Two days beore dad passed, while he was in hospice on morphene, sibling had him sign a quitclaims deed. What steps should we take?
Mother also signed who has advanced dementia. Our other sibling and I are shocked as the will states the house and all assets split in three. My other sibling is also the executor on the will. We are both hurt, shocked, etc. What steps to take?
Go to family court right away to obtain legal guardianship for your mom since her Dementia is increased rapidly. Also ask to change both POA & Executor cause your siblings are effectively Stealing, not appropriately Managing any of her accounts, estate, home & retirement accounts.
Then SUE their selfish, self-serving, THIEVES Asses, & be sure to get an attorney that can demand all files & bank + retirement accounts mishandling, which you can only get reassigned by a family Court Judge!
You need a probate attorney who does litigation. And you need to find one quickly.
reason being is that your sibling who did the quit claim deed, in my not an attorney opinion but have been an Executor 3 time and have bought land via tax sales (they tend to be messy for titles), did it via a Quit claim deed was done so that he could file it at the courthouse and do it WITHOUT having to deal with the probate process. Like literally get the folks to sign and then hot foot it over to the courthouse and for just a small fee pay the court to file the QCD and get it recorded. Once it’s recorded it tends to be allowed to stand legally.
and this is why you need to have your own attorney get on all this now as they are going to challenge all the actions of this sibling. & ASAP. But you have to, have to go thru with hiring an attorney that does this type of work. Most probate attorneys do not do litigation. So you have to ask. That you have the will is helpful and that you deathbed timeline is also good and that dad was on medicaitons that cloud judgment etc also is ‘ important. But again time is of the essence. Cause if they go and sell the property or they do a straw man purchase of it into a LLC, it gets real convoluted. Good luck!
also I hope your mom does not live with this sibling…. If she does, it will be super hard to get her to ever agree to ever say she was coerced to sign off on the Quit Claim.
I’ve been asked to clarify post….. ok so the POS sibling, let’s call him Lester, had a Quit Claim Deed (QCD) document done and got his mom & dad to put their signature on it. With their names printed below and the date. Maybe Lester had them do it in front of others as witnesses and a notary or maybe not - Lester is cheap so I’m guessing not. So Lester now takes that QCD and goes to the courthouse and files (records) it and for like $10. Lester gets back a date & time stamp of the recording. The actual document will get sent to Lester maybe a week or even couple of months later. It doesn’t matter to Lester. & if it takes the courthouse a good period of time to update in their website, that is good for Lester as it keeps family from finding out what he has done. Fwiw most courthouses tend to be slackers on promptly updating real estate title changes.
This is important to Mr. POS Lester because by doing this, the house as an asset is now 100% removed as an asset of the estate of the now deceased Dad. It was transferred to Lester via the QCD before anyone died. And as Lester is also the Dads Executor, he knows this and can literally with a straight face tell his siblings - like the OP - that all assets of the parents will be included in the dads probate and done as per the terms of the will. Dads Will more than likely is done either to be a “pour over” where all assets pour over to the spouse so all goes to mom OR distributed as per terms of the Will and that could mean Lester can wait 4-8 months to see what bills come in to even start looking at assets vs. expenses and dealing with those BEFORE any distribution even considered. The Executor can do all this and easily. Usually the Executor does this to be able to safeguard assets owned by the Estate (I’ve been one 3 times). But for Lester, he does it to keep all his siblings from finding out what he did with assets before Dad died as lessens their opportunity to clawback what he did via that QCD. As too much time has passed…..
If Lester sells the property, the OP & his siblings are toast, TOAST, on getting any $ back imho. That is what I’d be on the watch for… that he has someone to quickly sell it to like manana. QCD property pose issues as QCD title is not guaranteed like a Warranty Deed is for getting lending (like from a bank) so often they are sold & even resold quickly. If Lester sells it and then it gets sold again, everyone in this real estate drama will say it had little value & they did improvements; and it’s really had to disprove.
This is why the OP needs to get a probate atty who does litigation and ASAP. Filings on this are all going to revolve around litigation work with discovery. Will not be cheap representation to start with. Guesstimate 20K as the litigation guys are specialists. Regular probate 3-5K. A gulf of difference.
