Father's Life Estate and My Rights

[CodeMonk]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: California.

About 2 years ago, my father had a stroke. I came down from Nevada to help him.
I am an only child so the choice of who to help him was simple.
My father also had demetia and alzheimers as well as a host of other illnesses.

Now, how the Life Estate came into being is a bit fuzzy to me (My father and I did not talk alot).
What I think happened is that my ex-stepmother sued for the property but did not have the money to pay for an attorney so paid the attorney with whatever rights to the property she did have. The attorney sued my dad to try to get ahold of the whole property. He did not succeed in getting my dad evicted from his property.
My dad ended up with a Life Estate. He gets to stay there for the rest of his life.
The attorney then gets the property.
This property is about 3 acres and also is home to my dads business, A horse boading stables. Exactly how the attorney came to have this property is the part thats a bit fuzzy to me.

My dad passed away about a week ago.
I know my dad wanted me to have the portable pipe corrals as well as his truck and car and some of his other possessions. I have not seen a will yet, but have an appointment in a few days to see the estate planner he used.

I have no idea what this attorney plans on doing with this place but I do know that there is a large local company that wanted to purchase the property several years ago.
My guess is that the attorney wants to sell the property, but I could be wrong.

There are also several people living on the property (ranch hands basically).
To evict the horse boarders and to dismantle and sell the portable corrals I would need roughly 60 days to do so (30 day notice to the boarders and 30 days to dismantle and sell the portable corrals).

What kind of rights to I have to stay at this propery for 60 days?
What about any rights I have to sell my dads possessions that are on the property?
I don't have the money to hire an attorney of my own. I did have a roughly $10,000 savings before I came down here, but that got used up quickly after I came down here.
The corrals are called "portable corrals" and are not permant structures.
I have this fear that this attorney is going to show up at my door some day soon with a "vacate in 24 hours" type notice.

I do not know the name of this attorney, but from what I have heard, he is the type of attorney that gives other attorneys a bad name. I even heard from someone that he laughed about how he "ripped off" my dad.
I have looked through many of my dads papers but have not found anything related to this attorney.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[jk]

To evict the horse boarders and to dismantle and sell the portable corrals I would need roughly 60 days to do so (30 day notice to the boarders and 30 days to dismantle and sell the portable corrals).

you don't have to do anything. From what you said, it's the lawyers land so he gets to deal with them. In fact, you have no right to do anything about them.

as to the private property on the land; that would be included in your fathers estate and sold to pay bills or distributed as a will or intestate succession directs.
the name of the attorney should be available by looking at the deed for the property that is registered at the county office that records deeds.

What kind of rights to I have to stay at this propery for 60 days?

none

What about any rights I have to sell my dads possessions that are on the property?

unless you apply to be personal representative, executor, or administrator of his estate; none. Once you establish yourself as one of those, you have the rights afforded the appointee of whatever position you end up having.

especially due to the business situation and the life estate situation, you need to consult with a local attorney that can review the specifics of your situation and help guide you through this.