Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Florida
Release & Certificate of Distribution and Waiver questions
I am 1/4 owner of a property in South Florida due to inheritance upon my father's death. His third wife is the occupant of the dwelling and 3/4 owner. (Originally she had 1/2 and myself and another sibling each had 1/4, but my sibling has quit-claim deeded her portion to the wife.) I have refused to quit-claim the property, but would like to sell my share to the wife since she is living there.
In an attempt to close my father's estate, the wife's Attorney sent me a form called a ''Personal Representative's Release and Certificate of Distribution of Real property''. in this form the wife is identified as 3/4 owner and I'm listed as 1/4 owner. It also states that we are ''tenants in common''. I do not live in the residence and have spent no more than a few weeks at any given time in the location.
The Attorney is asking me to sign a form called a Waiver of Accounting and Portions of Petition for Discharge (Bar Form No. P-5.0570. I really need to know what the legal and financial implications of signing the document would be and any asistance would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Release & Certificate of Distribution and Waiver questions
This would appear to be a fairly straight-forward probate matter with no arcane twists of Florida law and since no Florida attorney has come forward to address your question, I will as follows:
As long as the release and distribution certificate has correctly identified your interest(meaning your 1/4 share) in the property which you received either under your deceased father's will or by intestate inheritance, then there should be no problem with your signing this particular document which also apparently has correctly identified you as a tenant-in-common with the other co-owner.(This refers to the state of the title and not who lives on the property.)
As to the waiver of accounting form, without being able to review it and the valuations of the items of property referenced therein, I will not offer any opinion on this other than to say that if the Florida attorney appears to be administering the estate in an honest and competent matter, this document is also not likely to present any problems for you.
I remain, however, somewhat puzzled as to why this Florida probate attorney has not already answered these questions for you.
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