legal curiosity regarding a friend's situation

[rayzor]

ok, so i've got this friend who was more or less abandoned and put up for adoption by her mother when she was two years old along with two other older siblings.

30 years later my friend finds her birth mom and they had a, i guess, a civil relationship. anyways, the birth mother dies and my friend is called as the next of kin to sign the birth certificate. she was kind of puzzled why this would happen since she legally had no relationship with the birth mom.

fast forward a couple months, the mom had a run down trailer on an acre that she owned and she starts getting phone calls from a relative of the birth mom asking to sell the property. my friend says she's not going to sell a property she doesn't own, but the guy thinks she's playing hardball. my friend doesn't want anything to do with the situation, but the family member is starting to harass her and threatening to sue her because he's been paying the electric bill on the trailer for a few months.

to her knowledge, there is nothing written that says she owns the property. the mom talked about writing her into a will, but the will never happened.

anyways, is it possible that my friend legally owns the property, even though she was put up for adoption?

[chknwing]

no.  unless there was a will or she was put on the deed to the property and it directly passed to her.  She has no obligation whatsoever.  The state will take control of the property and auction it off to pay her moms final debt.

[cookinbrak]

Why is he paying the electric bill on a trailer nobody lives in?

[rayzor]

Just now, cookinbrak said:

Why is he paying the electric bill on a trailer nobody lives in?

We don't know. So he can say he has been and hold it over her head? The dude is weird.

[rayzor]

51 minutes ago, chknwing said:

no.  unless there was a will or she was put on the deed to the property and it directly passed to her.  She has no obligation whatsoever.  The state will take control of the property and auction it off to pay her moms final debt.

Is it possible that she was put on the deed without her knowing about it? Wouldn't she have to sign something?

[rayzor]

I guess we can go to that county and check the deed to see whose name is on it, right? It's a public record.

[cookinbrak]

1 minute ago, rayzor said:

We don't know. So he can say he has been and hold it over her head? The dude is weird.

All she has to do is go to the clerk of courts and find out whose name the property is in. If it is in the relative's name, he's paying his own bill. If it's still in mom's name, tell him to shut the power off.

What's probably happening is that once the power is turned off, they won't reconnect it due to age. He wants to keep it on in hopes that he ends up with it.

[rayzor]

Supposedly this relative has a friend that paid for the mom's cremation and he's trying to get her to pay him back. Not sure why she would be responsible for any of this since the mom gave her up and she was adopted.

The whole situation is screwy. She doesn't want to have anything to do with that family. Made nice with the mom just to be nice.

[Jangler]

my first thought was some kind of scam. 

I'd make sure my name is nowhere near this just to be safe. 

[The_Light_Brigade]

You can check ownership of the property on the County's GIS website (depending on where it is).  Usually, an estate file is set up in the Clerk of Court of the County.  They walk you through the process of debt collection and property acquisition (for the most part).  Anyone can open an estate file as far as I know.  In there she can file the relevant information about the severance of parental rights, showing she (or her siblings) has no interest in the property.  Eventually, if there are no liens on the property, taxes unpaid will become due and the County will take ownership.  (Either County or bank, depending on liens)  Unfortunately, if the lady has no heirs and no will stating ownership.  There's not a whole lot that can be done. A judge can rule the property sold to cover other debts, I think?  If you have any questions feel free to PM me.  I can at least walk you through how to find the property. 

[Still Brooklyn]

Sounds like your friend needs to learn how to use a phone and call the right authority and ask the right question.

[thefuzz]

Just call the county where the trailer is located.  If it's not in her name, tell the uncle he can do whatever he pleases, but do not call, text, e-mail, or mail me  again.