4W // Real Estate & Home Builders Guide // August 2016
Transferring property after parents’ death
usually determined by last will and testament
By Ilyce Glink
and Samuel J. Tamkin
Tribune Content Agency
Q
: Both of my parents have died.
My dad died in 2006 and my
mom passed away a couple of
months ago. Their home is paid off, but
it’s listed in both of their names at the
property tax office. What can I do to
transfer the property in my name?
: Our condolences on your loss.
Without more information, we
can only assume that you believe
that you are entitled to the title to your
parents’ home, but that assumption may
be incorrect. The first question we have
to ask is how they owned the home.
Most married couples own a home
jointly with rights of survivorship. That
means that when one spouse dies, the
other spouse automatically becomes the
owner of the home. Now if your parents
owned the home jointly with rights of
survivorship and in their own names,
your mom would have become the sole
owner of the home when your father
died. Some people own real estate in the
name of living trusts for estate planning
purposes or to avoid probate courts
having to approve the sale of the home
to the person’s heirs.
It gets a bit more complicated to
answer your question at this point. If
your mother had a will at the time of
her death, the home should pass on to
the person designated in her will. If you
are entitled to the home under the will,
then you might have to take the will
to court to have the will probated. The
probate court would first approve the
executor of the will. Once the executor
of the will is approved, the executor
could move to have the court approve
the transfer of the title to you from your
mother.
When there is no will you might have
to do a bit more, particularly if you have
relatives and siblings. Assuming you
have brothers and sisters, they may be
entitled to a share of the home, too. You
might all share and share alike when it
comes to the home.
When a person dies without a will,
the laws of the state in which the person
died and where real estate is located
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may kick in to provide a method for
distributing the property owned by the
decedent.
For example, if you have two
brothers and one sister, each of you
may inherit a one-quarter interest
in the home. You may feel that your
mother wanted you to have the home,
but without a will you would have to
share the home with your siblings. On
the other hand, if you are the only child,
you may be entitled to the home espe-
cially if no other relatives have a claim
to the home and there are no creditors
that have liens against the home.
As we usually say, if you have
specific questions pertaining to your
particular circumstances, you may
want to talk to a real estate attorney or
probate attorney about your case.
(Ilyce Glink is the creator of an
18-part webinar+ebook series called
“The Intentional Investor: How to be
wildly successful in real estate,” as well
as the author of many books on real
estate. She also hosts the “Real Estate
Minute,” on her YouTube channel.
Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based
real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and
Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.
com.)