Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia

Re: deed

If the property and your parents' divorce were in Virginia, it is likely that your mother owns half the property, especially if they purchased it together during the marriage.

The divorce would have changed their ownership of the property from automatic right of survivorship (the survivor having the right to all of the property on the death of the first to die) to each party owning their share of the property without any automatic right of survivorship -- a form of ownership called tennants in common; on the death of the first to die, the decedent's estate owns one share of the property and the former spouse owns the other share (these are usually one-half shares).

It is remotely possible that in the divorce your mother or your father was supposed to do something about changing the title to the property and didn't; but this is remote and it may be too late to fix.

The most likely outcome is your mother owns half the property and the other half is in your father's estate.

Re: deed

First, as to your loss, I am sorry to hear about this.

As to the deed, "ouch." That's a problem.

Now, of course, it certainly does not belong to total strangers. So we are only talking about whether it belongs to your mother or to you as the child or children. Did your father remarry? There could be an issue of a second wife. Someone in your father's close family owns it, of course, but who?

Presumptively, yes the person listed on the deed -- depending on how it is worded -- now owns the property.

However, a divorce, especially one 30 years ago, also is assumed to mean a dramatic change in these issues.

So I believe there is a strong possibility that her rights have been changed, but that would not be automatic. It would require going in to court and getting the deed judicially reformed to conform to the legal result.

However... unless your parents did a "do it yourself" divorce 30 years ago (and badly), there is a 95% chance in my opinion that this question was already decided during their divorce.

So to figure out who gets what, you would really have to go back and pull the divorce decree and papers from the Court's file from 30 years ago.... which won't be easy. The final order should be available. But any other papers that were not filed, might no longer exist. If you can figure out who their divorce attorney was, there is a slim chance that the divorce attorney still has the bare essentials (but probably threw out the rest of the file decades ago).

It is probable that whomever has been living in it was given the property during the divorce. That is not a legal rule or legal conclusion, just a practical guess.

I really would encourage you to see a lawyer in your area who does estate litigation. It is often very hard to find a lawyer. Like a car mechanic, most lawyers will say "Sure I can do that," but that is not the same thing as doing that kind of law routinely. What you might do is go to the probate office of the Circuit Court where your father lived at the last and/or the Commissioner of Accounts and ask them who do they see all the time as lawyers in your area. They cannot give you a recommendation and they might be reluctant. But If you simply ask who is in their often, that might help you. You might try looking through the active cases, if you can do that, to see lawyers who do estate litigation.