Video Summary

What are some of the most common types of deeds?  Well, the deed that I get questioned about the most is what some people call a quick deed when they are really referencing a quit-claim deed.  A quit-claim deed is simply a deed that says I transfer to you whatever interest I have on a particular property and that is used whenever there’s uncertainty as to what your ownership may be.

The other most common deed that is used in real estate transactions whenever you’re selling something is a warranty deed, and that’s a statutory warranty deed.  As it indicates, there are warranties in that you warrant of something – that you have good title to the property, you have a right to transfer possession, all these warranties go with it.  There are seven of them which come through the common law and are adopted in our Florida statutes. I can’t give them all to you, but everybody now pretty much relies upon the title insurance in conjunction with the transfers under a warranty deed since you can sue the seller under the warranties.  But if you have title insurance, well, you’ve got a solvent company and you don’t have to go looking for the seller or worry about whether the seller still has any money for you to sue them. So that’s the second or probably the most common deed that is used as far as selling real estate.

Also, what we’re seeing more and more of life estate deeds, and that’s sort of hard to explain, but it’s a deed whereby a person conveys to someone the property, however reserves a life estate.  Well, how do you measure a life estate?  Well, the person who does the conveying says, “Well, look, I’m gonna keep the property during my lifetime, and so you really don’t have any interest in this property until I die.” And so that is a life estate deed.

You may have heard the word Ladybird deed.  That is a name that was affixed to what they call an enhanced life estate deed, and that was put on a publication and the person named the deeds after famous people, and that was named after Ladybird Johnson.  Well, what is a Ladybird deed?  Well, a Ladybird deed says that I convey to you this property after I pass away. However, I reserve the right to sell the property during my lifetime, mortgage it, or transfer it, change my mind, and I don’t have to give you any of the money if I sell the property.  So it’s really considered an enhanced life estate deed because you’re just not retaining a life estate.  You’re also reserving certain power.  So those are probably the three most common deeds that I deal with on a day-to-day basis.

There are any number of other types of deeds that are used: special warranty deeds, trustees’ deeds, guardianship deeds, the simple deeds.

So the big thing is is if it’s a deed, it has words of conveyancing, which says that I hereby transaction, I hereby convey, I hereby quit-claim. These are all words of conveyancing, and so when they’re contained in the deed, that means they are transferring the title and the property. So if you have any questions about deeds, well, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

Do you need a lawyer to sell your house?  Well, that’s sort of a loaded question whenever you ask a lawyer whether you need a lawyer.  The big thing with selling a house is that if you’re doing it on your own, well, you probably really do need to come see a lawyer to get things started because it starts with a contract.  The contract is a roadmap to the sale of your property, and the lawyer can prepare that for you and if you’re doing it on your own can explain it to you and the terms of it.

Now, if you have a realtor, realtors are authorized to complete simple contracts.  There are several forms out there, some of which have been approved by the Florida Bar and the Florida Realtors Association.  And so those are usually completed.  So why would you need a lawyer?  Well, number one is you probably don’t really know anything other than what’s in the blanks, like the purchase price, the closing date.  So show-me-the-money type situation.

Well, there’s a lot more in those contracts and so you’d probably want – you may want to confer with an attorney about the what-ifs.  What if they don’t close?  Well, what if, you know, they don’t get their mortgage?  How much of the deposit will I get if they don’t close?  Do I have to move out before closing?

So that is why you may want to confer with an attorney, to have him review the contract to discuss with you what you want to do after the closing, whether or not you should make arrangements to move out and acquire another place to live, whether it’s vacant property, and what your rights are under this particular contract.  So whether you need a lawyer or not depends on your circumstances and how comfortable you are with it.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of folks that come to see me after they sign the contract and after they have a huge problem, and then we start reading the provisions of the contract as to what, if any, rights they may have.

So if you have a real estate contract and you’d like for me to review it, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.  If you’re selling your own house, we’ll handle the transaction from contract to closing.  I’m a title agent and can write the title insurance for you.

And so give us a call at (727) 847-2288.

Video Summary

Hi.  What does eminent domain mean?  Eminent domain is usually in conjunction with a government entity such as the Florida Department of Transportation or a county building a road, although it can be used by utilities to obtain easements.  The government must compensate private property owners if they take their property and the process is called eminent domain and is a lawsuit that is filed to take someone’s property for public use.

The process usually starts by the governmental entity or utility contacting a property owner and asking them to donate the property.  And usually the answer, it may be yes or no depending on if they need to road to go by their property or through their property.  They don’t have to give the property to the governmental agency and the governmental agency or utility will then get an appraisal and tell them that they will pay them this certain amount of money.

The property owner does not have to take the amount that’s offered.  If they don’t, they can negotiate with the county but usually the county will proceed with what they call a quick take program or lawsuit, which is an eminent domain proceeding whereby they deposit the money that they’ve offered to the property owner in the registry at the court and the court will then let the county take the property.

Then if you hire a lawyer and you negotiate further with the county then the price can go up once the property owner gets his own appraisals.  If they can’t ever agree on or settle on an amount for the property, it then goes to a trial by jury and in Florida there’s only two times that you get twelve people in a jury box: one is a first-degree murder case and the other is an eminent domain proceeding.  And then the jury of your peers are the ones that would determine how much money you would receive for your property in an eminent domain proceeding.  One other nice thing about Florida’s eminent domain proceeding is the government entity is responsible for paying your attorney fees, which is a percentage of the increase between the amount that you receive and the amount that’s offered by the government or utility that’s taking your property.

So if you have any questions about eminent domain or if you get a letter in the mail that they’re gonna be taking your property, give me a call at 727-847-2288.

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.

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.