Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

What to do when land seller dies?

A bit over a year ago the man we bought our land from died. He lived in PA. the land we bought is in AR. We filed bankrupcy in October of 2001. He had a land company here in Ar. but it has since closed up shop. There is no one to make payments to. What do we do? We don't want to lose our land. We have been told that his wife is deceased also. So my question is what do we do, and where to start to correct the situation?

Thank you


Asked on 6/20/02, 5:49 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: What to do when land seller dies?

First, open an escrow account, and pay the monthly installments into the escrow account, and avoid ALL temptations to use that money for anything.

Contact the county probate office to get a lead on the successor in interest to the estate. The court will often appoint someone to oversee the assets of the estate until it can be determined where the money from the estate should go.

If you can not pay off the mortgage, you can never clear up the title or get clear title to resell the property, because no one can give you a release on the lien/mortgage, or a payoff figure.

Good luck.

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Answered on 6/20/02, 6:00 pm


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