Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
The short version:
Under extreme duress, four years ago I put one of our ten children on the title to our home. My husband was critically ill and my daughter and her husband convinced me that putting my daughter on the deed was a good idea. Fortunately my husband was able to return home, though he remains critically ill and under constant care.
Early last fall, upon realizing what I had done (giving my one daughter a 1/3 rd ownership of our home/land) I attempted to get her to quick claim our property back to us. She has refused and sought legal council to try to do a land grab.
In addition to the above, we have filed elder abuse charges against the two of them, charges which are justified.
A side note - we have already bought these two a home of their own, which we paid for in cash, as well as paid tens of - hundreds of - thousands of dollars for many other aspects of their lives.
As you can imagine, our other nine children are beside themselves and have implored us to seek legal council.
We would love any advice you can offer. We had considered adding the nine other children to the deed, but do we need Meg's (the one on the deed) signature as well?
Our goal is to get her permanently off the deed. (although I'd also love to make her life hell for the awful things she's done to my husband and I).
Thank you for your help.
Celcilia Connell
2 Answers from Attorneys
You do not need Meg's signature to add the other children to title to the property, but that would accomplish very little of what you want to accomplish. You can only deed away up to 2/3 of the property. So even if you retained no interest in the property, the other nine children would only get a 7.4% share while Meg keeps 33.3%. It would probably have adverse tax consequences as well.
Your other problem is that you have waited so long to do anything about this that you may be up against statute of limitations issues.
You need to get in to see an experienced real estate attorney right away, to go over all the details of what happened and how, and come up with a plan for dealing with Meg. If you wait, you will most certainly lose rights due to statutes of limitations.
I do not maintain an office in Marin County, but I have office facilities in San Francisco and Oakland if you would like to meet with me for a free initial consultation. Whether you consult with me or find another attorney, however, I cannot urge you strongly enough to consult with and retain someone right away.
I'm just over the hill from you in West Marin.
If you put someone on title without their having given you fair value or "consideration" as the law says, that raises presumptions of someting fishy, perhaps undue influence or elder abuse.
I agree with Mr. McCormick that time may be your biggest enemy in correcting title here.
Please feel free to send me details directly, or call me - I'm in the Marin white pages. If your potential case to set aside the deed is still viable, maybe we can work out a partial contingency deal.
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