Can I allow my mother to sell land I am meant to inherit?

[notaclue2018]

A possibility that you may not have considered is to simply not take possession of the property at all...

ETA: In other words, you can refuse the gift.

Thank you, yes I saw from a bit of googling that that might be an option. However I suppose my worry would be that the land would just pass to my daughters (infant aged) and then I'd still be left to deal with it all!

 

[HRZ]

What some of us have addressed is you need to tell us how the deed is structured...who owns what ?

A discussion about the enforceability of some term in a will is a second step..if , if, if

I can put a lot of things in my will...they may have ZERO legal weight absent somebody impacted by outcome seeking enforcement...and even then it may not matter . .

 

[notaclue2018]

What some of us have addressed is you need to tell us how the deed is structured...who owns what ?

A discussion about the enforceability of some term in a will is a second step..if , if, if

I can put a lot of things in my will...they may have ZERO legal weight absent somebody impacted by outcome seeking enforcement...and even then it may not matter . .

I will find everything I can and return to this forum in due course! I know you need more detail and I will try to get it! Thank you.

 

[HRZ]

One may well be able to create a contract within a will but it's unusual ...and it may be straight forward for the parties to the contract to renounce or extinguish it ...and as far as I know GM is not likely to be party to same as her presence is very unlikely .

I do recall some sloppy wording in a U.K. Will about provisions as to maker still standing ...so they wrapped up GF and stood the corpse in a closet .....

 

[Mass_Shyster]

In the U.S. typically such provisions in a will are not enforceable. Once the property is distributed to the initial beneficiary that beneficiary is generally free to do with the property as he or she pleases. To accomplish what your grandmother tried to do would typically require use of a trust in the U.S. Did you grandmother reside in the U.S. when she died? If so, in what state did she reside at the time she died?

This is bringing back bad memories of Future Interests, springing and shifting executory interests, contingent and vested remainders (indefeasible, subject to open, and subject to divestment).

And there's that Rule against perpetuities.

Short answer is ask a lawyer.

 

[Taxing Matters]

One may well be able to create a contract within a will but it's unusual ...and it may be straight forward for the parties to the contract to renounce or extinguish it ...and as far as I know GM is not likely to be party to same as her presence is very unlikely .

I do recall some sloppy wording in a U.K. Will about provisions as to maker still standing ...so they wrapped up GF and stood the corpse in a closet .....

Please, don’t further muddy this thread with things that the facts we have don’t support. While there may be contracts to make a will (and we have nothing here to suggest that’s the case) the will itself is not a contract. As there is nothing to indicate contract principles apply here we are best to not stray into that area.

 

[Taxing Matters]

This is bringing back bad memories of Future Interests, springing and shifting executory interests, contingent and vested remainders (indefeasible, subject to open, and subject to divestment).

All having to do with real property interests, not wills. There is nothing here to suggest that the title to this property is held by the mother in anything other than fee simple. So we need not go into these kinds of property concepts, I think. The provision at issue was part of a will, not something included in a deed. So I suggest we stick to the law of wills and not get sidetracked to legal principles that so far have not been implicated by the facts we have.

And there's that Rule against perpetuities.

Nothing about this implicates the rule against perpetuties. Even in the classic common law version of the rule that rule would be satisfied here, assuming that the will provision is even enforceable in the first place.

Short answer is ask a lawyer.[/QUOTE]

Never a bad idea for something like this.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

All having to do with real property interests, not wills. There is nothing here to suggest that the title to this property is held by the mother in anything other than fee simple.

If the will says the property goes to grandchild after the death of the daughter, and the deed conveyed the property to the daughter in fee simple, somebody screwed up the deed.

I don't practice property law, but my recollection from law school was that the vast majority of estates in property that were in my casebook were created by wills. I used CASES AND TEXT ON PROPERTY (Aspen Publishers, 5th Ed. 2004)

 

[HRZ]

THere seems to be a fundamental starting point being missed by OP and that's a copy of the current deed ....and that doesn't take a lawyer to go find and copy ...local practices vary about what staff in recorder of deeds will do and fees and sometime one must pay a service firm ..but I'll bet with a few phone calls and a credit card the OP can get the process started and transmitted by multiple electronic means ....some places the names on deed are on line ...but that's not necessarily reliable as to if it's JTWROS or not...but easy to look.

 

[HRZ]

Refusing a gift is not necessarily a wise idea if one doesn't yet know what one is doing.

 

[Zigner]

Refusing a gift is not necessarily a wise idea if one doesn't yet know what one is doing.

I don't believe anybody suggested otherwise.

 

[HRZ]

I got sidetracked....one of the things to sort out is if the deed is a for a life estate , most likely GM conveys life estate to her daughter , grandson is remainderman.

IF its fee simple absolute to daughter ...is that not the end of any practical question about her ability to sell it in 0Ps fact pattern?

the more practical problem , if it's fee simple , being if Mom does not address the property in her will, GS or somebody will have fun of intestate administration probably in UK with secondary administration in NE ?
.

 

[Taxing Matters]

If the will says the property goes to grandchild after the death of the daughter, and the deed conveyed the property to the daughter in fee simple, somebody screwed up the deed.

I disagree that someone necessarily screwed up the deed in that instance. I think it likely that the provision in the deed requring the property pass to the granddaughter after the mother dies is invalid and unenforceable. Unless the will is construed to create a trust (actual or constructive) then the will cannot control what the first beneficiary does with the property. If a trust is created, then the trust itself controls the property, not the beneficiary. Either way, there is no need to create a deed with a remote interest in the granddaughter.

I don't practice property law, but my recollection from law school was that the vast majority of estates in property that were in my casebook were created by wills. I used CASES AND TEXT ON PROPERTY (Aspen Publishers, 5th Ed. 2004)

Wills simply designate to whom the property goes. The estate in the property is then created by the transfer the executor makes to the beneficiary/beneficiaries. But to get there, you first have to determine what the will provides and whether state law will recognize the remote gift.

 

[HRZ]

I would disagree in context that if Mom was given a fee simple absolute deed ..then that gives her control over disposition of the property ...and the next holder gets equally good title ..but right now we are all in dark as OP does not yet know his own scorecard. And I would think that if son is the intended remainderman and mom holds life estate by deed or will , without debate as to enforceability, if they participate in a common sale it's a done deal and buyer gets good title ? .. ( and if OP doesn't think tax consequences are too important ..that's ok too..we are entitled to our own views , just I prefer to crunch some approximate numbers before I jump in )