Quit Claim

[debnes]

My question involves estate proceedings in the state of: New Jersey
My sister passes away last year, with no surviving spouse, parents or children. She was owed money from SSI which took about 13 months to finally get, and I am now trying to close her estate. The only asset was the SSI money which essentially was used to pay back money borrowed for her funeral and a few bills. However, I am the oldest of what was 10 siblings, and we had previously done a quit claim deed to move the family house from my mothers name to the name of my two sisters who were not married and lived there. Because the deed was not titled" with right of survivorship", it had to be considered part of her estate.

One of the remaining 9 siblings is already 1/2 owner of the house, and now the 9 of us are 1/9 owners of the other half? Is this correct and can we do a quit claim deed titled that way? We are all in agreement that the house belongs to my sister who is the half owner and will eventually sign our portions over to her, but do not know the easiest (and least expensive) legal way to do this. Any ideas?

[Mr. Knowitall]

Is the part you left out that the sister who passed away was the beneficiary of the quitclaim deed, such that she had a 50% interest in the house?

Why would you want to do something as complex as deeding 1/9 shares to every surviving sibling? Why not do something sensible, like have the sister who lives in the house buy the other siblings' shares such that she becomes sole owner? The ownership mess you're proposing will most likely end up causing nothing but undue grief and expense down the road.

Whatever you end up doing, I suggest having a lawyer draft the deed. If you do go with joint ownership, I suggest having the lawyer draft up an agreement for all siblings to sign, indicating how they'll deal with their share of taxes, maintenance costs, repairs, improvements, what happens if they or somebody else wants to sell a share, etc. Because if you don't have all of that signed and in writing the nightmare can start early.

[Scott67]

OK, So you are saying that in addition to the SSI money, your sister's estate included a 1/2 interest in the house that used to belong to your mother. If that 1/2 interest is still in the estate (not deeded to your siblings) it seems that, since everyone is in agreement, you should be able to transfer it directly from the estate to the sister living there making her the sole owner. You could do that as the executrix of the estate. An attorney's assistance in drafting the document(s) would be advisable.

Quit claim deeds from the remaining siblings would also be a good idea to ensure there are no loose ends. You don't actually have to have a deeded interest in a property to execute a Quit Claim deed, since a Quit Claim deed is not asserting that the grantor has any interest in the property. It is stating that whatever interest in the property the grantor has, is conveyed to the grantee.

[Mr. Knowitall]

I see what you're saying now. You want to convey all of your shares to the sister who remains in the house. The best thing to do would likely be for all other siblings to decline their inheritance, such that the only remaining heir to the house is the sister who remains there. You want to handle this through the estate so you don't need to mess around with a stack of quitclaim deeds, gift and transfer tax issues, etc.