what to do to to get my property back as agreed

[kelly hogan]

Jurisdiction

Washington

in 2009 i signed a paper, not sure of the legal name for it, with mr t. it stated that i would sign over my property and it would be returned to me upon his death. it was notarized and transferred. i was to get a copy in the mail and i did not. now he has died and i asked the attorney for a copy and she says she can not find it. mr t's daughter says without the paperwork i will not get it. what do i do next. i've asked the attorney for a statement that she can not find it and is looking for it and the statement she wanted said it happened before she was with the firm. as far as i know she operates out of 2 offices but is the only lawyer. when i asked her what i could do her answer was she will continue to look. it was not in safe one so now she is looking is safe 2. what do i need to do to not lose my home

 

[flyingron]

The legal name for it may be "worthless piece of paper."

When you say home, are we talking a piece of real estate that was transfered. In that case, the paper may be a "transfer on death deed." This should have been filed with the county recorder's office, you should check there (or have an attorney do so for you).

Note that Washington TODs are usually revocable, so it is possible that even if you were the beneficiary of it at one point, you no longer are. Again, an attorney (YOUR ATTORNEY, not someone else's) would be advisable.

 

[Foamback]

Washington has over the course of years to decades raised the bar of responsibility for storage of documents like wills and the such, if they choose to do this for their clients, to such a degree that it's a lot easier to not keep the documents.

 

[zddoodah]

Capitalization would be helpful.

in 2009 i signed a paper, not sure of the legal name for it, with mr t.

I assume this was a person whose last name began with "T," and not the actor who goes by that name.

it stated that i would sign over my property and it would be returned to me upon his death.

It stated that you would sign over your property? Or that, by virtue of signing, you were transferring ownership of the property? And why on Earth would you do this? What did you receive in return?

i was to get a copy in the mail and i did not.

Why didn't you keep a copy at the time you signed?

now he has died and i asked the attorney for a copy and she says she can not find it.

"The attorney"? Is this your attorney? Mr. T's attorney? Something else?

mr t's daughter says without the paperwork i will not get it.

"It"? I assume you're saying that you approached Mr. T's daughter (possibly in her capacity as executor of his estate) and asked to have the property transferred back to you and that she declined to do so since you were apparently unable to produce documentation of the alleged deal between you and Mr. T. Correct?

i've asked the attorney for a statement

A statement for what?

what do i need to do to not lose my home

It sounds to me like you gave away your home 14 years ago. If you didn't keep a copy of the documentation, then I can only echo Mr. T's (the actor) most famous quote. That said, I suggest you visit the county assessor's office and obtain a copy of the deed by which you transferred the property to Mr. T back in 2009 (along with any subsequent deeds on the property). If the deed itself does not contain any evidence of the alleged transaction, then you will likely be SOL. The law requires that contracts relating to the ownership of real property must be in writing to be enforceable.

 

[army judge]