No will No administrator; who owns title?

[jmorales15]

What is the name of your state?TX

November 05 will be 3 years since my aunt died. No will and her husband and two sons survived. Due to ignorance, no one filed to be administrator. They had no money so my mom has continued to make the trailer payments since she has died. The death certificate was sent to creditors and there is no real activity surrounding her estate since their are no assets. Now her husband and kids have gone their separate ways and the trailer remains vacant. The husband and kids think my mom should have it since she is willing to pay it off to use it as a rental property. My mom thinks that the mortgage company has to send the title to the "estate of my late aunt" when its paid off and then she can have the title changed into her name with consent of the husband and children without ever having to go through the process of filing to be administrator. It sounds too easy to me. There has to be more too it than that. Any help would be appreciated.

[Rhubarb297]

What is the name of your state?TX

November 05 will be 3 years since my aunt died. No will and her husband and two sons survived. Due to ignorance, no one filed to be administrator. They had no money so my mom has continued to make the trailer payments since she has died. The death certificate was sent to creditors and there is no real activity surrounding her estate since their are no assets. Now her husband and kids have gone their separate ways and the trailer remains vacant. The husband and kids think my mom should have it since she is willing to pay it off to use it as a rental property. My mom thinks that the mortgage company has to send the title to the "estate of my late aunt" when its paid off and then she can have the title changed into her name with consent of the husband and children without ever having to go through the process of filing to be administrator. It sounds too easy to me. There has to be more too it than that. Any help would be appreciated.

You need to check on who is on the title to the trailer. If, as is very likely, both the aunt and her husband were in title and she dies, it's his trailer and the property wouldn't pass through an estate. They mortgage company is going to send the title to him. The fact your mother made payments on the mortgage doesn't change the ownership situation. (It might however give her a claim against him for reimbursement.)

Now if only the aunt was on the title to the trailer it would pass through your state laws of intestate succession. (The statutes governing how a decedent's property is disposed of when there is no will.) Most likely your mother would have no right to inherit the trailer in that situation either. If the aunt's assets, including the trailer (assuming no one else was on the title) is above a certain level determined by your state law, an estate would have to be opened up to properly transfer title to the trailer.

Your mother needs to stop voluntarily making mortgage payments on the trailer. She may never get that money back. Her best bet is to go to the aunt's husband and explain the situation and try to work something else. He may well not want the hassle of the trailer anyway and would sign it over.

If this trailer is worth some real money, the aunt's husband is uncooperative, and your mother might be out a lot of cash for unremimbursed mortgage payments, it might be a good idea to talk to an attorney.

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

You need to check on who is on the title to the trailer. If, as is very likely, both the aunt and her husband were in title and she dies, it's his trailer and the property wouldn't pass through an estate. They mortgage company is going to send the title to him.

My response:

It's too bad that that is an ignorant response.

You see, Rhuboob297 sometimes gets ahead of himself, and stumbles over his big feet. He has no idea, like I have no idea, whether the title is stated as "and" between the names, or "or" between the two names. If the former (which it usually is) then both signatures would be required. In the latter instance, only aunt's husband's signature would be required - - and that's assuming the title is written with "right of survivorship".

Check the title to see how the names are listed. If there's an "and" between the two names, then in order to get "dead aunt's name" off the title, the trailer title must be submitted to probate to obtain a court order for the removal of the aunt's name. Otherwise, how would aunt's husband be able to legally sell the trailer without his wife's (aunt's) signature?

IAAL

[jmorales15]

Tx

Okay here is what I recommended to my mom. The title is in my aunt's name only. The husband was froma second marriage and not the father of the kids. Intestate law in Texas says separate real property goes to the kids so the husband has no real interest other than his 1/3 life estate which he is not interested in dealing with. Now the title company would not give us information about the payoff because they wanted us to actually go through probate and appoint an administrator. We did not want to do that since the estate has no value at all. So I found another way to get the payoff information and we are going to get the title sent to us. Even though it has my late aunt's name on it we will then proceed to show an heirship affidavit to have the title changed to the names of the kids and then they will sign title over to my mother. Assuming their is no foul play by any party involved this should work out.