Logging on a Life Estate in New York State

**Luczak** · 10-19-2007, 01:07 PM

My father deeded his property to my brother, sister and myself. He gave himself and his girlfriend a life estate. He passed away in January 2005, leaving just her with the life estate. She is now trying to have the acreage logged without our knowledge. We just happened to find out about it by dumb luck, we drove just happened to be in the area and went by the house. (We live an hour away.) We noticed a log skidder sitting on the property. No logging had comenced yet, but we found out that it was to begin the following morning. We contacted our attorney to have it stopped because we feel it would be waste on the property, decreasing the value of the land. We had a court date and the judge said she has to give us a wriiten notice of her intentions. Can we refuse her request? She signed a contract with a timber consultant and with a logging company to have it logged back in July 2007. On that contract it states she is the legal owner of the property and timber, and that she has the right sell it. She has already received full payment for the timber. My questions are:
1) Does she have the right to log the property without our permission or does that constitute waste?
2) If it does constitute waste, can we begin proceedings to have her life estate voided or annuled?
3) If she logs it without our permission is she entitled to keep all of the proceeds or do the remaindermen have any rights to claim a part of it?
4) Is she facing other legal issues in reguards to the contract she signed since she is not the legal owner of the property? (meaning that the logging company can sue her for siging a contract that is not legal.)
5) Does any of this violate the terms of the life estate?

Bottom line is we don't want the property logged at all we want to have her off the property but don't know what to do. ANy awnswers would be helpful.

**lwpat** · 10-19-2007, 04:26 PM

You have an attorney and he should have answered these questions for you. He will send you a bill. Generally she cannot cut the timber unless it is an ongoing situation. If it has been cut in the past the court may allow it. The best way to get her off the property is to buy her life estate. You may want to agree she can keep the money as full or partial payment.

I doubt the timber company will pursue any action.

jk · 10-19-2007, 04:29 PM

Quoting lwpat

I doubt the timber company will pursue any action.

I'm betting they will should the tenant be refused from allowing the logging and fails to repay the logging company.

**aaron** · 10-19-2007, 04:57 PM

Quoting Luczak

We contacted our attorney to have it stopped because we feel it would be waste on the property, decreasing the value of the land. We had a court date and the judge said she has to give us a wriiten notice of her intentions. Can we refuse her request?

All the court ordered was that you're entitled to notice? There was no determination of your respective timber rights, and no further proceedings are scheduled on that issue?

**Luczak** · 10-22-2007, 01:35 PM

It all happened so fast that all we were concerned about was stopping the logging. Now we are trying to determine whether or not she has the right to cut any timber. She wants to make a deal with us that will benefit us both and I told her lawyer that any deal would have to involve her giving up her rights to the life estate. She wants to use the money to redo the upstairs portion of the house. (it is essentially an attic with no insulation, electricity or anything else) She wants to make a deal that she can log it (which would thin out the forest) and put the money into the house. The problem is the amount of money she has received well exceeds what she could put into the upstairs. She would essentially be getting more money than what she needs to make improvements. Our contetion is her responsibilites are to give us back the property in the same manner in which she received it, not improved. We don't care if she improves the property, we just don't think that our timber should be cut to pay for her do it. At this point we have no idea if she has the right to cut or not. We are going to wait untill she makes a real paper offer to us before we do anything. We really just don't want to babysit her anymore and would like her off the property. I know there is a formula for figuring out how much her life estate rights are worth, but don't know what it is.

**Luczak** · 04-02-2008, 12:55 PM

I would like an answer for the following questions please.

1)Can a life tenant holder cut timber without permission from the remaindermen?
2) If the life estate holder can cut timber without the permission from the remaindermen, are the remaindermen entitled to a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the timber?