When I first talk with estate personal representatives, many of them tell me that their probate Attorney will take care of everything. That may not always be true, the purpose of this blog is to get a glimpse of what is to come.
I am not an attorney. I cannot give legal advice. None of the content in this blog is meant to be legal advice. If you need an attorney, please contact the California State Bar at 800-843-9053 (in California) or 213-765-1200 (outside California).
There are three main very important things probate attorneys carry out. 1.) determine if probate is necessary, 2.) provide legal guidance, and 3. file motions with the court.
Hi, my name is Nancy Adinolfe. I am a realtor here in Sacramento County. I help Personal Representatives with the real estate portion of the estate who are going through probate. I serve all areas of Sacramento County including Sacramento, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, and all other towns in Sacramento County.
So, let’s dive into what attorneys will and will not do in probate cases.
If there is real estate in the estate, the first thing a probate Attorney will do is pull the grant deed from the Sacramento County court recorder. The grant deed specifies how the title is held in the property. A grant deed is simply a document that is used to convey the transfer of title in real property. The Attorney will see how the title is held and determine if probate is necessary. I’d venture to say that some good attorneys will provide this service for free.
Once you determine that probate is necessary, the probate Attorney guides you from the start to the end of the administrative probate process. So is good to have somebody that has been through the process many times in his many years of experience in all different cases to give administrative guidance through the process. Check out my first blog on how to pick a probate attorney to find one that has a lot of experience with probate law.
The third service an Attorney provides is to prepare the necessary paperwork and file motions on interpleader paper. Interpleader paper is the paper was all those numbers on the side and it has a heading on top of it. It’s legal paper. Attorneys will also file petitions with the court and make sure that it’s done according to what is necessary and make sure it passes the investigation of the Probate Court Examiner. They provide advice on legal matters when going through probate. To put it very briefly, probate attorneys provide a service for all of the interactions that are necessary with the court.
OK so now I will go through what a probate Attorney will not do. Probate Attorneys will not do anything with taxes. They are qualified to carry out legal matters but taxes are in a different realm. Most Probate attorneys will not help with the eviction of uninvited people living in the house. Most probate attorneys will not litigate eviction matters.
Another thing a probate Attorney will not do is take inventory of all of the items in the estate. The inventory and appraisal forms need to be completed. The court is mainly concerned with items of value in the estate.
So not only the physical items in the estate but also the important documents need to be going through by the personal representative.
And I have a story to tell about how important it is to go through everything in the estate. I was fortunate enough to be selected by a personal representative to sell the real estate portion of the estate. Her uncle was a world-renowned historical preservationist. He had an entire wall of books. There must have been at least 1000 books in his library. My clients went through every single one of those books and found a $20,000 treasury I-Bond stuck in one of the pages in one of those books. This dear lady cleaned out the entire house it was built in 1910. And I am sure that a lot of the personal property in that house was from the many other people that lived there. The reason I tell the story is to let you know that it’s so important to go through everything you just never know what you’re going to find.
Another thing a probate Attorney will not do is help with the maintenance of the estate. I had several properties where squatters were living in the property and the personal representative needed to seek legal advice from eviction attorneys. We have tricks to get uninvited guests to leave the premises but if they will not leave on their own, it may require a heavy hand to get rid of them.
So this is a true story, Once we got the squatters there were nine of them living in the property; we had to clean up after them. I physically went in there in cleaned out the refrigerator which was a horrible mess.
In most cases, attorneys are not licensed to sell real estate. There were only two attorneys that I have come across who also had their real estate license. Realtors play an important role and provide service when it comes to their real estate portion of the estate. We help with all matters of the real estate. As I mentioned cleaning up the property, getting the property ready for sale, and marketing the property in the best light possible. It provides a service to honor your loved ones and do what is something that family members can be proud of.
If you would like the timeline showing all the steps in the probate process, just contact me and I’ll be glad to send you one. Please keep in mind that this is not meant to be legal advice. I am not an Attorney I cannot give legal advice. It’s simply a guideline that I created from reading many, many books on probate. Thanks for reading my blog.
And, if you would rather watch a video on this topic, be sure to visit my probate YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp5m60AyyQHragv2-UsnKXg
