Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland
deed vs will
Parents jointly owned 2 properties deeded on 1 deed specified as 2 separate parcels. Dad died, deed
states Mom has life powers to do what she wants (sell). As power of
attorney for Mom I sold her house and invested proceeds in FDIC covered CD's. No problem. Dad promised my younger brother in his
will, ownership of remaining ppt.
Atty said since it was jointly owned
Dad's will is null and void (he left everything to her but had the notation of shore to above.
Deed states that ppty upon both of
their deaths belongs to all 3 children as tenants in common.
In the state of Maryland does the
deed overrule the will. In the meantime, Mom has changed her will to state that whatever is left
gets divided among the 3 children.
Younger brother has stated she was deemed incompetent but
he is not actively involved with her
daily life and she lives with me and
other brother in winter and goes to
day centers on--name removed--daily basis and
participates actively there. Never
any legal ruling that she was/is incompetent.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: deed vs will
Generally speaking, when a married couple own properties the deed says they are "tenants by the entireties", in which case upon the death of one, the other owns the property outright and it never goes into the estate of the deceased spouse. In your parents' property, it sounds like the deed granted a life estate to the surviving spouse and a remainder interest to the children. However, since the life tenant (your mom) had the power to sell, you, as her attorney in fact (assuming she was mentally competent with she executed the power of attorney), had the legal capacity to sell the property. So once again, it never became a part of her estate, although the CD's you bought with the money did.
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