Video Summary

What happens if an unwanted guest or a trespasser is injured on my property? Am I liable? Well before you’re liable to anyone, whether they’re an invited guest or not, they have to show that you were negligent. And so if you maintain your property, I take it this is in the context of an improved residential piece of property, we have to show you were negligent in not maintaining the property which is usually not a particular problem in this area. Usually the problems with property are concerned is like with stairways as far as tenants or invited guests for that matter, or tenants if you’re negligent in maintaining your property.

If you have vacant property, there is some liability if there’s what they call an attractive nuisance in the property. Such as water, large sand piles, things like that where you attract children that may go there. You cannot set up say barbed wire to keep the motorcycles out or whatever, and put it about chin high so when the motorcycle goes through that they may be hurt in that manner. But otherwise if you just have a vacant piece of property, somebody goes out there, and steps in a hole or whatever, you don’t have liability as far as owning the property just because they’re injured. The injured person must show that you were negligent in maintaining your property, and so you don’t have liability just because someone gets hurt.

I don’t do a lot of personal injury cases, but that’s my understanding of the law.  If you have any questions about it, well give me a call at 847-2288 and I can refer you to another attorney. You may wish to obtain an umbrella policy on your homeowner’s insurance to protect you against any unwanted lawsuits that may come your way, as a result of owning property.  Thank you.

Video Summary

The answer to that is you possibly might have to pay, but there’s any number of reasons why you would not have to pay. A 1099-C indicates that your Lender has forgiven a portion of the debt that you owe and that is considered income. So I get many calls concerning this and people are panicked that they are gonna have to pay a lot of income tax. However, there are, first off, you have to go to the analysis to see if you also have an offsetting loss when you sold the property. So if you purchased the property for a whole lot more than what you sold it for, you have a loss which would offset any gain. There’s also an exclusion in the Internal Revenue Code that says if you have lived in the property two and resided there two out of the past five years, then you can exempt up to $250,000.00 of gain. So there are some other exemptions. There’s also, if this is not your homestead property, if you were insolvent and can show that, you’d have to consult with your CPA, you also do not have to pay any tax on the 1099-C. So the answer is, it’s a reporting form that I would suggest you take to a Certified Public Accountant to address the situation and if you have any questions give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Well, the answer to that is, try and negotiate it and work it all out. However, if all else fails, you’re going to have to call a lawyer and if you call this lawyer he’ll explain to you that you can file an action called a Partition Action. A Partition is just like a partition wall and it says that you can file a lawsuit suing the co-owner and asking the court to appoint a third party, which is called a Special Magistrate. The Special Magistrate’s appointed to then sell the property for all the owners of the property and then deposit the money in the registry of the court and then the parties can then ask that it be divided. If either party has invested more, paid the taxes, or have what they call special equities, they can assert those against the purchase price and whenever the money is divided equally. The cost involving these type of proceedings usually runs in the neighborhood of $2500.00 to $3500.00. However, if they’re highly contested they can be a whole lot more than that.  The time period usually take about nine months and unfortunately it involves usually family members or prior domestic relationship between two parties that  may not have been married, but had resided together and purchased a house jointly. So if you need to get some property sold and you need a Partition Action filed, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Well this usually, involves a family member or even a friend who has worn out their welcome and are staying in your property and you let them take possession of the property. You’re not charging them any rent, and however now want them to leave the premises for whatever reason and there are any number of reasons I get these calls. The action is not an eviction action. It is called a Unlawful Detainer Action, although it is handled the same as an eviction is handled, in that you give the party who refuses to leave the premises a notice advising that they have a certain number of days to vacate and if they don’t vacate, well then you file an action called an Unlawful Detainer stating that they entered the property lawfully, however they refuse to surrender the property after you’ve made demand upon them. So if you have this type of problem and you need to have someone to get rid of an unwanted guest or a family member that’s outlived their welcome, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

Video Summary

Why do I need a notice of commencement? Well, in order to be able to pull a building permit you need to file a notice of commencement with the building permit. And the building department will not issue a building permit without a notice of commencement.  So, that is a good safeguard whenever you’re having someone do some work on your home, is to inquire as to whether or not they’re a licensed contractor, and if they’re going to pull a building permit. And if they are, well then you’re going to have to sign for the notice of commencement. You need to be very wary if they are not going to pull a building permit to make sure that they are a licensed contractor, and you have all sorts of problems if you don’t as far as unlicensed contractors doing work.

The notice of commencement is one of the first steps that the owner is obligated to do – to file under the construction lien statute, which gives anyone that is furnishing material or labor notice as to who the owner is, and where to send their notice to owner. And so, if you would receive a notice that someone is supplying materials, you need to ask your contractor to give you a waiver from that particular person whose supplying materials or labor.  Also, whenever the contractor is finished, and if you haven’t received any notices to owner, the proper document to ask for from your contractor is a contractor’s final affidavit stating that they have been paid in full and that there are no outstanding unpaid suppliers. So, if you are going to be doing work on your home, you need to be sure that you deal with a licensed contractor; that he pulls a building permit; and that as you pay him, you get progress payment affidavits and make sure that there are no unpaid material amounts or suppliers. And before you give him the final check, you need to have him sign a contractor’s final affidavit to protect you against any unpaid contractors, since it’s a crime to sign this affidavit and you can rely upon it by the contractor.

So, if you have any questions about dealing with your contractor, please give me a call at 727-847-2288.  Thank you.