Affidavit of Heirship and General Warranty Deed

[Evatheoptimist]

Texas

We live in the UK and our father recently died (british but lived in Texas for 15 yrs). He owned a property with his 'wife' (last time I spoke to him he had a girlfriend and his friends didn't know he was married). Before she can sell we've been asked to sign a general warranty deed, otherwise the property 'will be repossessed' (her words). He/they are in debt, his credit cards had been declined (mentioned in his suicide note), they were behind on the mortgage and car loan payments, had no life assurance/mortgage protection, he'd cashed in his 401k and owed over $50k etc (statements made by the wife).

The forms have to be signed by an american so we'll have to go to the US embassy in London which will mean travel and possibly accommodation costs. My sister's a student and has no means to pay (he was supposed to pay maintenance until she graduated but owed over $8k at the time of his death) so she's struggling to finance the final year of her course and doesn't see why she should miss 2 days of lectures to help a woman who didn't have the decency to tell us he was dead (we found out on facebook. She also donated his body to medical science before we tracked her down so she's not someone we feel we can trust.

Our other worry is, if we do sign the deed, do we become responsible for his debts? If the house sells for the asking price there's approx $65k equity less realator/legal fees and there's a lien for the outstanding child support but who's going to pay full price for a property where the previous owner killed himself?

Would you sign or ignore?

 

[justalayman]

Unless you are an owner you do NOT sign a general warranty deed. A general warranty deed is used by an owner to convey their interest to another party. It also means you warranty the title to be "clear". So, to start with, do not sign such a deed. The fact she is asking/telling you you need to sign a deed strongly suggests you have inherited the property and it sounds like she is trying to take advantage of your distance from Texas.

Forms do not have to be signed by an American unless the person needing to sign whatever document happens to be an American.

As it stands I would suggest not signing anything, at least until you learn more about the situation from a party without a financial interest in this.

You need to see the probate file from the courts, as a minimum. From that you would be able to obtain the name of any attorney representing the estate in probate. That is who I would suggest starting your investigation

 

[FlyingRon]

First off, she's lying to you. Second off, signing a general warranty deed in these circumstances is the last thing you would EVER want to do. A general warranty deed says that you are conveying an interest that you own and that you will back that up if that isn't the case. First, it's not clear you have an interest in the property and even if you did you certainly do not want to make any representations as to the validity of that ownership. You're not responsible for his debts, but you are going to be responsible for the fact the property is almost certainly encumbered.

At the most, you want to execute a quit claim deed which says that you relinquish any claims you have to the property to the other party without making any representations as to whether you have any or anything else.

I assume you mean your signatures must be witnessed/notarized by a US entity.

If there are liens on the house then before the liens can be released all those who have them must be paid. If there is any money left over then the owner's get it. Also there's a tax which must be paid on the gain in price between the time the house was purchased and sold, equity is not a factor there (you can sell a house with zero equity and still owe tax). However, a number of things may diminish or eliminate that tax (Though it's not your issue). Of course, if there's not enough value in the house to pay off all these liens, nobody is going to buy it anyhow.

I don't know why you care if she gets foreclosed upon. It sounds like there's nothing in the estate to receive anyhow.

I suggest you call an estate attorney in the county where your father resided and have a frank discussion with him as to what you should do.

 

[Ohiogal]

I need my freaking like button because yeah.. both posts in response. Mom says we should have it by Tuesday or so.

 

[Evatheoptimist]

Thank you all for the heads up - we thought it was suspect but you try to see the best in people when really we shouldn't have expected anything other than her trying it on. The sad thing is the tragic loss of our dad is fast being overtaken with one farcical thing after another.

 

[justalayman]

In this thread you are a different person and you state matter of factory the decedent had remarried.

https://forum.freeadvice.com/probate-personal-representatives-114/where-do-we-start-624606.html#post3410340


If you are the ex-wife, it brings in questions like:

Is the property involved a property you may jointly own with the decedent. (Sometimes divorced couples never seperate real estate).

 

[Evatheoptimist]

My mum did register on this site and I used her log on details (she needs to sign out of things!). She's helped as much as she can but my gran's causing that many arguments about what we should be entitled to that she wants nothing more to do with the process and thinks we should let the house be repossessed and leave his wife to deal with the consequences.

 

[justalayman]

That seems to happen a lot (the shared username). With a former spouse being involved it gives the question of a deed a different perspective.

Some posters tend to toss out inconsistent info. It can mean anything they have been told is meaningless. People here really do strive to be as helpful and accurate as possible.

Anyway, best of luck to ya. Come on back of you have more questions.

 

[LdiJ]

I mentioned this on the other thread, but I will mention it again. I would agree with the other posters that you should never sign off on anything like that, but in this instance it really does sound like his debts are greater than his assets. Since his estate will have to pay off his debts before anyone can inherit anything, I do not see where it benefits the OP to NOT sign off on the house. Why? Because his mother will at least get the 8k that she is owed in child support, since there is a lien on the home for that. If the house is foreclosed upon, the bank is not likely to sell it for enough for there to be any money left over after the mortgage, so its unlikely that his mother will collect the 8k unless his widow/girlfriend is able to sell the house.