Q: I have taken care of this man for 3 years & I rent one of his houses. He went & signed a notorized affadavit stating I
Was to get the house I was already renting. He didn't add anything to his trust & there was no will. Now his daughters are saying the affadavit is null & void & she's kicking myself & minor daughter out. What can I do. He wanted me to.have this house.
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A:
I am sorry to have to tell you that the daughters are probably right. A will in Kansas (as in most other states) requires two witnesses to valid, and it sounds like this will had no witnesses or at most maybe one, and even that is a stretch. This is a perfect illustration for why one should always hire an attorney to help with estate planning. Although you yourself did nothing wrong, the man to whom you refer did something terribly wrong, which was trying to do do-it-yourself planning and failing at it. You are the unhappy victim.
That said, you owe it to yourself to take the notarized affidavit to the best probate litigation attorney you can find in your area and at least explore whether there are any grounds for probating it as a will. Some attorneys have been successful with getting things admitted that one would not expect, using novel theories or old cases or making new law. The problem is this can be very expensive compared to how simple and easy it would have been had the man done this the right way.
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