I’ve been waiting a month now for an estate attorney to record a deed in my name for an inherited property. Once she received all of the signed and notarized documents she told me that the deed would be recorded “soon”. Three weeks later I inquired about the progress. After two days she replied that they had attempted to record the deed but it was rejected due to the “quality of the print”. She said they needed to re-type the legal description of the property. I looked at the old deed and the legal description is 3 paragraphs that refer to book pages and numbers from the Assessor’s office. I could have typed this in 10 minutes.
My brother hired this attorney to help him with his job as executor but in the end he distributed the trust on his own because he grew tired of waiting for her to complete paperwork. The most important professional assistance he received was from a tax accountant.
What is a reasonable length of time to expect an attorney to be able to complete this task? What can I do to speed things up without sounding unreasonable?
I can only speculate as to the reasons for this seemingly unnecessary delay. But, since your brother hired the same attorney & ended up doing the work himself, you should have known what to expect.
P.S. The delay does not seem to be related to the practice of law, but, rather, to the administrative & organizational competence of this attorney.
We just went through this in the state of Vermont. In order for the deed to be recorded, they required proof that the deed transfer tax had been paid (sounds like that’s already happened). I checked with the town in question to make sure all was on track. Is it worth asking the town/city to make sure there are no hold ups on their end?
You’re allowed to sound unreasonable. This person is working for you. If this is the last task that needs to be handled to finish everything up, you can tell the attorney that you need this all completed by [two weeks from now] so could they please make sure to either have it to you by then or let you know why it won’t be.
We had similar experiences with my dad’s first estate attorney. When she finally did things it was riddled with errors. She billed $970+ for next to nothing in work - literally had to start over and with doing so, found more errors. We highly suspect the amount she billed was kept just under 1k because at that amount we’d have been eligible for state intervention.
Since switching attorneys and telling friends, etc, about it, seems this is par for the course with her.
We’ve since learned to check with folks for good references rather than assume any attorney with a shingle out can do a job. I’m not quite sure how some passed the bar, but they stay in business due to naive folks like us.
In your position, with my experience, I’d be looking for recommended alternatives.
I called the Recorder’s Office last week and the rep said they have seen no activity for the property. I’m not sure if they would have made a notation that the transfer request was submitted and rejected. They also told me that they have a 3 month back-log of deeds to record, so I was hoping to get the process started as soon as possible.
This is purely an administrative issue. You have a right to be frustrated, of course, but I can tell you that the squeaky wheel usually gets the grease, especially in a practice that is going through a busy time or is administratively understaffed. Just keep making polite inquiries. Shoot off an email, leave a message, etc.
I was executor for an estate that took 9 years to close. You certainly have the right to ask the attorney for a timeline for their list of tasks and follow up with them on the status of them. And to voice displeasure if they don’t meet the commitments they make.
I’ve noticed that I only get a response when I ‘cc’ my brother on emails, as he is the one who will pay her bill. Some attorneys charge for each email reply, so I’m trying to keep the correspondence to a minimum.
One nagging question I have is what will happen to the property if something happens to me before the deed is transferred? It is held in a trust now, with my brother and sister as the other beneficiaries. The language of the trust says that my daughter will inherit assets if anything happens to me (per stirpes). We signed a distribution plan that shows I am to receive the property, but I suspect that would not be sufficient to transfer the deed to my husband.
Wow, 9 years @intparent! I am grateful that everything else has gone smoothly for us, the tax accountant has been an amazing resource and saved my brother from a number of costly mistakes.
So in three week she got the deed done, submitted it, and had it rejected. That’s probably about right. Who knows how long the recorder had it.
So if the deed was rejected to the quality of the print, whatever that means, I suspect there may be an issue with the legal description. Definitely want to make sure that is clean and clear. Verification might take some time as well.
I would just keep following up so you can get this closed out. Good luck.
@yourmomma, that’s a good point. I envisioned someone from the law office standing at the desk of the recorder’s office and having it rejected on the spot, but perhaps the recorder did keep it awhile for review. I’ll back off and wait another few weeks. It’s been helpful to hear these responses, thanks!
@Publisher, the client is my brother, as executor, so the attorney has no obligation to respond to me except to ensure that I have supplied needed signatures for the transfer.
Having gone through 5 probates , some with real estate transfers but no trusts in the past 2 years, this is what I learned.
Our reference in Texas was from a friend who was an attorney and used the probate attorney for his family. That was the most difficult one. It took 2 years each to complete the paperwork for 2 of them. I had to keep my email to the legal assistant (who did all the work) very simple. I numbered the problems in order. We paid up front a fee $2800 each. They even asked to refer one of the cases to another attorney after getting paid (no extra cost) because they are not going to do this anymore. We wanted them to do it. I think attorneys are not enthusiastic about probate cases. Strangely, eventually all was completed but I was prodding. In Texas you have to have an attorney and show up in court with them.
In PA we had 2 probates, each was very fast and efficient, I’m sure due to the secretary of the attorney who even had to prod me to get some things done. That was billed by the hour and was more costly about $6000 but totally done in one year. Court was for the attorney but not us.
In CO you do not have to have an attorney or show up in court so I did it myself. Small town and one clerk did the microfiche for free. That was very nice. It cost like $300 including court costs and paperwork that I found online. This was a very small case but took one year. When I called they would say check back in 3 months. I did have to call, check at the clerk and recorders office why something was not recorded. It was a $13 fee I did not know had to be paid to get recorded. I sent a check and it was then done.
So I would say 1-2 years for probate. All were done by myself, a secretary, or a legal assistant. Courts and recording did not move fast.
@momsquad - transfer and recording of a deed are two different things. Maybe you should present your questions/concerns to your brother and have him communicate with the attorney. You might get a better response that way.
Don’t take this as an implication that it’s happening in your case, but I do some probate work and have actually had to tell some heirs/beneficiaries to back off. If you can imagine an estate with 9 potential heirs, all with their own questions, concerns, grievances, accusations, and complaints, it can get very time consuming for the attorney to field all of that - to the detriment of other clients and/or actually getting work done on that particular case. If the attorney has had the misfortune of setting a flat fee, well, they aren’t going to be enthusiastic about answering multiple correspondences.
@Trixy34; Point well taken, thank you for the reality check. This issue is at the top of my little world but I suspect the attorney is very busy and this has low priority compared to other cases. I will ask my brother to follow up if we don’t hear anything within a few weeks.
I wouldn’t “back off” too much. Keep on top of it. It’s just time to get it done.
We had a situation with my Grandmother and the transfer of some business assets out of trust. When she died, the attorney gave us some BS about waiting 6 months, blah, blah, blah. I said: “__U, read the trust, the transfer happens on death, you’re out, where in, get lost.”
@momsquad, it appears the problem is as much with your brother as with the attorney. No such thing as higher priority cases, each case is a priority for the client, and the attorney needs to meet his clients’ needs. If your brother, who is the client, isn’t pushing this the attorney doesn’t think his client considers it a priority.
The estate is paying for legal services, and has the right to demand responsiveness. In a calm and businesslike manner.
I’m back at the local Recorder telling you it will take 3 months to process the Deed. That is insanity. Title companies, banks, etc are very dependent on having title recorded timely and accurately. In our State they have 24 hrs to update the Index of Records for all recorded documents.
Are they hand writing these recorded property docs in a manual ledger??
You certainly have the right to ask the attorney for a timeline for their list of tasks and follow up with them on the status of them. And to voice displeasure if they don’t meet the commitments they make.