dad is in legal problem and wants to transfer house to my name, help!

[musicman777]

* disclaimer: I am not asking so much for legal advice and I already know that is not something people do over the internet, but I would like OPINIONS of others that have dealt in real estate before *

 

Okay, so I am 25 years old and I live with my mother and father still. I pay bills, carry my own weight, and have also done a lot of work on the house. I enjoy house work which is one reason why I like living here and staying here at my age. Anyway, recently my father has gotten into some legal trouble. He is nearly 80 years old and he is semi-retired, doing auto body work from home. Well, he took on a small job to work on a guys pickup truck. Well, long story short. He didn't do the work (in part due to medical reasons). Also the guys truck's motor got destroyed in rough winter weather (although I feel this is not my fathers fault) but he took my dad to court over it. He wants the original body work done + $3,000~ to fix the motor which my father does NOT have. I am getting him a pro-bono lawyer to help deal with the issues there because he is representing himself and making very stupid decisions over this case.

 

My mother and myself are in fear that if he does not come through with this guy (which he likely will not) that eventually they may want to put a lean on the house to have him pay back this guy. We do NOT want that to happen, and it has not happened yet. We were talking about transferring the house into my name so that, if my dad did not rectify the situation with this guy, that he will not have any assets for him to take. I called one lawyer today and she told me this was "fraudulent" for some reason. I think she may have misunderstood and maybe thinks there was already a lean on the house. There is no leans, this legal case, there is not involvement of the house or anything right now.

 

Can my parents sell me the house regardless of this issue he is one? We just wanted to do a "buy it for $1" deal in front of a lawyer and have them do the paperwork. I don't see why I can't do this. It is still their property, there are no unpaid taxes, leans, or anything else on the property at this moment. I think this was only one lawyer, she didn't even look at papers or anything, this was only a brief phone call. She completely turned me away. All I read and hear is people have a right to sell their property. This is only a small civil case he is in for not that much money. I don't see why he can't transfer his house in the meantime. Thanks for any suggestions.

[annie24]

Hi - I'm no lawyer but I think transferring the house to your name to avoid having a lien against the house in a lawsuit sounds illegal. Hiding assets, I believe. No wonder the lawyer turned you away. I think that the best course of action might be to work with a mediator and see if you can't settle with this guy.

[lukeb]

I'm guessing he took money but did not do the work, in any case your Dad lost the case, and owes this guy. We are not getting the full story here but chances are they got the full story in court. My opinion is you are being incredibly unethical trying to get your Dad out of paying what he owes. I'm sure if there was someone who owed you money, you would want to get paid, why do you "feel" these things don't apply to others? Yes this is unethical and probably illegal, if the guy can demonstrate that the reason why your dad is getting rid of his assets to get out of his debts, which may not be all that hard to do. My question to you is why would you want to be that type of a person who does these things?

[avman]

and she told me this was "fraudulent" for some reason

 

Um yes it is fraudulent. It's called "fraudulent conveyance". Once a lawsuit is in progress any sort of an asset transfer like that will instantly get pulled in front of the court if your father loses. The court can force the property to be returned and then sold or a lien established to satisfy a judgment.

 

I don't see why I can't do this. It is still their property, there are no unpaid taxes, leans, or anything else on the property at this moment

 

Because there is already a lawsuit in progress. If there was no lawsuit then you'd be correct. Your parents could do anything with their property that they liked. They can put it into a trust, sell it to you, or whatever. But all of that you really need a lawyer to set up and it can't be done while there are lawsuits pending. That is why the lawyer told you what you are attempting is fraud. It's being done for the sole reason of hiding an asset from the court.

[annie24]

Does your dad have an LLC? One way to prevent against having personal assets seized is forming an LLC - so that he keeps his work and his home money separate. However, I don't think that you can do this now after the fact. It's a good lesson for the future though.

 

I agree with lukeb - Dad needs to pay this guy back and replace the motor (again, if he had some kind of insurance for his home business, that would have covered it).

