Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

A few years ago, my brother and I bought several properties in Pittsburg, CA. Contra Costa County.

On one property, my brother wrote a check for 2K for it, because I was not there at the time.

I then paid the other 88K at closing, and gave him back the 2K.

However, the deed was recorded as 50/50. Yes, should have paid better attention.

There are no problems with my brother.

Later on, my son expressed interest in re-modeling the house, and living in it.

My brother filed a quit claim to me on the property, and I filed a quit claim on the property to my son.

And of course now, the county wants to re-assess the property, after values have about doubled.

Now, of course, they would normally get that after he does the remodel, but that may have just

been put off a couple of years.

In retrospect, I realize the path should have been, brother quitclaim to our parents, they quitclaim to me, then I to my son,

under the California law that allows parents/child to skip re-assess on transfers.

But we didn't. Is there anything that can be done to repair this, or are we just going to have to eat a couple of extra years of doubled taxes?

And is it likely that the cost of an attorney to fix this would exceed that anyway, so there is no point?

Yes, all family members work well together, no issues there. Just some botched paperwork admin, because a friend of my brothers

was managing the property search and work with the title company, and just copied the paperwork from other houses which

my brother and I indeed own 50 / 50.

Just seems odd that the original 2k/88k payment in at the title company passed into a 50/50 ownership without a hitch.

Thanks for your time,


Asked on 4/28/15, 4:28 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

There is nothing you can do unless the title company failed to follow the escrow instructions. Unfortunately, if they just copied over from past transactions, they probably did what the instructions said when they recorded a 50/50 deed. That's why they send you the proposed closing papers before closing so you can check them and have them make any corrections.

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Answered on 4/28/15, 2:25 pm


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