Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Wisconsin

My husband passed away in 2000, he had no will we were married after purchasing a home in 1989 that was in his name only, how do I get the deed put in my named? I have been keeping up with payments and I only have less the 2 years to paying it off I'm am not getting any younger and would like to have everything done as far as the deed in my name. I do not have a lawyer. He had 3 kids twins with me and 1 from his first marriage which all I know his first son lives in arizona somewhere, it was years before he found out his dad passed away.


Asked on 6/07/17, 5:22 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

JAY Nixon nixon law offices

You are badly in need of a lawyer, who would have to run a title check to see how the home title was held. In your situation, the property either may or may not qualify as marital property. Sometimes, spouses have rights to opt against wills in WI, depending upon the factual history. Either way, the intestate succession laws in WI would normally give one half the value of estate property of folks without wills to their spouse. The other half would be divided equally among all of the person's children. That will not happen, however, until your lawyer starts a probate proceeding, leading to a court order for this division. Normally that would be accomplished via a public sale of the real estate and division of the proceeds, all done under the supervision of a probate court. You could be a bidder on such a sale, and end up with the property, with half of the net sale proceeds going to the son. In this scenario, however, you will never clear the title of the house without a probate court order, so all your payments will do you no good in the long run unless you take care of this loose end.

This answer is not legal advice and I am not your lawyer just because I answered it on a public website. Feel free to view my past answers to similar questions on AVVO at https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/53566-wi-jay-nixon-1529181/answers.html . Also see 15 years of past answers at http://www.lawguru.com/answers/atty_profile/view_attorney_profile/jknixon and https://www.facebook.com/NixonLawOffices . Answers may contain attorney advertising materials and both questions and answers may be may also be used in attorney advertising. .

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Answered on 6/11/17, 4:09 am


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