General Election November 7, 2006

Just a reminder: if you didn't already know it a General Election will be held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. They call this election a "mid-term" election because it comes in the middle of a presidential term. Although not as sexy as a presidential election it is no less important on a national level. The political blogs say the election could either transfer control of the Senate and/or House to the Democrats or strengthen control of the Senate and/or House by the Republicans.

I would encourage those who intend to vote to take the next week to brush up on the local and national issues and cast your ballot accordingly. No matter who or what you vote for, your vote should be an informed one.

Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship

What is Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship?

A Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship is a document (usually in the form of a deed) wherein two individuals (often husband and wife) own equal and undivided interests in a piece of property. When one of the individuals dies, the surviving individual acquires ownership of the entire piece of property by right of survivorship. To establish ownership, the surviving individual simply executes and records an affidavit of death.

Pros of the Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship

The biggest pro to a Joint Tenancy is the fact that ownership of the property is transferred outside of probate. This makes this type of transfer simple and economical. In addition, the joint tenants are not required to record the deed to create the tenancy which can provide a measure of confidentiality from those who might object to the transfer. Also, when one tenant dies the decedent's creditors lose their rights against the property.

Cons of the Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship

A Joint Tenancy Deed is Irrevocable and the transfer is taxable as a gift at the time the deed is executed. Also, during the life of the tenancy, the creditors of both tenants can reach the tenants' share of the property.

Recommendation

Before executing a Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship, check out these articles:

Estate Planning and the Enhanced Life Estate Deed, The Difference Between the Enhanced Life Estate Deed, Warranty Deed and Quit claim Deed, The Traditional Life Estate Deed, The Revocable Transfer on Death Deed and California's Revocable Deed.

Can I Evict My Landlord?

Yesterday's trip to kangaroo court (i.e. county court) was more than a little eventful. While I waited for my case to come up on the docket I witnessed one of the strangest landlord/tenant issues I have ever seen. The facts are these:

Ms. Landlord and Mrs. Tenant were very good friends in college. Ms. Landlord owned a five bedroom home near FSU's campus and agreed to rent a room to Mrs. Tenant. After a year of this arrangement Ms. Landlord decided to sell the home. Mrs. Tenant offered to enter into a lease/purchase contract whereby Mrs. Tenant would lease the home for five years with the option of purchasing it at the end of five years at a price yet to be determined.

Ms. Landlord agreed and leased the home to Mrs. Tenant. During the term of the lease Mrs. Tenant married and had two children who all lived in the home. About three years into the lease, Ms. Landlord's funds ran out and she decided to move back into the home with Mrs. Tenant and her family. Without any notice to Mrs. Tenant, Ms. Landlord just showed up one day, moved Mrs. Tenant's children's furniture out of one of the rooms, replaced the children's furniture with her own and moved back into the house. You should have seen the look on the Judge's face when he heard this.

Mrs. Tenant somehow didn't realize that a landlord cannot just move back into the house whenever she wants. Instead of throwing Ms. Landlord out, Mrs. Tenant decided to cut the amount of rent she was paying in half. When Ms. Landlord got the reduced rent check she sued Mrs. Tenant to have her evicted. Mrs. Tenant countersued Ms. Landlord to have her evicted. The whole scenario was nuts.

In the end, the Judge rendered a Solomonlike verdict evicting both the Tenant and the Landlord. The Landlord was evicted immediately because she should never have been there in the first place. The Tenant is to be out by the end of the month at which time the Landlord can move back in. A perfectly unhappy solution to both parties.

Legal Advice
No legal advice on this one. If you are crazy enough to get caught up in this type of scenario there is really no telling what a Judge will do. I do think he made the right decision though.

A PR Query to Political and Legal Bloggers

Fellow bloggers, I have a question. I have been told that google has recently performed a page rank update? It appears that the PR on this blog has not changed at all and that none of the posts have updated PR. Is the update over and did I miss all of the fun? Please let me know in the comments section. Thanks. Hope everyone else's PR went up.