I would phone the hospice and report there has been a "safe guarding issue" and tell them what has happened they might get the police involved or possibly tell you what actions you may need to take.
A person with Dementia and especially on Morphine cannot sign a contract. And if sibling who did this is the Executor, I don't think they can do this. You need a lawyer. You need to contest this before it goes further. Probate OKs an Executor even if in the Will. I would think this person could be removed because of trying to enrich themselves.
You will now need, of course, to consult an attorney.
IF parents living with this sister, to whom the house is deeded over, then you well may not win in any court action. The court may judge that this was the intention of a parent nearing death who was cared for by one of the siblings.
Take all your information to an attorney, Trust and Estate, and find out what options you have for a case given proof of incompetence of parent of suspected abuse of sibling.
We here don't know details and can only guess at them.
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Just because that sibling is your Father's executor doesn't give him the legal ability to sign that type of document when he doesn't have capacity.
Yes to an attorney asap. See Igloo's response to you.
Make sure to get the medical records for your Father that cover the time when this paperwork was signed.
Then SUE their selfish, self-serving, THIEVES Asses, & be sure to get an attorney that can demand all files & bank + retirement accounts mishandling, which you can only get reassigned by a family Court Judge!
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reason being is that your sibling who did the quit claim deed, in my not an attorney opinion but have been an Executor 3 time and have bought land via tax sales (they tend to be messy for titles), did it via a Quit claim deed was done so that he could file it at the courthouse and do it WITHOUT having to deal with the probate process. Like literally get the folks to sign and then hot foot it over to the courthouse and for just a small fee pay the court to file the QCD and get it recorded. Once it’s recorded it tends to be allowed to stand legally.
and this is why you need to have your own attorney get on all this now as they are going to challenge all the actions of this sibling. & ASAP. But you have to, have to go thru with hiring an attorney that does this type of work. Most probate attorneys do not do litigation. So you have to ask. That you have the will is helpful and that you deathbed timeline is also good and that dad was on medicaitons that cloud judgment etc also is ‘ important. But again time is of the essence. Cause if they go and sell the property or they do a straw man purchase of it into a LLC, it gets real convoluted. Good luck!
also I hope your mom does not live with this sibling…. If she does, it will be super hard to get her to ever agree to ever say she was coerced to sign off on the Quit Claim.
This is important to Mr. POS Lester because by doing this, the house as an asset is now 100% removed as an asset of the estate of the now deceased Dad. It was transferred to Lester via the QCD before anyone died. And as Lester is also the Dads Executor, he knows this and can literally with a straight face tell his siblings - like the OP - that all assets of the parents will be included in the dads probate and done as per the terms of the will. Dads Will more than likely is done either to be a “pour over” where all assets pour over to the spouse so all goes to mom OR distributed as per terms of the Will and that could mean Lester can wait 4-8 months to see what bills come in to even start looking at assets vs. expenses and dealing with those BEFORE any distribution even considered. The Executor can do all this and easily. Usually the Executor does this to be able to safeguard assets owned by the Estate (I’ve been one 3 times). But for Lester, he does it to keep all his siblings from finding out what he did with assets before Dad died as lessens their opportunity to clawback what he did via that QCD. As too much time has passed…..
If Lester sells the property, the OP & his siblings are toast, TOAST, on getting any $ back imho. That is what I’d be on the watch for… that he has someone to quickly sell it to like manana. QCD property pose issues as QCD title is not guaranteed like a Warranty Deed is for getting lending (like from a bank) so often they are sold & even resold quickly. If Lester sells it and then it gets sold again, everyone in this real estate drama will say it had little value & they did improvements; and it’s really had to disprove.
This is why the OP needs to get a probate atty who does litigation and ASAP. Filings on this are all going to revolve around litigation work with discovery. Will not be cheap representation to start with. Guesstimate 20K as the litigation guys are specialists. Regular probate 3-5K. A gulf of difference.
IF parents living with this sister, to whom the house is deeded over, then you well may not win in any court action. The court may judge that this was the intention of a parent nearing death who was cared for by one of the siblings.
Take all your information to an attorney, Trust and Estate, and find out what options you have for a case given proof of incompetence of parent of suspected abuse of sibling.
We here don't know details and can only guess at them.
Amazing how a possible inheritance is able to ruin so many family relationships.