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Changing name on title

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rayngear

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? CA

I am wondering whether I received the correct advice. I own a home with a title that has myself as well as my father's name on it. My father's name was there because he was co-signer on the loan. We had planned to fill out a grant deed, but was unable to complete it.

Recently my father passed away. My father had a living trust written, but it was prior to the purchase of this house. I am now trying to change the name on the title. I was advised to turn in a change of ownership form along with a copy of the death certificate and that would be sufficient. I am just wondering if this is correct, or if there are other steps that I need to take in order to get this process done. Thanks for the help.
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
Unless he titled the house to the trust, the trust is meaningless.

How to change the title depends on how the property was owned. If you were joint owners, you have the right of survivorship and it should be straightforward to have his name transferred over with the death certificate.

If your names are just listed without qualification, then you're tenants in common. He owned 50%, and that half is distributed via probate based on his will or the rules of intestate succession if he has none.

Frankly, it's probably easier if you just take all your paperwork to a lawyer.
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
Unless he titled the house to the trust, the trust is meaningless.

How to change the title depends on how the property was owned. If you were joint owners, you have the right of survivorship and it should be straightforward to have his name transferred over with the death certificate.

If your names are just listed without qualification, then you're tenants in common. He owned 50%, and that half is distributed via probate based on his will or the rules of intestate succession if he has none.

Frankly, it's probably easier if you just take all your paperwork to a lawyer.
I agree, but I was wondering what poster meant by:

"I own a home with a title that has myself as well as my father's name on it...We had planned to fill out a grant deed, but was unable to complete it.
 

rayngear

Junior Member
Clarification

Thanks for the reply.

My father and I were joint owners, my father was on the title because he helped co-sign my loan. I am not too sure whether there are qualifications of the title, but I will look to see how the names are listed.

Upon purchase, the title company suggested we perform a grant deed to take my father's name off the title, since he did not want any vested interest in the property. However, we were never able to coordinate this since my father fell ill shortly afterwards.

Hope that this clarifies things. Thanks again for the help.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
Well, it's key to look at the existing deed. Again, unless it mentions the words "joint tenants" or "rights of survivorship" you did not automatically get the property ownership when your father died. Unexecuted deeds mean nothing. If the trust isn't mentioned on the deed, it means nothing. Did your father have a will? Is there a surviving spouse or other "issue" (children or grandchildren)?
 

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