Can you record a deed after someone dies

Attorney Tom Olsen: Maybe her intention is, is that she's trying to avoid probate and the way she's trying to avoid probate is, "Hey, I'll just sign a deed giving my home to my husband. I'll stick it in a drawer somewhere and when I pass away, he'll pull that deed out of the drawer and he'll go down and record it." Uh-uh, no way, not going to work.

Attorney Chris Merrill: Not legal.

Tom: To make a valid deed, it requires two things, number one, you sign it and number two, you deliver it. If you're recording that deed after your death, then the assumption is you never delivered it and it's not a valid deed. Now, texter, we have a great tool for avoiding probate for you. It's called a ladybird deed. It's a deed that you would sign. It would state that as long as you're alive, it is your home to do with as you please but when you pass away, that home would automatically go to your husband or your kids, no headaches, no hassles, no probate.

Now we might use a lady bird deed for her when she's trying to pass it to her husband, but as well, if she were to call us tomorrow and say, “Hey, you want to just go ahead and add your husband's name to the deed now while you're alive? Here's the pros and cons of that,” we might also just add his name to the deed.

Chris: Correct. Of course, Tom, the other piece of this is the texter indicates that it's they did this deed. We caution people from doing their own deeds. Even though the document is not that long, it is something that you want to make sure that you know what you're doing or you have a legal professional help you. Ideally an attorney that does deeds, because if a deed is incorrect, it could cause a lot of problems for you or for your loved ones down the road, because there will be issues if they go to sell.

Tom: Chrissy, when I see a homemade deed, and believe me, when I see one or when we see one, we know it, okay, it sticks out like a sore thumb. When I see a homemade deed, I go in with the assumption there's at least a 50% chance there's something wrong with it.

Chris: Yes.

Tom: If you're not around, if you passed away, you're not around to fix that deed, well, it's just a piece of paper. It’s not to serve any purpose.

Chris: Correct.

Tom: Chrissy, while we're talking about this, it's always a little bit surprising about people that have come to us over the years, are a married couple, they’ve been married for a long, long, long, long time. We pick up that the home just happens to be in his name only or in her name only and we might say, “Hey, how did it happen that the home is in the wife's name only?” It might be something like, “Oh, husband was out of town at the time of the closing, so they just put it in her name only since he wasn't around to sign anything.”

That's okay, but most married couples, they want to own their home jointly. They want to have both of their names on a deed. I'd be curious about this texter, why is the home in her name only? Is it on purpose? Was there an intention there or was it just because she happened to be around on the day of the closing?

Chris: I would say that you're correct. We don't know the answer in this situation with the texter. However, what I'm sure you find as I do, one common thing is when they refinance too, there's something about even in that process where maybe it was done by one person only, or only one of them was getting the loan initially, so they would put it in the individual name. It should be like you said, it should be in the husband and wife both. However, I think what you're saying is we're a bit surprised that more often than not, it may be in one only husband or wife, and they were not aware of it until we pointed out to that.

Tom: Exactly. Occasionally, we’ll go--

Chris: Well, most of the time, if it's in one name, they don't know that.

Tom: Yes, of course we're looking at it online. They're quite surprised, “Oh, it's in his name only?”

Chris: Correct.

Tom: They didn't even know that.

Chris: Exactly.

Tom: That's the good thing about doing estate planning with the Olsen Law Group is we're going to check those kinds of things.

Chris: Absolutely.

Tom: It's not just about preparing documents, it's about looking at the whole picture and make things are just the way we want it to be to make things simple, easy, inexpensive when somebody passes away.

Chris: Exactly. The takeaway from this is, number one, you want to be able to know what the deed says. If you don't know already or you're not able to check it out, obviously, we're happy to help and look at what your deed says and we can tell you that information. Number two is you want to be very cautious if you are thinking of, or you have done a homemade deed. That's number two. Number three takeaway is you absolutely want to make sure that the deed is right and the way that it should be for your family to avoid probate.

Tom: Exactly right. All great points, Chrissy.

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