Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: step sister want 1/2 of the house equity

In order to answer your question, I will assume the property was in California and that your mother died in California and that your mother never legally adopted your step-sister. The answer depends upon what your mother owned at the time she deeded the house to you. If she owned the entirety of the house, then your step-sister would not be entitled to anything. She would own the entirety of the house if your father and she held title as joint tenants; another way would be if they held title as tenants in common with right of survivorship;additionally, if he left her all his assets in his will. If, on the other hand, he and your mother held title as tenants in common or as community property WITHOUT RIGHT OF SURVIVORSHIP, then your step sister might have a claim, but it would not necessarily be for one-half. YOu need to go to a real estate attorney with all documents for a thorough opinion.

Re: step sister want 1/2 of the house equity

She can sue, of course; filing a suit is only a matter of filling in some papers and taking them to the court house with the filing fee. Then you are stuck with the cost of defending. I'm sure you meant to ask whether she can sue with a possibility of winning.

Whether you can successfully resist an attempt by your stepsister to claim a 1/2 interest depends upon facts not set forth in your question.

The starting point would be to look at your own grant deed, verify that it was duly recorded, that it is truly a grant deed and not a quitclaim, that it was executed before she dies, and so forth.

If the deed from your mother to you seems to be facially valid, your lawyer would next look at the quality of title your mother had at the time she deeded the property to you. Was she clearly the sole owner at the time, or was there some unfinished business respecting your father's estate? Usually the death of one spouse vests full title in the survivor, but there are exceptions. Some of those are whether your father and mother owned the property as community property or not, and whether your father disposed of his interest to someone else by will.

A third area of inquiry should be whether there was any undue influence, fraud, duress, etc. that could be alleged against you with respect to the circumstances of your mom deeding the property to you.

There are a few other possible problems for you, but if you can verify the three matters discussed above without discovering anything unfavorable, I'd say you have a pretty good chance of winning a suit.

By the way, I should mention that transfering property by deed before death is disfavored by accuntants and lawyers because it produces an unfavorable income tax result in 99% of situations.....more gift tax iability and later on more capital gains tax will be due when the property is sold. Real estate should usually be passed from generation to generation by will or trust, not gift.