[Cheetarah]

Yes, it is fraudulent if there is a suit.

 

Don't panic. Read about how liens against real property work. And yes, absolutely get your dad a lawyer. If you act on the panic it will not work out in your favor.

[musicman777]

Hey everyone,

Thank you very much for all the replies. To answer all of your questions/concerns here. Look, I also have a business, but separate from father, I do programming/web development. I never screwed anyone like my father, I am an honest worker and unfortunately because I live in this house I get dragged down with it! I totally understand the predicament the other guy is into and I do feel bad for him with this truck. My father is getting out of hand with his ridiculous behavior of doing work at such an advanced age when he can't do it anymore. With that being said, I think the guy is getting dramatically overboard asking for a new motor for his truck, he was very much aware the vehicle was sitting on the road for many many months in winter and he never bothered to check on it. I do not believe my father is making the right decisions in this case and that I why I am working on getting him a pro bono lawyer. He is not in a position to be making decisions at all. He even has medical problems with his memory, he was hospitalized for it. The court papers he got has a right to appeal and I would like to have him back in court for incompetence. I am sure there is something to do regarding that. This is not right. You guys talk about being "unethical", I feel it is unethical to let an old man with memory problems represent himself in court and give him no proper legal precedence.

 

I'm guessing he took money but did not do the work, in any case your Dad lost the case, and owes this guy. We are not getting the full story here but chances are they got the full story in court. My opinion is you are being incredibly unethical trying to get your Dad out of paying what he owes. I'm sure if there was someone who owed you money, you would want to get paid, why do you "feel" these things don't apply to others? Yes this is unethical and probably illegal, if the guy can demonstrate that the reason why your dad is getting rid of his assets to get out of his debts, which may not be all that hard to do. My question to you is why would you want to be that type of a person who does these things?

 

I don't want to get my dad out of it. It is myself and my mother that are being dragged down with him if he gets lien on the house over this. My mother is also the co-owner of the house and it is not fair on her, either. He has also filed for bankruptcy in the past so that is not an option. I just want us to keep what is ours. I put a lot of money into this house and fixing things in it. I am even currently reconstructing my office with it. I would rather have my dad suffer the consequences and if needed, go to jail over it. I don't care about him. I just want to keep our home. Wouldn't you do everything you can to save your home? This is all over a stupid truck. And the thing with liens, the way my father is, he will NOT pay anything! He is broke, no retirement savings, no car, no nothing. He's 78, I don't know what they expect him to do. This house is all he got. It's an easy target for them to get him to paid an unpaid debt.

 

I am trying to as well get my mother to have a divorce, even if she wants to not leave him I think she needs to cut off legal ties to him and put the house under her name only at the very least. I really don't know what to do anymore now other than to have him get a lawyer and go back to court. It's getting ridiculous. I don't want to but I am making some more money these days with my career, I may have to move out. This isn't fair to me, I did do nothing wrong. I really don't want anything to do with this but he is putting me in a difficult position.

[Hoagy]

I don't know anything about US law but it's possible that, if the house is in your name and the court decides it's an illegally held asset, you might find it difficult when you try to get your own mortgage because it'll be on your record. Mud sticks.

[Theniceone]

How much money are we talking about? you claim it's not much money but you are worried your parents could lose your house? if your father loses don't you think your lawyer can negotiate some payment plan? Can't you loan the money? It seems you don't like your father very much but it seems you are really benefiting from the house...so all things considered depending on the amount at stake could it be considered. And to answer your question yes selling the house for 1$ would be considered illegal...also don't think it is that easy for your mom to ask for divorce and have the house in her name. Laws usually protect spouses owning the marital abode and usually both parties must agree to the sale......also if your father has no other asset I doubt your mom could keep the house without selling so your father gets half. think about it...you are willing to spend money with a lawyer to divorce your parents to protect the house....?... lawyers are expensive hum

