Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: real property / quit claim

Just about anything you might do along these lines now would fall under the heading of a fraudulent transfer. I recommend that you hunt down the California Uniform Fraudulent Transfers Act, Civil Code sections 3439 to 3439.12. (It should be widely available on line, and I should memorize a link to provide with LawGuru answers.)

Hopefully, your corporation acquired the property well before these judgments arose or before the obligations they are based upon came into being, or the corporation paid fair market value, or acquired the property from someone other than you, or its acquisition of the property could itself be deemed a fraudulent transfer.

If you are a majority or 100% holder of the corporation's stock, you have to be concerned that the creditors will try to levy on the stock you own, since it seems to be a valuable asset and might not be exempt from levy.

In the final analysis, it is probably a good idea to place your corporate stock in a (revocable) living trust and make sure the trust is set up so the successor trustee must distribute the stock to your children upon your death. This will not be a fraudulent transfer, and there are definite tax advantages for all concerned.

I know it is tempting to give away assets that look imperiled, but if the creditors found out about it (and with real property it's easy), the resulting fraudulent transfer lawsuit would tarnish everyone's reputation and nothing would be gained - the court would void the transfer and hand the property over to the creditors.

The judgments against you affect your corporate stock holdings, because the stock is your asset, but not the corporation's assets (at least absent a successful "alter ego" challenge).

I could perhaps give you a little further advice if you contact me directly with information about the age and amount of the judgments, collection efforts made to date, value of the property, percentage of the corporation you own, etc. Questions of asset-protection strategy are often very fact-sensitive. For obvious reasons, I cannot and do not give advice on how to break the law, but anything you tell me will be kept in strict confidence.

Re: real property / quit claim

The best way to transfer the property is via a trust. Contact me directly.

Re: real property / quit claim

Why don't you pay off the judgment liens? I guess you don't think the law applies to you, and now you seek an attorney continue your fraudulent transfers to the detriment of your judgment creditors. Any attorney who advises you to do this is violating the law himself, and is advising the violation of the law.

Very truly yours,