A blocked account is one blocked by a court order. Therefore, you need a court order to unblock the account when you need to use the funds.

What you need to file is an MC 357 (the Petition) and an MC 358 (the Order for the judge to sign).

You will only see the judge for a minute,... View More

It certainly can be elder abuse, but you would have to prove bad faith by the landlord. Is it possible that you don't get your deposit back for legitimate reasons? If the landlord is just a crook, then I am afraid you may just have to sue to get it back.

Try calling the Tenants... View More

Yes you can, but it would be a very bad idea anyway you look at it. The executor would be personally liable for any debts or taxes if he gave away too many assets.

Normally it requires the assent of all the parties involved, so any one person can block it.

A final account and... View More

The Probate process begins with someone filing a Petition with the Probate Court, along with the Will if there is one. A court date is assigned 15 to 30 days out. The petitioner is required to give notice of ths to all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors and persons of interest so that they can... View More

If your friend executes a Power of Attorney it will list specific authorities that he gives you over his property. He may have made a very limited one, or a very broad one. If he gave you a broad Power of Attorney then he gave you the authority to handle his taxes, buy and sell real estate, pay... View More

That depends on whether or not your father had a Will or a Trust.

He is entitled to do whatever he wants to with his property upon his death, within the limits of his not giving away community property that belongs half to his wife.

The trick is how the property is deeded. Is... View More

Yes, the trust can be dissolved under those conditions.

California Probate Code section 15403 gives permission to do so upon petition to the court (you can't just do it on your own).

You will have to show that all the beneficiaries consent and that the trust is no longer needed... View More

All questions like this of course depend on exactly what the Trust states.

However, normally a grantor retains rights (written this way explicitly in the Trust) to do pretty much as he pleases with every asset. This only applies to a Revocable ("Living") Trust. If the Trust was... View More

Your question of course just raises more issues.

You can certainly establish a Special Needs Trust for your daughter if she is disabled and on SSI. The whole purpose of

SNTs is to shield assets from someone on SSI or other government programs from being disqualified. They are... View More

Do NOT give the house away. It will ruin the tax advantage you have for holding it. If you let your daughter inherit it then she will get to inherit the house with the present value as her tax basis. If you just give it to her she will take YOUR tax basis, which is the amount you paid for it... View More

It depends ...

Unless he adopted the step children, they have no rights to his property.

When you die without a Will, called dying intestate, the law steps in a divides your property based on what family you left and step children get nothing.

However, if your grandfather... View More

Nothing is needed except good records.

What you want to do is find something to show what the value of the property was when she died. A good idea is to have the property appraised (cost a few hundred dollars). That will give you a reasonable and fact based idea from a trained... View More

Witnessing is not enough! A Trust needs to be notarized. Spend the $15.

You have to go to the notary anyway to change the deed.

To put something into your Trust, you need a writing of some sort. For real estate, I would never count on anything less than a Deed, registered with... View More

Probably not.

Your son died "intestate" (without a WIll) so the process is very straight forward. The estate will have someone appointed by the court to handle it, things will be inventoried and divided according to the law. If he had no wife or children, then your ex-husband... View More

She should be safe there. The rules for evicting someone from nursing care are pretty strict. As long as she (or her family or conservator) are working with the facility to get her on Medi-Cal, there should be no problem. If the facility does not take Medi-Cal though, then there will be... View More

This is absolutely not allowed.

A trustee has the duty to treat all beneficiaries fairly and equally, and to protect the assets of the trust. This sounds like the trustee violated both of these tenets.

If the trustee is not doing his duties, you will probably need to ask a judge... View More

They can evict her for any reason at all, or no reason at all, but they have to go through the entire eviction process. They can't just tell her to get out today because that is her home now.

As the trustee, and also a beneficiary now that the trust has become irrevocable, you are entitled to a copy of the Trust by California Probate Code 16061.5.

Whether or not she can change beneficiaries depends on what the Trust says. Those things govern themselves and have their own rules.... View More

Can you? Yes.

Should you? Maybe not. Why all the trouble? You might be hurting yourself on taxes.

You can change ("gift" or "transmute") things from Community to Separate Property at will any time. You are correct that it is currently Community Property.... View More

You need to have the house put in both of your names as Joint Tenants. Otherwise, you have no interest in the house at all when he dies or if you split up. If you are helping to pay the mortgage, you should be getting some equity for that.

It would also be nice if he had a Will that... View More