[lukeb]

I don't agree you are getting dragged dragged down because this isn't your home, yes your mom is getting dragged down in this as with anything if your husband or wife makes bad business decisions their marital partner gets dragged down with them. Yes it affects you being an adult child living in your parents home, but you are not married to your parents, and again this isn't your home. If you don't want your Dad to get out of paying this debts then mean what you say and say what you mean. Don't say things like "I want my Dad to pay his debts but....." You're not saying what you mean and meaning what you say. If someone owes you money but tells you "I want to pay what I owe you but......", you know what he is really saying I am not interested in paying my debt to you, and you know you are dealing with a bullsh*tter, don't be like that bullsh*tter. If your Dad is senile and thus not capable of handling business decisions that is another issue.

[ParisPaulette]

Since the house has already likely been listed as an asset to the courts I don't think you can suddenly put it into a trust or anything else. You can contact an estate attorney on that or get other opinions from other attorneys, and you should since none of us on here are legally trained including me, but yeah the horse is out of the barn. It's likely too late to shut that gate. I'm not an attorney BTW, just someone who had to deal with my parents estate and we lost one piece of land by not having these things in trusts early on.

 

If it were me I'd just get the money together and pay the guy off and settle the case. If it's only $3,000 then I'm not sure why all the stress about the house anyways? Putting a lien on property seems kind of drastic for what is a pretty small peanuts case over a car that didn't get fixed??? Not sure I have all the details on this, but why not have your dad's attorney work out a payment plan or settlement. People do it all the time.

 

Thousands of dollars I would get this, but this is the sort of case that's typically settled in small claims court. Are you sure the house is even in any danger of being taken? Why is this a concern?

[annie24]

Divorcing sounds rather extreme. You say you are making some money - what if you just paid this man yourself? It sounds like it's going to be $3000-$5000 or so. I would just suck it up and pay that for dad. Work out a payment plan with the truck owner so that he can get stuff fixed elsewhere.

 

I think you need to have some sympathy for this truck owner - if you were to take your car, computer, a pair of shoes, whatever to be fixed, you expect the work to be done in a reasonable time, and for things not to be made even worse. This is totally on your dad - I'm afraid that you might just have to clean up this mess and then keep your dad from doing any more work for others because it doesn't sound like he is capable of it, or has the proper tools or insurance to protect his business.

[Doc Blaze]

You guys need to lawyer up..then have your lawyer contact his and try to settle this out of court..maybe the guy will even take less if you guys can gather cash asap....but waiting around trying to get around it will never work and come back to bite you in the butt...trust me...

[ecaryn]

I think there is much premature conclusion jumping here. Are you in the US? I'll assume so. You said your father was semi-retired and accepted this job to do at home... so, I'm guessing this is not an actual tax identified business he is running from his home? More of a shade tree mechanic, I'll-do-this-for-you-cheap kind of thing?

 

If all that is true, it's extremely unlikely the house would ever be in any kind of jeopardy. The guy has a small claims court case. That's about it. Generally, a small claims judgement is just something that can be listed on your father's credit as bad debt and/or a court ordered wage/social security income garnishment can be instituted for repayment. It's not in the courts practices to take someone's home, especially a primary residence or 'homestead' over a small debt such as this.

 

What you need to do, as has been suggested, is work out a payment plan with the truck owner, take out a loan for repayment if need be or make arrangements for his vehicle to be repaired as he had paid your father initially to do.

[lukeb]

There is another issue at play here and that the OP somehow assumes he has some kind of a claim of ownership of the family home, he doesn't. He didn't do anything to get part ownership of the home, but yet he assumes that he is personally getting dragged down with this business venture. Children can't just expect to have a claim to their parents assets just because they are old and supposedly closer to death.

[mhowe]

This is the most accurate response.

 

The debt is $3,000. Not $30k. It is a small claims court issue ---- not divorce, not declaring dad incompetent, not hiding assets fraudulently.

