Video Summary

What is a partition action? That’s the name of a lawsuit where you want to force the sale of property that you have an interest in.  So if you only have a very small interest, say usually it’s a half interest or a quarter interest, and it’s usually a family matter where the family has inherited a piece of property from mom or dad and we have two or three sisters and they can’t seem to agree on what to do with the property. So one of them decides, “Well, I want to force sister out of the house since she’s living there and she’s not taking care of it and I just want my money.”

They then contact an attorney and say, “What can I do about that?” And I say, “Well, you can file a partition action.” And a partition action says that you have an interest in the property.  You have to name all the other people who have an interest in the property and say that you want the property sold.  And then there’s two ways to do it, you can either have it sold just like a foreclosure sale by the clerk’s office with an auction, although usually that doesn’t bring a very good price, or you can ask to have it be sold at what they call a private sale and that’s where you usually have a realtor sell the property.

So with a partition action, you ask that it be a private sale and then have a special magistrate appointed, which is usually a local attorney who then takes care of listing the property, and then once he has a contract, petitions the court for the courts approval of the contract and then he can sell the property and doesn’t need the signatures of all of the participants in that he is directed to sell the property. And so he sells the property and then divides up the money to everyone’s particular interest. 

In addition to being able to get your percentage share of that money, you can assert that you have what they call a special equity. Let’s say that you’ve been paying all the taxes on the property for the past several years and the other owners of the property haven’t contributed.  So you can assert that you have a special equity in the proceeds.  Also, a little tougher situation is when one of the owners is living on the property, the other owners can assert that they want a reasonable rental value for their share of the proceeds.

So it’s a little bit complicated as far as sorting out who gets the money.  But the partition action allows one of the property owners to force the sale of the property.  And I find that it’s a very effective tool in getting the people to negotiate some sort of buyout or getting the property sold.  So if you need to get some property sold and you can’t get along with the brothers and sisters or the co-owners, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288 and we’ll file a partition action. 

Thank you.

Video Summary

What are the implications of a mechanic’s lien on my home?  Well, they can be pretty severe because the way you enforce a mechanic’s lien, they are now called construction liens in that they’ve changed the name of these liens several years ago, but they are foreclosed upon. And so the implication is pretty severe. However, the construction lien foreclosure process is somewhat complicated and there are certain deadlines that have to be met in order to enforce a construction lien or have severe ramifications. 

Something that I run across routinely is, if someone files a lien against your property and they think well, now that’s going to get me paid.  Well, a construction lien or a mechanic’s lien must be foreclosed upon within one year of the date that is filed, and it cannot be renewed.  So many times, I advise people rather than you spending a lot of money when you don’t believe the lien is justified, just wait, if you are not going to mortgage your property or sell it, and that way, the person usually does not file a construction lien unless it’s a build or there’s a substantial amount of money involved.

So construction liens must be foreclosed in order to be enforced, and if they’re not foreclosed upon within a one-year period, they are no longer a lien against the property.  The people who are entitled to lien your property are people who have done improvements or material men such as the general contractor, his subcontractors or suppliers who have supplied the materials that are incorporated in your home. If you have a problem with a construction lien or a mechanic’s lien, give me a call at 727-847-2288. 

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.