Wife’s status in home unclear after signing of quitclaim deed
Ilyce Glink and Samuel Tamkin
Q: My husband used his inheritance to purchase our home outright. I signed a quitclaim deed to him to put the property into his living trust. The condition was that if he died before me I could live in the home until my death. The problem is that he never signed the living trust. What happens to the property or to me if he were to die before me?
We live in California, this is a second marriage for each of us.
A: You left out one critical piece of information: We would like to know whether your deed was to him personally or to his living trust. If you quitclaimed the home to him personally, he now owns your share of the home subject to any marital interests you might still have in the home.
On the other hand, if you quitclaimed the home to his living trust and the trust was never created, the deed might be invalid and you might still own your interest in the home.
Let’s review your ownership interest. At one point, and perhaps still to this day, you and your husband owned the property together as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. This would have meant that if you died, your husband would own the entire property automatically; and if he died, you would own the entire home automatically.
At that point, you signed a quitclaim deed over to him or his trust. The first thing that you would need to determine is whether the deed was filed or recorded. If it has not been recorded or filed, you can destroy the document and keep the status of the title as it was.
On the other hand, if the document was recorded and you transferred ownership to your husband, he is the sole owner of the home subject to your marital rights under California law.
You should seek assistance from an estate-planning attorney to make sure both of you are on the same page about who owns what.
Send questions to Real-estate Matters, 361 Park Ave., Suite 200, Glencoe, IL 60022, or contact author Ilyce Glink and lawyer Samuel Tamkin at www.thinkglink.com.