- Jurisdiction
- Florida
Hello.
My uncle recently passed away in May, and he was declared mentally incompetent many years ago from an injury in the navy that required having a portion of his brain removed. He had to be cared for by family for the past 60 years. He was not married, had no kids, parent and siblings predeceased him. He always lived with family starting with his parents. When they died, they left everything to him so that he would be able to live in the house until he died. At that time the estate was suppose to go to probate.
I am the very next of kin(his sister is my mom). But prior to his passing, my nephew took him over at age 80 and had him sign POA papers and some other documents with an attorney that supposedly left everything to my nephew and his sister. These are my brothers adult kids who rarely speak to him. They have already had the house transferred with a quitclaim deed, but I don't think they have been able to transfer funds just yet from his bank account. There has been no probate started and no will submitted to the county clerk of courts. They had something written up to skirt around that, but even then, that should be illegal documents.
I have been told that fraud has been committed, but litigation would have to be done, and they want way too much money up front as a retainer fee. I can not afford this, but at the same time, due to receiving unemployment over the past year, I guess I don't qualify for free or low fee help either. My brother is an heir of course too, but he won't make any attempts to fight this.
My questions are: How long is too late to have probate started? have an attorney litigate this? to challenge the deed transfer? etc?
I know that my uncle died with well into six figures in his bank account. Is there a way to get the court to appoint someone the Administrator(even if it's an attorney), and then we can gain access to information of my uncle's bank account so that the attorney will know there are sufficient funds to pay their fees? This is the only thing preventing getting this started/done.
I just can't believe that people who are rightful heirs could be robbed through a scheme like this just because they can't afford to pay an attorney to litigate. I could have afforded to pay a small retainer fee to an attorney to do the simple probate, etc....but this litigation thing I just can't afford.
Any help? Suggestions? Could bringing this to a district attorney help any?
Thanks in advance,
TomR
My uncle recently passed away in May, and he was declared mentally incompetent many years ago from an injury in the navy that required having a portion of his brain removed. He had to be cared for by family for the past 60 years. He was not married, had no kids, parent and siblings predeceased him. He always lived with family starting with his parents. When they died, they left everything to him so that he would be able to live in the house until he died. At that time the estate was suppose to go to probate.
I am the very next of kin(his sister is my mom). But prior to his passing, my nephew took him over at age 80 and had him sign POA papers and some other documents with an attorney that supposedly left everything to my nephew and his sister. These are my brothers adult kids who rarely speak to him. They have already had the house transferred with a quitclaim deed, but I don't think they have been able to transfer funds just yet from his bank account. There has been no probate started and no will submitted to the county clerk of courts. They had something written up to skirt around that, but even then, that should be illegal documents.
I have been told that fraud has been committed, but litigation would have to be done, and they want way too much money up front as a retainer fee. I can not afford this, but at the same time, due to receiving unemployment over the past year, I guess I don't qualify for free or low fee help either. My brother is an heir of course too, but he won't make any attempts to fight this.
My questions are: How long is too late to have probate started? have an attorney litigate this? to challenge the deed transfer? etc?
I know that my uncle died with well into six figures in his bank account. Is there a way to get the court to appoint someone the Administrator(even if it's an attorney), and then we can gain access to information of my uncle's bank account so that the attorney will know there are sufficient funds to pay their fees? This is the only thing preventing getting this started/done.
I just can't believe that people who are rightful heirs could be robbed through a scheme like this just because they can't afford to pay an attorney to litigate. I could have afforded to pay a small retainer fee to an attorney to do the simple probate, etc....but this litigation thing I just can't afford.
Any help? Suggestions? Could bringing this to a district attorney help any?
Thanks in advance,
TomR