What is the name of your state? California
One of my brothers passed away several years ago, leaving no will or heirs. The only item of value in his estate is an interest in an oil royality that I and my other brothers received from our mother years ago when she died. Each interest we received was an individual royality account with the oil company. We notified the company of my brothers death and they "suspended" his account, accumulating his monthly payments. The company notified us about a year ago that they would like to somehow resolve this account. I contacted a lawyer and he put together an Affidavit of Probate we all signed and sent to the oil company. The lawyer determined that since this was an "interest" and not real property, the affidavit alone without any court filing would be enough to transfer my brothers account. Wrong. The oil company says that's it's real property and requires a petition to a court along with an inventory and appraisal. My question is if an appraisal can be waived by the court? The account is has about 30K in it and it receives about 1K per month royality. Even the oil company's rep thought an appraisal may be difficult to determine and be expensive to undertake. Sorry for the length and thanks for your time.
One of my brothers passed away several years ago, leaving no will or heirs. The only item of value in his estate is an interest in an oil royality that I and my other brothers received from our mother years ago when she died. Each interest we received was an individual royality account with the oil company. We notified the company of my brothers death and they "suspended" his account, accumulating his monthly payments. The company notified us about a year ago that they would like to somehow resolve this account. I contacted a lawyer and he put together an Affidavit of Probate we all signed and sent to the oil company. The lawyer determined that since this was an "interest" and not real property, the affidavit alone without any court filing would be enough to transfer my brothers account. Wrong. The oil company says that's it's real property and requires a petition to a court along with an inventory and appraisal. My question is if an appraisal can be waived by the court? The account is has about 30K in it and it receives about 1K per month royality. Even the oil company's rep thought an appraisal may be difficult to determine and be expensive to undertake. Sorry for the length and thanks for your time.