how should a house be titled after parents die? There are 4 siblings and it is fully paid for.?

Question

my mother died last year. now that the estate is closing out, how should the hose be titled so that each childs equal share is protected?

Answer 1

You can have it 'Tenancy in common' or 'Joint tenancy'

With Tenancy in common you each hold a share of the house, if one dies, the value of their share is part of their estate.

With Joint tenancy everyone is an equal owner, if one dies, their 'portion' of the property trasfers to the others and it is not part of their estate.

Or you can sell the house and split what you make on it.

For more information try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_tenancy

You may also want to talk to a local attourney as laws vary from state to state (or province to province), country to country.

Answer 2

If there were an intestacy or if the house was bequeathed to all four children, they would own as tenants in common. With this form of ownership, each of the four shares could be inherited by the offspring of each sibling.

This creates a problem further down the road in clearing up the title. Assume that each of the four siblings has four children. After the death of the original 4 siblings, there would be 16 owners, and so on until there are many more multiple owners of undivided fractional interests.

Problems include: (1) there will be a need to pay taxes, and the tax collector is only going to send one bill -- it is up to the joint owners to pony up the money for taxes; (2) payment of utilities and maintenance charges.

In the future, if the owners of the property decide to sell the house, all of the owners of the fractional interests must sign the deed. The problem becomes more complicated if some of those owners are minor children [requiring a court-appointed guardian to sign for them].

Yes, you can own as tenants in common with each person having an undivided interest in the house, but please consider both the advantages and the disadvantages. It is often best if one or more people buy out the fractional interests of their siblings.

RECOMMENDATION: Talk to a lawyer to address both the positives and the negatives of this form of ownership.

Answer 3

If the Will leaves it to all four siblings equally, then they should each be on the title. This is asking for trouble.

If the children are smart, they'll hire a lawyer to form a corporation (probably an LLC is best) to own the property in the name of the LLC, with the four siblings as Members of the LLC. These four then elect one to act as manager until another is elected.

There's no end of the trouble that having four owners on title can cause. What if one won't pay their share of the taxes? What about maintenance? What if one wants to sell and the others don't (answer: that one goes to court and everyone sells). What if one gets sued and their interest gets taken by an outsider?

Put it in an LLC, and spend some money on a good, solid, Operating Agreement.

There's really no other way to protect one against three, or protect three against one.

Answer 4

Tradition dictates it should be titled to the eldest son or daughter. If it is mentioned in the will, legally the executor of the estate has an obligation to see to it that the wishes are fulfilled to the best of his/her ability. If not, It becomes the responsibility of the concerned parties to work it out. If not, the issue can go before the American Association of Arbiters, whose decision would be binding on all parties. This is all assuming, however, that there are no outstanding debts by the deceased that are owed, for which the house may have to be used to pay for them. If thats not the case, then the above would, I believe, apply.

Answer 5

The deed would have all four names on it as co-tenants and you each own an undivided one quarter interest in the property.