Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
wondering what is to become of my parents property
is there anywhere that i can find out if my parents had a will or anything stating what or how their estate was to be divided in the event of their deaths? my father passed 1/2006 and my mother 11/2007 as of yet there is no record of any court proceedings started regarding their estate. ive called the probate court office of the superior court in the city i live in. they told me nothing has been filed. im very mixed up because my siblings have told me they were handling everything. when i ask anything of them im always told ''dont worry its being taken care of'' my main concern here is that my siblings are not trying to cheat me out of any inheiritance and that they do not treat my parents estate disrespectfully. ive asked my siblings repeatedly what is going on but, still get no answers. my siblings have even went as far as telling me ''go ahead and move and we will contact you if we need anything from you. there are 5 surviving children and if the estate is to be divided equally wouldnt there be documents that need to be signed by each child? i have no clue as to what happened to the deed on the property. to my knowledge there are not even life insurance documents. please help
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: wondering what is to become of my parents property
You have to check where they lived. If no one has filed a probate you can and should do so. It will give you the power to collect their assets and settle their estate. Hire a lawyer to assist.
Re: wondering what is to become of my parents property
If nothing has yet been listed, then your parents estate has not been probated. There are ways around probate if the estate was fairly small, but that would still be on record. You should consider handling the estate yourself, or hiring an attorney to do so.
JDH
Re: wondering what is to become of my parents property
Unfortunately, I probably wouldn't trust your siblings at this point - there's been plenty of time to get the estate settled (unless it was very large or very complex).
You might be able to check whether your parents had a living trust by obtaining a copy of the deed to their house. You can go to the county recorder's office in the county where they lived and look up the information. Some counties also have this information available online. You can also sometimes tell by looking at the County Assessor's website (if there's a trust, sometimes the assessor's information indicates that). A "friendly" real estate agent can also get this information for you.
At the very least, you should be able to find out whether the house has been sold or if your siblings have put their own names on the deed (should not be possible without a probate, but stranger things have happened).
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