What tone, legal theft is morally ok if it’s an ex-husbands heirs?
She knows whether or not she signed a deed to transfer the property to her ex. If she didn’t, she knows she should have, and only his untimely death gave her the opportunity to bypass her divorce settlement and it appears she wants to take unfair advantage of his heirs.
Not a very honorable person in my opinion and I will be the last to endorse her actions, but maybe her ethics are in line with your ethics so I have a tone.
I did advise her that each state has a law to allow her to do what she’s thinking, but in this case I only hope what goes around, comes around.
Yes, she paid the taxes, but why didn’t she make sure that the tax bills were give to his heirs, because she didn’t want them to know. She didn’t want to tip them off, she knew if wasn’t hers anymore, or why didn’t she offer to give them a little something for their rights to the property if the land is that important to her and do the right thing.
Posted by Christina on April 05, 2007 at 07:42:53:
this is my situation…my ex husband was granted my land I owned prior to our marriage on September 8, 1994. He died in january in january 1995…I guess the land was willed to his daughter. Since she has not paid any taxes on the land. I have recently paid all the back taxes and the current taxes. the thing is the deed was never changed over to him or her. I wanted to know if there is a law out there that states how many years do you need to have paid taxes to take over the land??? This is really confusing because the land is still in my name. Help please …did I waste my money or can I claim the land back as my own.
Not clear on what your saying, but what I think your saying is:
Prior to your marriage you owned land.
You were not married on 9-8-94 but divorced on that date and he was given the property in the divorce agreement on that date.
About 4 months later he died without your help.
So question is why wasn’t it recorded in his name per the divorce agreement, was that a failure on your part? Was the divorce final?
Is the daughter even aware that he now owned the land because it seems with it in your name the tax bills were still going to you and how would she know?
Did you sign the deed that was needed to change things as was required by the divorce agreement, so that document might be in his estate to be discovered?
If your ex is like most people he didn’t even have a will and even if he did he most likely didn’t get around to changing it. So did he have a will when your were married, and if so who were the heirs then?
Sounds like you didn’t contact the daughter on purpose and don’t want to do the right thing. But, that you want to steal the land back you lost in the divorce rather then honor the settlement. If that is the case then every state has different requirements on how to do that, for example in my state it only takes paying the taxes for 5 years, and having an open and notorious possession.
You don’t say what state the land is in, and if it is the same state the divorce took place. If you give the state I’m sure someone here will know the exact requirements for that state.
Not sure why you’re taking this tone here. People get property by quiet title or adverse possession all the time.
If she’s divorced, she has no responsibilities to her ex’s heirs, nor to do the title work associated with the transfer of property. His attorney might have dropped the ball.
At any rate, the answer to one of her questions is adverse possession and quiet title vary considerably by location, so she needs to see a (competent) local RE attorney. Get someone who knows RE, not someone who will charge by the hour to look up info.
In the states I’m familiar with, paying back taxes does not count toward paying taxes for however many years are needed in adverse possession, so she might be out of luck. Except that she might be able to put a lien on the property for the back taxes she paid (which might have saved the property from tax sale).
The best advice here is to seek competent representation.