He took the money and did not provide the service, in addition to leaving the vehicle to the elements of winter.

[Doc Blaze]

It will take years for that guy to collect even if he does win the civil case.

[musicman777]

Hey guys,

First off, this is the best comment here, pretty logical and straight up. You are correct, he is a "shade tree mechanic". He has not LLC or anything. He doesn't report taxes. 40+ years ago he did everything by the book, had a shop, a two truck, everything when he was younger he did everything right. Now he can't anymore. I agree on the comment about the house, too. My mother is the one jumping conclusions on that. And he keeps listening to stupid "bar buddies" telling him to put the house in my name as soon as possible.

 

I see a whole of of bashing and unnecessary picking on me from some other posts on here! Look, as I posted in my reply earlier, I am just trying to prevent any jeopardy to the house, if it would even come to that. My mother is the one that freaking out constantly about this and it's getting annoying. Some of you also say I am acting as if I have some interest and own part of the house and things. Well, I was *suppose* to get this house even without these legal problems they were going to give it to me this year. Also, as I stated earlier, I have been doing ALL the work on it, paying almost ALL the bills on it, and I also pay ALL the property taxes on it for living here at 25. I do a lot to have it taken away.

 

I will post more later, working now. But I am getting him a lawyer to work this out. Thanks.

[Cheetarah]

That's not how a judgment lien would work, your home doesn't get snatched. And yes, a small claims judgment lien can be placed on real property. Doesn't mean that's what will happen, but it can. And yes, it's fraudulent to sell properties for pennies with the intent to keep assets out of reach. He is in a legal situation therefore yes, it would be fraudulent conveyance.

 

If you put a lot of work into the home and it's supposed to go to you, I really think you should take this one for your father and set up a payment plan with this man. It is much easier, preferable, less headaches for all parties if you just swallow this pill. It's going to you, anyway.

[Cheetarah]

He's also not going to go to jail. We don't have debtor's prisons anymore, haven't for hundreds of years. It's a civil matter. If it were child support or taxes, that would be a different story.

[jimthzz]

I agree with the others, that taking the hit if the house is really going to be yours some da is the way to go.

 

BUT after that is accomplished you need to set down with your dad and have him do no more of these mechanical repair jobs and try to formalize just how that house will be yours some day.

 

Willed to you? Etc.

[journeynow]

I imagine there are some options:

 

1. Your parents could borrow money from a bank against the assets they have in the house and pay the debt to the guy, be done with with him.

 

2. Or as others have said, work out a payment plan with him, and stick to it so he has no reason to come back with further claims

 

3. If a lien is put on it, are you clear what that would mean? It could mean that he'd hold a lean equivalent to the amount owed to him, not on the full value of the house, and you don't turn the house over to him but when the house is sold (or before ownership can be transferred to you or anyone else) he would have to be paid and the lien cleared. I don't know for sure (and this isn't legal advice, just my vague understanding), so find out more.

 

I'm sure it's no fun for you seeing your parent's stressed out about this, and I understand you've done a lot to help out financially. It's like paying rent, though, since you don't own it.

[lukeb]

I'm sure it's no fun for you seeing your parent's stressed out about this, and I understand you've done a lot to help out financially. It's like paying rent, though, since you don't own it.

 

This is the only thing I really agree with, the OP doesn't own the house at all, but assumes ownership by the way he is talking. My sense is the parents have helped out financially by letting him live in the house as well, a house he never bought, or took a mortgage out on. If the exchange was grossely in the parents favor he can have a talk with them. You are correct helping out financially is like paying rent. Where is the rationale for thinking that the OP owns part of the family home? The parents haven't even left him the house in their will, but even if they had, hello?, they are not dead yet. The only rationale that someone can use, but I don't agree with is his parents are old and thus closer to death so there is some rationale for thinking I don't know he kind of owns it? The OP has done nothing to claim ownership, the parents haven't given anything away sold part of it, whatever to lose a share in the home.