Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Call the police or call a lawyer?
My mother-in-law purchased a home in the mountains of California maybe five years ago from a women who owned the property out right. The woman held the note. No bank was involved but a title company was so everything was legal.
This is the first year my mother-in-law needed a mortgage interest statement for tax purposes so she tried calling the women and the phone was disconnected. She wrote the women and did not hear from her. Finally, she sent a registered letter and received a call from the signee. He said he was a friend of the family living in her house in San Joaquin County. He informed my mother-in-law in Sonoma County that the woman had died eighteen months ago and that the son would come to the house to pick up all the mail
My mother-in-law has ordered copied of the last three cancelled checks to see who is signing them.
Depending on the results, should she call the police?
Should she have been notified any probate?
Would the remaining balance owed on the house been transferred to children?
Does she need to contact a lawyer and then in county,
where the property is, where my mother-in-law lives or where the decendent lived? Any recommendations?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Call the police or lawyer?
Once a person has died, the checks would be made out to the decedent's estate, or trust, or perhaps beneficiaries, depending on the existence of a will, trust, and the size of the estate. Thus, your mother needs to find out who the checks should be going to.
A short visit with a local lawyer familiar with real estate and probate laws would help.
Chris Johnson
Christopher B. Johnson, Attorney at Law
614 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA
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