Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

Contact the DMV in SC and in GA and ask. Questions about probate need to be addressed to a SC lawyer.

Attorney Riddle is partly correct. You need to direct your question to a SC probate attorney who practices in the county where the estate for the uncle is pending. Your father just cannot give you the motorcycle. Since your uncle had no will, the motorcycle will pass to whomever is an heir under the intestacy laws of SC which would be your uncle's wife, if any, and his biological or adopted children, if any. If none, then your uncle's assets will pass to your father and any other siblings (aunts and uncles to you). If your father is an heir, then he can renounce any right to inherit (assuming he wants to) and then the motorcycle would pass to you under the anti-lapse statutes. Or, if you want the motorcycle and your father does not want to go through this, then he as personal representative of the estate can sell you the motorcycle and can sign the title over to you and you can take the title and register it in GA.

Otherwise, your father would inherit the motorcycle. What happens is that he would title the bike from the estate over to himself. If your father then wants to transfer it to you, he then signs the title over from his name into your name. But he will be deemed to have made a gift to you. However, a person can only make gifts of up to about $13,500 and if the bike is worth more than that then your father may have to pay gift tax on it.

What I would recommend is that your father talk to an SC probate attorney because he is out of state and will need assistance from an SC attorney in probating the estate. Also, it appears that your father does not fully comprehend his duties because if he did, then you would not be posting this question.

Please have your father seek help from an SC probate attorney before he makes more costly mistakes.

I hope your father already has a lawyer in SC. The fact that you are asking here (and since you directed the question to Ga. lawyers no one who reads this will know the answer) suggests he is already making a big mistake - proceeding pro se. Have him talk to a SC lawyer. There may be ways to get the bike to you, assuming creditors have been paid (but they may possibly involve a gift tax return). His attorney should be able to help. Make sure he gets one.