This is a little confusing... at least to me.

My husband and his parents owned a home. The three of them were joint tenants with rights of survivorship. It is my understanding that the three of them (Ruth, Bill, and my husband Jim) all own 1/3 of the property.

Ruth passed away the day after Christmas. The next day 12/27, John the other son. Went to see Bill (Bill had terminal cancer - diagnosed in 11/06). After John left we found that Bill had signed a quitclaim deed giving John 2/3 ownership in the property.
It was my impression that when Ruth passed her 1/3 would be divided in 1/2 and Bill and Jim would each own 1/2 of the property. Was this wrong? Because the quitclaim states Bill deeded 2/3 or the property is the quitclaim deed null and void? Or would it just be corrected to show the correct division of property?


To make matters worst Bill passed on 1/8. Someone told me that the quitclaim was not valid because Bill did not live 5 years (someone else told me he had to live 30 days). So, who owns the property? And in what percentages?

We had just filled a petition to gain guardianship of Bill because we felt that John was taking advantage of him. However, we were told that we needed to have a competency hearing... this had not yet been done at the time of Bills death. Would that be a factor in this at all?

Any help would be incredible.

No, the quitclaim deed at least here is valid the day it is signed, like any deed.

Next the wording of the deed, if it was joint in common, or joint with right of survivialship. Your assumption or what you were told may not be right at all, or it could be true

And they only give what right or owneship you have in the named property to the new owner, they do not give a certain percentage, there is no warranty (or promise) in this type of deed that you even actually own the property, only that if you do own it, you give that right of it to the other person.

First if they had right of survivialship in the deed, then when Ruth died, her part went equally to the other two, so each would own 1/2 so to speak.

You can challenge the deed He could sell 2/3 of his share, which means that he would have still owned 1/3 of his share or 1/6 at his time of death and the new owner would now own 1/3 of it.

If the deed was not written property, most likely it will get thrown out.


But you need a good, very good real estate attorney to work on this, my opinoin is just basic real estate and may not be the same in your state, and this is only on opinion of what you said, from your opinon of what the deed said. So there are a lot of "if's" in here

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Originally Posted by shewolf

This is a little confusing....at least to me.

My husband and his parents owned a home. The three of them were joint tenants with rights of survivorship. It is my understanding that the three of them (Ruth, Bill, and my husband Jim) all own 1/3 of the property.

Ruth passed away the day after Christmas. The next day 12/27, John the other son. Went to see Bill (Bill had terminal cancer - diagnosed in 11/06). After John left we found that Bill had signed a quitclaim deed giving John 2/3 ownership in the property.
It was my impression that when Ruth passed her 1/3 would be divided in 1/2 and Bill and Jim would each own 1/2 of the property. Was this wrong? Because the quitclaim states Bill deeded 2/3 or the property is the quitclaim deed null and void? or would it just be corrected to show the correct division of property?


To make matters worst Bill passed on 1/8. Someone told me that the quitclaim was not valid because Bill did not live 5 years (someone else told me he had to live 30 days). So, who owns the property? and in what percentages?

We had just filled a petition to gain guardianship of Bill because we felt that John was taking advantage of him. However, we were told that we needed to have a competency hearing....this had not yet been done at the time of Bills death. Would that be a factor in this at all?

Any help would be incredible.

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It's my experience that, if one of the people on the title pass on, then the other two own the parcel. 50/50.

I agree with Fr Chuck: talk to an attorney and check it out with the township or your local government. You can ask them all the questions you want to ask and it's free. If they tell you that you're out of luck and you know Bill was not in his right mind, so to speak, because of morphine or other pain relieving cancer drugs, you may very well have a case. Check to be sure your paperwork has been recorded and call those people. How old was Bill? And who is John to Bill? Good luck, and I hope things work out for you. It's awful when someone takes advantage of someone who is ill. I truly believe that what goes around, comes around. John will get his just reward for taking advantage of Bill.