Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland

Re: Can I put the deed in my name?

You left a lot of information out of your inquiry, so I will respond based upon certain assumptions. First of all, your parents probably owned the property as a married couple, known legally as "tenancy by the entireties". This means that the last one to die acquired title in his or her own name when the first one died. When your second parent died, the ownership of the house would have been passed either in his/her will, or if he/she had no will, under the MD law that governs that situation. This assumes that no one else's name was put on the deed before that death.

If there was a will, the persons named in the will as beneficiaries are entitled to the house. If there was no will, then you and your 2 brothers became equal owners at that time. An estate would have to be opened, someone, like yourself, appointed as personal representative of the estate, and then you would have the authority as estate representative to re-deed the property.

Now comes the hard part. Which is making an agreement with your brothers on who should get what share of the property. Obviously you feel it's "yours" because you've been taking care of it all these years, and I assume you live there. Maybe they are willing to let you have it because of that. But if not, you'll have to try and work out a deal to buy them out. If you can't reach an agreement, you will have to file a court action, known as a suit for partition, in which you will ask the court to order a sale of the property and to make rulings on who should get the proceeds based on your respective contributions to the property. Hopefully you kept good records of this over the years. Perhaps once you do this your brothers will come around and you can work something out to avoid the expense of a court suit.

I strongly suggest you contact an attorney who is knowledgeable about these matters to help you--it's a pretty complicated matter, as you can probably see.

Re: Can I put the deed in my name?

Contact me to resolve this matter. You will need to probate the assets of your parent's estate. The real property should be re-titled. You should acquire an attorney's assistance to ensure matters are properly addressed.