whomever is close to the decedent, takes care of disposing of the property and sometimes that creates some problems with the other heirs or relatives whenever they do not share it.  But rarely is an estate opened unless there is titled personal property other than an automobile.

 

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

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Is the Housing Market on the Rise for 2015?

 

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Is the housing market on the rise in 2015?  Well you are simply asking an opinion of a real estate lawyer in New Port Richey, Florida.  From my perspective, yes; the market is picking up.  The number of sales in particular, as far as the price is concerned, we are seeing some price appreciation in that you have supply and demand. 

What is also interesting is the amount of owner financing that I’m seeing involved in the sale of properties or leases with options to sell.  So from my perspective in Pasco County, New Port Richey, Florida is yes, the housing market is improving substantially and hopefully we continue to get a price appreciation.

 

And if you need some assistance in selling your home or closing your home, I write title insurance and also if you need some help with the owner financing I’ll be glad to discuss with you the advantages, at least with an option to purchase, and also whether or not you can take back a note and mortgage and what the downside is to owner financing.


Give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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Are You Still Liable for a Mortgage If You Quit Claim the Property to a Third Party?

 

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Are you still liable for a mortgage if you quit claim the property to a third party?  The answer to the question is yes; you are still liable under the promissory note that the mortgage secures.  The mortgage is a lien against the property, which of course the buyer is taking the property subject to so they can enforce the mortgage or foreclose if the payments are not made. 

You signed a promissory note and so if you are the maker under the note you have liability under the promissory note.  The time that that would be a problem would be if the property was not worth as much as the amount that is owed under the note and then the mortgage holder could if they would sue you for what they call “a deficiency judgment.”  But you are not relieved from the liability under the promissory note if you simply convey away the property by quit claim deed, sale, or any other type of conveyance. 

So if you would like to be released and you want to convey the property away, well give me a call and I’ll tell you what will be necessary to do that.

 

My phone number is (727) 847-2288.

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Is a Seller Required to Disclose a Death in the Home?

 

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Is a seller required to disclose if there has been a death in the home?  This goes back to the case law that is probably 20 or 25 years ago, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled in the case of Johnson vs Davis that said the seller in the sale of residential real property that they must disclose any matters that may materially affect the value of the property and which are not readily apparent. 

That usually involves a roof repair or some physical aspect of the house that is not readily apparent such as, if you have a sinkhole and you patch the sinkhole and did not repair it or other matters that would physically affect the house that you would have to repair at a later date. 

The law has since recognized some other aspects that are more intangible and so I do not believe that simply someone passing away in the home would be something that you would have to disclose because people die at home all the time.  The question if you take it one step further, let’s say there was a homicide or even a suicide, then that creates another issue and I do not know that it is clear cut or I have not seen a case on that where a buyer has sued to say that they wanted to resend the transaction because it was not disclosed to them that there was a homicide committed in the home. 

So my reaction or my opinion, not that there is any court opinion to justify this, is that you do not have to make that disclosure and in fact I have not seen that disclosure that the realtors customarily have a seller fill out for a buyer.  In our area there is, in Tarpon Springs, a super fun toxic waste area that has been taken over and there was some question as to whether or not if you are selling property that is close to that that you would have to disclose that. 

So these are all questions that I guess would be better if you did disclose it so that you do not have to worry about the buyer ever coming back against you because it was not disclosed but I do not know that that is encompassed in the disclosure requirements or whether that really materially affects the value of the property.


So hopefully I have shed some light on the issue.  If you would like to have me assist you in the sale of your home and the disclosures, well give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

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Should a Purchaser of a Home Include a Mold and Radon Inspection in their Contract?

 

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Should a purchaser of a home include a mold and radon inspection in their contract?  The answer is is most contracts in Florida, particularly the ones that are drafted on a Florida far-bar contract provide for radon disclosure and there could be a mold addendum attached to the contract.  And the purchaser routinely has an inspection period.  So if you’re concerned about mold or radon, well then you simply need to employ your home inspector to inspect the air quality of the home during your inspection period, which sometimes are as short as 10 days or 15 days.

 

So you need to think about that before you sign the contract, get in touch with an inspector who does do air quality testing.  And that way if you find that there is problems with the air quality you can then make the decision as to whether or not you want to proceed with the sale, the purchase, or terminate the contract and or see how much it would cost to remediate any kind of air quality problems and reduce it to a financial or a numerical number.  So if it’s you’re buying a $300,000.00 home, it’s going to cost you $400.00 or $500.00 to take care remediating the problem, well that’s not the end of the world and you can probably negotiate that out with the seller of the property.

 

So also as far as radon is concerned, I haven’t seen a lot of radon in the west Florida area in and around the Tampa Bay area but if that is a concern then you could, I suggest you do have a radon test done.  They do have these little kits but I’m not sure how accurate they are and I’m not even, I don’t even know anyone that tests for radon.  I think they come in with Geiger counters and you’re supposed to close the property up for a certain number of days.  But any tests that you have if you’re concerned about air quality or any problems with a home, well you need to make arrangements for the testing before you sign the contract so you can get it done within the inspection period so that you can get out of the contract if you need be or negotiate it.

 

So if you have any questions about purchasing a home and need any guidance, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.

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