Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York
How to (painlessly) add a name to the title of a home
My parents are both deceased. My mother died last, in 1996. My
parents' house was left to my sister (the executrix) in their will.
However, my sister has her own house, so she did not want it.
There was never any animosity between us as sisters (nor is there
now), so we never bothered to add my name to the title. The thing
is...now I would like to do some remodeling of the said house (that
is mine on all accounts except on paper), and need to apply for a
mortgage.
So, the problem is that in order to get a mortgage through my credit
union, MY name would need to be on the title. Is it possible for my
sister to just add my name to it without either of us incurring
horrendous fees for doing so? (She would be happy to do this.)
The house has technically been mine all along anyway...as my
sister has never lived there or charged me any kind of rent. In
addition to the remodeling, it would be nice to be able to write off
certain loans and apply for the STAR tax exemption that I could be
getting.
So, I was wondering...what can we do?
Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: How to (painlessly) add a name to the title of a home
The faster way is to have your sister add you to the title...this way you both own it. The have your sister removed from title down the line. You can only get the star if she is not another owner elsewhere though if you are both on title.
Seek legal advise in any regard. Call the local bar assocaition in Cortlandt for a name or two of an attorney.
Good Luck
RRG
Re: How to (painlessly) add a name to the title of a home
You could have handled this by having your sister repudiate the legacy; assuming that there are no other heirs, this would have resulted in her executing an executor's deed to you and this would all have been done already. Now there is no alternative but to prepare a deed plus real property transfer tax return. Not a big problem, these forms are readily available and it's not rocket science to fill them out. There is, however, a potential downside: your sister now has potential exposure to Federal Gift Tax. Not simple. This could have been avoided if your sister had repudiated the legacy, since then, the estate tax (or applicable exemption) would have covered the transfer to you. But now, she is the legal owner of the property and if she gives it to you, there may be a gift tax, e.g., if the value of the house exceeds the threshold. Even if it is under the threshold (currently $1 million) your sister may prefer to use the exemption for another gift (the exemption applies to the giver for her entire lifetime). There may be ways around this, but they are not amenable to exploration on a bulletin board. In other words, please forgive me, but you're going to need the assistance of a lawyer to work around the thorns of the briar patch into which you have thrown yourselves.
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