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Property dispute. Complicated.

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P

paise

Guest
I obtained some property 6 years ago from my father. There was a lein placed on the property for services which I paid off and he told the attorney then that when it was paid off, the deed was to be given to me since I paid it off. I paid it off and he signed it to me. Later, he had a heart attack and I let him stay on the property presumably until he was well enough to return to his own home 100 miles away. This has not happened yet and was not a problem until recently.

I informed him that I would be filling in the pond that is on the property as it is a major liability since it is not insured. He lost it completely. The one nich in this entire situation is that my father has a (convenient) mental disorder but is also quite mean when he doesn't get his way. Right after he got sick he was paranoid about not having anywhere to stay even though he owned his property 100 miles away. I wrote him a note to appease him saying that he could live on my property since he had just suffered a heart attack because I didn't want the emotional grief to cause another one. This note was a father to daughter thing and was never intended to be a life estate as he is now claiming. It was never notarized nor was it filed nor was it witnessed. According to my attorney, this is just what it is... a note from daughter to father saying he could stay there. Furthermore, my attorney says that he is staying on what is considered a "free lease" as he does not and has never paid rent.

Now that my father is mad at me and I also believe that he has stopped taking his medication, he has hired an attorney to reclaim my property saying that he was incompetent at the time of the deed signing. He claims that I "controlled" him into signing it. He says in his summons that I brought a notary to notarize the signature and he didn't know what he was doing. This is completely false as he signed it in an attorney's office with the attorney present. The attorney assures me that my father was of sound mind.

It has always been common knowledge that I would get this property and my brother would get the other. We have been told this since we were children.

I have been told by my attorney that I could get him off the property by filing a summary ejection. Now that he has an attorney he has a paper called a Lis perens which I have researched and understand to mean that I can't do anything until after the court hearing. (I'll be talking with my attorney soon as I have faxed him these documents).

Since the manufactured home on the property is in such disrepair, I am sure I can get it condemned, however, I have read that because there is a "tenent" there, that I could get into trouble by condemning it. I was reading on this website about a constructive eviction, I think that is the right name. My understanding is that when a home is in such disrepair that it is deemed unsafe that one can get an eviction that way. Is this so? This manufactured home is 41 years old and is all to pieces. Even though the title to the home is in his and my mother's name, I was told by my attorney that it is considered real property and thus mine as it meets criteria for North Carolina. 1) It was never intended to be moved as it has been there for better than 40 years. 2) Lack of mobility. There is no tongue, the wheels have long since rotted off, and it is on blocks.

I have an old appraisal where my father had the place appraised and it shows the home as no value and that it is "a hazard". The pond on the property according to the appraisal is considered a "waterhole" and "unsafe, unsanitary". Nothing has changed as it is in the same shape it was in when I obtained it.

Here are my questions:

1) Can I do a constructive eviction (I think that is what it is called)? Or can I just out and out have the health department condemn it?

2) He was trying to force a life estate and found out evidently the same thing my attorney told us, that he can't do it. Can he reclaim the property since we have the attorney, notary, and witness to say that he was competent and that this all took place within the confines of an attorney's office, not the hospital as he would lead one to believe in his summons?

3) Also he claims to have given my brother the other piece of property and obtained a life estate on that one. However, there is no designation between jr or Sr on the deed nor on the life estate document in the court house. I have been told by a real estate agent that since there is no designation then the property is considered my father's, not my brother's and that a person CAN give themselves a life estate on their own property. He has gotten 3 year's worth of county tax money out of my brother by leading him to believe that this particular piece of property is his. Since it just signifies the name with no designation who does it belong to, jr or sr? Also, can my brother recoup the three year's worth of taxes he paid on the property when he thought it was his?

I know this sounds complicated and yes, it is more so than this. As I mentioned above, my father has a mental illness when it suits him. One minute he is incompetent then in the next he has his full faculties and how dare us question him. Well, he can't have it both ways. I'm tired of the run around and am ready to get on with my life. I have done all I can for this man and all I have gotten in return is headaches.

Thank you so much in advance and I do apologize for the length of this note. I have consulted an attorney but wanted to know if there were any additional ways to handle this as I want him off my property permanently but I want to do it without adding to the liability I am already enduring.

Thanks.
 



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