Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia

My wife passed away and I was told that I needed to refile the deed to our place to have her name removed from it. I was also told that I would have to hire a lawyer to do this. My question is why ? Why do I do a lawyer which is going to cost me money that I don't have. Is there a legal form that I could fill out and turn in with a copy of the death certificate that would take care of this.

Thanks


Asked on 1/19/11, 1:08 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

You answered your own question - you get a real estate lawyer to do it because you don't know what to do. You can hire a lawyer to do the fairly straightforward act of completing a new deed, or you can look for forms somewhere, not knowing what you are doing, and hope that somewhere down the road you don't have to pay several times the original amount to fix the screw up. Or, you try to sell or refinance, but it falls through because of title defects. Maybe you have children who will inherit the property and it costs them a lot of money to fix the problems.

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Answered on 1/24/11, 1:18 pm
Glen Ashman Ashman Law Office also dba Glen Ashman Attorney

You hire a lawyer to do legal work for the same reason you hire a car mechanic to fix your car - to do something you are no trained to do.

THERE IS NO FORM FOR WHAT YOU WNAT TO DO. Since each estate has its own facts (was there a will or not, etc), a special document is drafted with the facts of that case. If there is a will, one does an Assent to Devise and NOT a deed. If there is no will, an Administrators Deed is usually needed, although in some cases a different document is needed. In either case you must also do a computer generated PT-61 and submit same.

If the rest of probate has been done already, the cost we charge for something like this is usually $200 or less. The cost to fix something you did wrong could be far bigger.

(The death certificate has nothing to do with this).

Note that if there has not yet been a probate, that needs to happen first. A mistake in WHICH probate to file (Will, Administartion, Years Support or No Administration are all possibilities) can lead to increased costs and in some cases, you can do a Years Support to save property taxes for a year or a No Admin. to bypass a deed.

All that translates into: you need a lawyer.

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Answered on 1/24/11, 1:51 pm


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