Oak Avenue Double Probate

Oak Avenue Double Probate

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What do you do when your grandmother leaves you a note that her property shall pass down to you upon her death? Read below to find out how we solved this case and got it to the closing table.

In 2021, our client Mae wanted to sell her home to us. She inherited it from her Grandmother who had owned it since the 1970’s. It hadn’t been lived in for a couple years, had squatters, and she was afraid to go to it.

Mae said that her grandmother had left the property to her via a handwritten note. The only issue was that during a move, the note was misplaced, and was still missing. Months of looking for it turned up nothing. It was never recorded in public records.

We quickly realized that there were a lot of moving parts to this equation. The squatters, the missing note, and to add in more pain, the property was due to be sold at auction because of accumulating unpaid taxes.

Immediately, we got to work. The best route to get the property transferred into Mae’s name was going to be probate. All of her siblings were in agreement that the home should go to her because that is what Grandma wanted, and Mae had paid some previous years of real estate taxes.

Then, another issue popped up when filing the first probate….one of Mae’s siblings had passed away. This meant that one probate turned into two. All of a sudden we had eight people that would need to all sign the deed in order to sell the property, including one who was in a state detention facility.

It was a challenging and time consuming 5 months, but we were able to get the probate completed. The best part was that Mae did not have to pay a single cent for the probate. We paid $8500 in probate costs for her and her family.

In those five months, we were also able to come to a “cash for keys” agreement with the squatters in the property. We paid them $600 and they left the next day. No eviction had to be filed in court, and they even cleaned up the property before they left.

Closing day was bitter sweet. Over the course of seven months since our first phone call with Mae, we shared a total of over 100 calls, 200 texts, and 250 emails. Since it was during COVID, the closing table was the FIRST time we saw each other in person. It was almost like two long lost friends reuniting.

Mae was in tears, as was I. We had worked so hard for so long to get everything completed, and we did it. Mae received her closing proceeds via check, and left the title company that day with her check in hand. Mae and I stayed in contact for years after the closing, always wishing each other Happy Holidays. It’s always great when clients become friends.