My father gifted his house to his 4 children. My self being one of them. I have quarter interest in the house. If I were to pass before my dad, would my wife and child get my quarter share automatically or do I have to file some kind of legal paperwork to make sure this happens?On a side note. This is coming up because one of my siblings would sell my father for 2 bucks if they could so my wife is worried that sibling might try to pull a fast one.
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Part Ownership
- Thread starter gazoo
- Start date
My father gifted his house to his 4 children. My self being one of them. I have quarter interest in the house. If I were to pass before my dad, would my wife and child get my quarter share automatically or do I have to file some kind of legal paperwork to make sure this happens?On a side note. This is coming up because one of my siblings would sell my father for 2 bucks if they could so my wife is worried that sibling might try to pull a fast one.
A real estate attorney would have to review the deed to be certain that ownership wouldn't pass to the other siblings should you pass away. The fact that you might predecease your dad wouldn't necessarily be the deciding factor.
However, in general, with siblings there would not normally be rights of survivorship so your share would generally pass to your heirs, even if you predeceased your dad. Again though, you want a local real estate attorney to review the actual documentation and confirm that.
A real estate attorney would have to review the deed to be certain that ownership wouldn't pass to the other siblings should you pass away. The fact that you might predecease your dad wouldn't necessarily be the deciding factor.
However, in general, with siblings there would not normally be rights of survivorship so your share would generally pass to your heirs, even if you predeceased your dad. Again though, you want a local real estate attorney to review the actual documentation and confirm that. (?)
A real estate attorney to confirm what? The above in general part, the would not normally part, the would generally pass . . . part, the even if you part, or all four?
Pardon me for saying so, but it might occur to even a casual observer that you had nothing of any importance to say, but said it anyway.
A real estate attorney to confirm what? The above in general part, the would not normally part, the would generally pass . . . part, the even if you part, or all four?
Pardon me for saying so, but it might occur to even a casual observer that you had nothing of any importance to say, but said it anyway.
And to the casual observer, it might occur that you had nothing of importance to say, but needed to get your "I'm a total jerk" fix in anyway.
My father gifted his house to his 4 children. My self being one of them. I have quarter interest in the house. If I were to pass before my dad, would my wife and child get my quarter share automatically or do I have to file some kind of legal paperwork to make sure this happens?On a side note. This is coming up because one of my siblings would sell my father for 2 bucks if they could so my wife is worried that sibling might try to pull a fast one.
It depends on how the deed is worded. If there is a right to survivorship then if you die, your 3 siblings absorb you share and you heirs get nothing. If there is no right to survivorship, then your wife and kids inherit your 25%.
So read the deed that transferred the house.
And to the casual observer, it might occur that you had nothing of importance to say, but needed to get your "I'm a total jerk" fix in anyway.
Well, the reality is that I didn't mean to post that rather harsh response. It just inadvertently happened during the course of late night editing. (My true purpose was to wait the morning and then ask the grateful indebted OP which of your several inexactitudes he was especially fond of.)
Anyway, since it is there perhaps you'd favor us with an explanation as to how the life cycle of the grantor - as it relates to those of the respective grantees - might be of some consequence concerning the property rights of the grantees.
Your peculiar equivocations could be taken as suggesting that whom-out-lives-whom might somehow undermine those property rights and I'd like to know how it is possible in view of the circumstances given.
Clearly, unless the gift deed expressly transfers title to the individual grantees as "joint tenants with rights of survivorship" an "estate in cotenancy" was created. And, provided that the deed doesn't convey disproportional ownership - each of the four named grantees own as "cotenants" an undivided one quarter of the whole property unit. Not just a divisible one fourth, but the deeded percentage of the entire package.
Moreover, those cotenancy property rights are fully alienable (meaning transferable inter vivos or by will or intestate succession). And they remain unimpaired by the death of the grantor or the independent conduct of a co-owner.
(Incidentally being members of an estate in cotenancy is the worst conceivable means of holding title to real property! The siblings would be well advised to promptly join in having it sold and thus avoiding the many predictable unpleasantness that are certain to surface; including a mob of quarreling nephews and nieces.)
Fini
My father gifted his house to his 4 children. My self being one of them. I have quarter interest in the house. If I were to pass before my dad, would my wife and child get my quarter share automatically or do I have to file some kind of legal paperwork to make sure this happens?On a side note. This is coming up because one of my siblings would sell my father for 2 bucks if they could so my wife is worried that sibling might try to pull a fast one.
I don't know if you are still about or not. This poorly-designed site deals in invisible cyber ink!. Let me suggest that in the future that you submit your legal questions at the link below. There it will remain visible permitting others to review and comment. Here an entry disappears faster than a Scott Adams cheetah leaves a salad bar.
https://forum.freeadvice.com/
My father gifted his house to his 4 children. My self being one of them.
You're one of your father's children?! Unbelievable! ;-)
If I were to pass before my dad, would my wife and child get my quarter share automatically or do I have to file some kind of legal paperwork to make sure this happens?
Ummm...once you die, you cannot file paperwork of any kind. If your father has truly given the property to you and your siblings -- i.e., if he transferred title from himself to the four of you -- then it doesn't matter in the slightest whether you die before or after your father. It does, however, matter whether you and your siblings own the property as joint tenants or tenants in common. Please let us know which is the case.
We are tenants in common
Ok, then your 1/4 interest will pass according to the terms of your will (if you have one) or the law of intestate succession. California's intestate law provides that the surviving spouse gets 100% of your community property (which the interest acquired from your father likely is not) and that your spouse and child (singular) each inherit 50% of your separate property (it's 1/3 for the spouse and 2/3 for the children if you have two or more children). Once you die, that transfer will not happen automatically. Rather, it will be effected by the personal representative of your estate executing and recording a deed (unless you use a revocable transfer on death deed).
Query whether your wife and child will really want a 1/4 interest in property that they will own with your siblings and/or the heirs of your siblings. I would suggest that you consult with a local estate planning attorney.