Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington

Landlord-Tenant-Owner or Not???

Hi,

My husband and I recently received a notice terminating tenancy from his sister. She is calling herself a landlord and us a tenant which none of us are. We live on the family farm and my husband has lived here all his life and he is 54. She moved a trailer and herself onto 2 1/2 acres of my husbands 5 acres while he was away for a short period working in Alaska in 1982. With her serving us these papers we started looking into his property deed which should have been next door at his parents filed safely away. Upon further investigation we found that the deed was in fact gone so we went to our local auditors to find that his name had been forged (because he didn't sign it over) and was now in his sisters name. Come to find out she did this clear back on Aug. 13, 1982 and 12 days later she took her first loan out apparantly to put that trailer in and has kept some type of loan on it ever since just changing credit companys every time she gets another loan. Their father just recently past last week and I guess thats why she has decided to try and evict us and draw attention to the changed deed. Any help would be greatly appreiciated Thank -You Kim


Asked on 4/02/08, 4:04 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Amir John Showrai The Pacific Law Firm, PLLC

Re: Landlord-Tenant-Owner or Not???

You have a difficult case, in that you have to prove your husband's signature was forged, which is no easy task. If you can do that, then you are in good shape.

If not, then your husband's sister has a relatively solid case, with one exception:

You may have what is called an "adverse possession claim." RCW 7.28.070 provides that:

Every person who is in actual, open and notorious possession of land under claim and color of title, made in good faith, and who stays on the property for 7 successive years, and shall also during said time pay all taxes assessed on such land, shall be held and adjudged to be the legal owner of said land, to the extent and according to his or her paper title.

Thus, even if your sister-in-law can get away with the fraudulent transfer, if you've been paying the property taxes all these years, then you may very well be able to keep the land on an adverse possession claim, or at least that part which you had sole control over.

This is by no means something that you should attempt to navigate on your own in court. My explanation above is as simple as can be, so there is lots of detail that is missing. Trust me, it gets very complicated, even for lawyers. I would be interested in the case myself, but I think you're too far south for me. I suggest you get local counsel and get going on this right away.

Best of luck!

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Answered on 4/02/08, 4:26 am


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