Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Lifetime use of residence.

Yes, you just need to have a competent attorney prepare the contract.

D. Alexander Floum is an experienced attorney and teaches law to both practicing lawyers and law school students.

The Schinner Law Group is a full-service law firm, providing assistance in business, corporate, tax, litigation, contracts, intellectual property and related areas of law.

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Re: Lifetime use of residence.

All of the advice you've received is sound, and it is scarcely necessary to add to it. However, I would like to suggest that you speak with an attorney who specializes in estate planning to go over your family financial matters comprehensively rather than handle estate planning on a piecemeal, property-by-property basis. It will save your extended family money and perhaps heartache in the long run.

Re: Lifetime use of residence.

You can provide in your will or trust a Life Estate for your parents.

Joel Selik

www.4thelaw.com

Re: Lifetime use of residence.

As well as providing a life estate in your will, you could also give them a life estate now, while you are still alive, that gives them the right to use the property while they live and then it reverts to you (or your heirs) upon your death. The difficulty with that is that it would make it hard to sell the place if you decided you wanted to do that.

Re: Lifetime use of residence.

The best route is to establish a trust, the terms of which provide your parents with a life estate in the property, which a successor trustee must honor, and then have the home left to your other heirs after your parents death.

Re: Lifetime use of residence.

You can give them a deed with a life estate, but a trust with a provision for a life estate may be better, in that it gives you more flexibility while you're alive, and also provides for a trustee to make sure the house is maintained and kept available for your parents.

Re: Lifetime use of residence.

You will need a written recorded document that provides for your request. You should also know that such a document is still subject to all prior recording documents.