Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: When 2 people are on title, how is it determined how much each owns?

First you look at what the title says. If you originally bought the house as joint tenants you have to have equal interests. If the title gives no indication, then it would be presumed that each one owns 50%. Before giving any type of loan, a lender would ascertain what the ownership is and probably would not give a loan without your cosigning, as half of a home is worth less than 50% of the homes overall value.

It sounds like you and your mother may have problems between yourselves. You should try to work those issues out now and not wait for some emergency to occur that forced the issues so they have to be dealt with immediately.

Re: When 2 people are on title, how is it determined how much each owns?

50/50 ownership is the rule. Whether Tenants in common or joint tenants makes a difference in general. If she placed you on title intending a present gift, she was required to file a gift tax return. If you were placed on title not intending a present gift but to avoid probate upon her death, the transfer might be successfully challenged. Many a problem is created by people attempting to do their own death and disability planning without enough knowledge.

I recommend you get my a free download of my Special Report, The 7 Most Common Mistakes Made by the Middle Class in Planning For the Inevitability of Death and the Likelihood of Disability, and How to Avoid Them." You can get it at my site, www.IWant2CreateMyLegacy.com. You should probably also get my book, Create Your Legacy & Save the American Middle Class. It contains the information that I developed for lay audiences in hundreds of seminars to thousands of people. It will answer nearly all of your questions about how to protect a family from the financial catastrophe that can often accompany the inevitabilty of death and the likelihood of disability. Both are terribly important. A lot of people don't realize that conservatorship is the fastest growing lawsuit in America and the average conservatorship lasts 3 years today. That is because medicine has gotten better and better at keeping us "alive" ofen under the worst circumstances.

The book contains a copy of the "LEGACY LIVING TRUST PACKAGE". It is, as far as I know, the only complete living trust planning package written in what I call "people ease" rather than legalese. Anyone reading at a 10th grade level should be able complete the package themselves with the information in the book. It is designed to be valid in all 50 states and even contains forms for making amendments when the desire to do so appears.

The book is $29.95. About the cost of a six minute consultation with me personally. One can download the trust package for $79.95. For more info or to buy the book, go to www.IWant2CreateMyLegacy.com.

You may want to log in on my blog on that website or on www.MWRoth.com, and create an RSS Feed on your E-mial system since I will be beginning shortly a 3 month regular post on the topic of asset protection for the middle class.