My mother passed away in June

[sachdeva5]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

My mother passed away in June. My parents always lived with me. My mother and I own a house as “joint” that is currently a rental property.
I want my father to take ½ of my rental property. Because I believe if I take my mothers percentage of property then I will be assessed a estate tax, but if my father takes it, then he will not have pay any tax.

My mother did not have a living will or will in general. What do I need to do in order to transfer the property ??

Please advice.

Thanks,

 

[anteater]

Not certain why you put "joint" in quotes. But assuming that you meant that the property was titled with right of survivorship.

You can check with a real estate attorney, but I do believe that you are now the owner. Generally, property owned jointly with right of suvvivorship passes to the surviving owner(s) at the moment that one of the owners passes away.

The PA Inheritance tax is a pain, but it is not particularly onerous for lineal descendants - 4.5%.

Even if you could find a way to get your mother's interest in the property to pass to your father (which I doubt), you would only be postponing the inheritance tax bite. And, while there is a time value to money, it may not be worth it.

While I am not an expert in the area, I believe that shoehorning your father into joint ownership would expose the property to any of father's possible creditors - think Medicaid, if your father should need medical care assitance in the future.

 

[sachdeva5]

The title is not titled with right of survivorship. It is titled differently, where half of the property will be either mine or my fathers.

somebody mentioned that I need to file some paperwork to make myself or my father admistrator. I don't know what that was about?

Please advise.

 

[anteater]

If you and your mother owned the property as tenants in common and your mother had no will, then the disposition of your mother's interest would need to be done through probate and would be distributed according to PA's intestate succession statutes:

1. Surviving spouse. A surviving spouse is generally first in line to get any assets from the intestate estate. However, the amount a surviving spouse is entitled to varies as follows:

A surviving spouse is entitled to the entire intestate estate if the decedent is not survived by a child or parent.

If there are no surviving children of the decedent, but there is a surviving parent or parents, the surviving spouse is entitled to the first $30,000 plus one-half of the remaining intestate estate. There is an exception to this rule if a decedent died due to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which case the surviving spouse gets 100 percent of any compensation award paid under the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act.

If the decedent is survived by children all of whom are also the children of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse is entitled to the first $30,000 plus one-half of the remaining intestate estate.

If the decedent is survived by children one or more of whom are not issue of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse gets one-half of the intestate estate.

When there is a partial intestacy, any property received by the surviving spouse under the will counts toward satisfying the $30,000 allowance mentioned above.

somebody mentioned that I need to file some paperwork to make myself or my father admistrator. I don't know what that was about?

If you don't know what probate is all about, you should begin looking for an attorney to assist you.

 

[sachdeva5]

How much does a lawyer cost? I don't have any money at the moment. what is the time limit till this needs to get done??
Are there any agencies that can help me with this process at reduced costs.