In the entire United States of America, there are numerous examples that come up on daily basis revealing that an individual have expired without a Will or Trust and hence this is a common issue in the state of Los Angeles as well. In such scenario the probable inheritors or beneficiaries of the concerned estate find themselves in a confused state in most of the occasions, and try to find the best solution which will fix the percentage of shares of the estate for each inheritor in the best possible manner and also transfer the same at the earliest with nominal hazard and in the most economical way. If an owner of an estate expires without drafting a Will or Probate and not even a Trust is formed, as per LA Probate Law, the legal term denoted to such property is “intestate”. In most of the occasions the managing of an intestate administration is not at all an easy task; the situation becomes moiré complex and critical when the inheritors claim the same portion of the estate. There are numerous instances where a distribution or transfer of an intestate estate was not possible due to the inheritors are not ready to accept the proposed percentage of shares that is allotted to each of them by the process of arbitration and ultimately this sort of disputed matter could not be resolved by any other means without knocking the door of probate court.
This post is meant to provide the knowledge of the basic ways by which a property could be transferred when an individual expired without a Will or Probate and Trust. Such an estate could be transferred by three basic processes such as, by small estate declaration, by contract or through a probate proceeding as per the LA Probate Law. If a probable beneficiary is working on to transfer such an estate, the individual for sure is going to come across the term ‘contract’ for maximum number of times. This term finds most uses because it covers a wide range of non-probate transfers. The most common form under ‘contract’ is joint tenancy. The contract of joint tenancy could be found is almost each and every estate either in minor or major scale. Joint tenancy is a title that depicts the ownership pattern of a particular property where the contract of joint tenancy is made. To make the matter lucid, it could be a personal property like bank account or even real estate which holds more than one number of owners of the concerned property and the name holders are known as joint tenants. Such a property is called a joint property. The contract of joint tenancy is normally drafted by the right of survivorship.
The contract of joint tenancy is widely used and preferred by the most for its simplicity. Such a contract is generally drafted by including the rights of survivorship. Due to this particular right, if a joint tenant expires the property is enjoyed by the remaining joint tenants but an authentic proof of death must be furnished to the concerned authority. Hence, no legal formalities are required are required in transferring of a property which is under joint tenancy. There is no complexity in making of joint tenancy contract, as in the case of a bank account, one need to fill up a simple form and just need to include the name of the person(s) as joint tenants. In the case of a real estate property the matter is a little bit different, as a deed must be drafted. Many individuals who take interest on issues and paper works related to a real estate property could easily prepare their own deed and are the success rate of individual fill up is not at all less. If anyone is confident and not holds necessary knowledge about such work, it is better to take assistance from a probate attorney because it is a legal document and must comply with the rules and regulations of LA Probate Law. It will be wise to not take any risk because for the most minor error in the deed may not get considered by the probate court. If anyone is planning to buy a real estate property could simply get the name of joint tenants included by informing the names to the concerned escrow company.
There are many advantages of joint tenancy but everyone must be aware of its disadvantages before making of this particular contract. These negative factors appear to be minor but due the unpredictable character of life, sometime any of these disadvantages could appear in your life as the worst nightmare. In many occasions parents keep their child as a joint tenant with an intention that the concerned property will pass on to the heirs of the child after his death but unfortunately if the child expires before the parent, the property reverts back to the parent instead of the heirs of the child. The LA Probate Law doesn’t provide any protection against disability in case of joint tenancy contract. For any activity such as buying or selling of such a property, the signature of all joint tenants is required, by chance if someone gets incompetent due to disability, the matter becomes very complex. Joint tenancy character not also provides any protection against creditor after the first death. If the husband dies at first with a huge amount of debt, the creditors are able to collect their entire outstanding. Unlike trust, where after the first death half of the property is protected for the spouse.
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