The Home Not Mentioned in a Probate Court

No Probate Sale from this Cul-de-sac

 

 

A knowledgeable real estate investor might watch carefully for the mention of any planned probate sales. Anyone in southern California who watched for such sales in 2005, did not see mention of plans to sell a home on one L.A. County cul-de-sac. Mention of that home could have found its way into a probate court. But at the present time, no probate court judge has heard a case that concerned that particular piece of real estate.

 

The home in question had for some time provided shelter to an elderly woman, a woman whose husband had chosen to leave her, and to live at a separate address. Upon the death of that woman, one could have seen the development of a fight for ownership of the home. One could have seen the development of a case for the probate court.

 

The woman’s husband had left the home, and so had appeared to have shown little interest in the home. The woman’s children could have highlighted that fact in a probate court. They could have asked a probate court to give them ownership of the home. If a probate court had followed that route, then those children could have sold that home.

 

That would probably have pleased one real estate investor. But that was not what the woman’s children wanted. Instead of going to probate court, and instead of trying to gain ownership of the home, the woman’s children helped to fix-up the home, and to get it ready of a new occupant. Then they arranged for their father to move back into that home.

 

That decision by those children, a decision to avoid going to probate court, provided their father with more than a way to return to his former residence. It also provided him with a very special opportunity. It led to the arrival at his door of a most exciting visitor.

 

The tiny visitor was someone who knew nothing about probate court. The tiny visitor was the 3 month-old daughter of a neighbor’s son. The neighbor’s son had played in the yard across from the home to which the widower had returned. The widower found it remarkable that he was the recipient of a visit from the young man’s daughter.

 

As one thinks about what the future holds for that small child, one might wonder as well about the future of the probate court. Could the trend toward the use of living wills lead to a sharp decline in the use of the probate court? Or could the public see resurgence in the use of the probate court? The answer to that question will not be provided by an examination of the above story. The answer to that question will reveal itself as the generation represented by that tiny baby matures. As the members of that generation grow into adulthood, then they will determine the future of the probate court.

 

They will decide whether they prefer to settle questions of estate inheritance with a living will or the probate court.