Q: lived unwed with SO for 30+ yrs. He passed no will, daughter wants to claim everything. She have rights to items in home

A: Possession is nine tenths of the law. If it’s in your home, she will need to prove it was her father’s property by clear and convincing evidence before she can remove it from your home. Your property is clearly your property. If she attempts to take your property, she could be liable for theft. If she wants to fight for ownership of the property, she’ll also have to begin a probate to become the executor of her father’s estate. All in all, she’ll have an uphill fight, especially with your 30 year relationship with her father.

A: First, the restraining order has no effect on division of items after death.

Secondly, who gets what, when there is no will, is broken down into two major categories.

The first category is items which have ownership papers of some kind. For example a house has a deed, which is an ownership paper. For example a car has a title, an ownership document. A bank account has a monthly statement, an ownership document.

Let's start with the house. If the deed is in your friend's name alone, and there is no will and he didn't put it into a trust, then someone has to go the court to get is transferred into the name of the heirs. That is called probate. You need an attorney for a probate. You also need an attorney to help determine who are the heirs. It is not always what seems obvious.

Secondly, the motor vehicles. If a motor vehicle has two names on it, when one dies, the other person is the sole owner. The second person goes to DMV with the death certificate and fills out the DMV forms and a new title is sent in the mail. If there is only one name, his name, then the vehicle too must go through probate.

Thirdly, bank accounts and other financial accounts like credit union accounts or stock trading accounts: Again if there are two names on the account, the surviving person is now the 100% owner. Go to the bank with a death certificate and get it changed over. If there is only one name on the account, his name, it is possible that he may have named a beneficiary. Go to the bank and ask them if you are named as beneficiary. If you are, then they transfer the account into your name.

Fourthly, life insurance: If he has any policies, contact the company and see if you are the beneficiary.

Next: items which have no ownership papers. This means all the household furniture, furnishings, appliances, books, papers, jewelry, clothes, items in the garage, items in the yard. If you bought the item, then it is yours. If he bought the item, if he gave it to you, then it is yours. It is a matter of proof. If the daughter claims he did not give all that stuff to you, how can she prove it? I am not saying you should lie about it. If he gave it to you, it's yours. If you bought something together to jointly use, it is also yours.

When you ask a question online, like here, the answers you get are only going to be basic information, a starting point. Attorneys are trained to talk to you to find out all the important details of your story. Getting all the details is very important because it will make a big difference in the legal information given to you. It is strongly recommended that even if you get a response here on Justia, that you also talk to an attorney. Some have free first interviews. Even if you have to pay, it is worth it because you talking to a professional who is going to focus on you.

Any Attorney in California: Also there is no requirement that you talk to an attorney in your area. Any attorney licensed in California can help you no matter where you live as long as the issue is in California. The interview would be done by phone, Zoom, Skype, Facetime or some other type online method. Even if the attorney is in your area, many attorneys are only talking to people this way due to the Covid pandemic, so you couldn’t have an interview in their office anyway. Give one of us a call. We are here to help.

Write a Will: By the way, after you have resolved your immediate issue, you should consider writing a will for yourself. You can see the problem it causes when you friend did not write a will. If he had written a will, and given everything to you. there would be nothing to dispute. So don't let this happen to your own children or whoever you want to give your items to.