Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina, getting into the girlfriend on the deed issue. Also, buying a house while married but separated. We've got a number of questions coming in. We'll answer those coming up next on Judica County Radio. Whitaker and Harry.
Judica County. with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hayner. Welcome into Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina, where they practice law. They have placed offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuqua Varina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City for your convenience. If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to tackle on a future program, you can always send it to us: questions at judicacountyradio.com.
That's questions at judicacountyradio.com. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. During the course of today's show, we've got a number of consults available to you. They are complimentary and no obligation to become a client.
If you have questions about estate planning or possibly a recent auto accident and you don't know how to proceed, you can grab a consult at any time. 919-77270000. It's 919-7727000. Or go to the website, wh.lawyer. Josh.
This is directed at Josh. What do you think of ABS? I saw the story. I guess it was the Yankees game, and they had five. Challenges and they won all five, and the umps are like just they're through the roof.
I can see this. I mean, this is going to be ugly if this continues.
Well, I I like it. You know, for the for the folks at home, you know, uh this is the first year where they've kind of got the computer umpire set up, the AI umpire, and so you've still got your regular home plate umpire But it but the players can challenge a call and and there's certain rules and how many they can do or whatever but I read this was a couple days ago But for through the first three or four days of the season there was this one umpire who'd been challenged 78 times and lost all 70 78 78 um get your eyes checked don't you fire the ump don't you fire him after like 10 that they get wrong I don't know you know these umps they got unions and yeah the union's not happy about it but You know, what do you what are you gonna do? The computers are coming, man. Oh, yeah. They're going to take over ABS automatic balls and strikes.
And I mean, you can see it on your TV screen, you can see the strike zone. And so and and and also you've got fans in the ballpark that are absolutely berating the umpires. Oh, yeah. And now the players can. The players can challenge.
That's what I think about ABS.
Well, I mean, it's going to definitely be a topic of discussion, and at least for a little bit, put Major League Baseball as they open up their season on that front burner. And that's kind of what they want, right? Maybe some eyeballs have fallen off of Major League Baseball.
Well, now they're back on it. Do you guys even care about the final four anymore? Everybody's out, right? We don't care about it. Final four of what?
Yeah.
Well, the uh what you're talking about that Michigan team's got a uh a former uh triangle player playing point guard. Godot's on there. You know, just uh the swi the the switching and the s uh the The flip-flopping of the ba the basketball players from school to school is just It's irritating. But it's where we are. Is basketball even a real sport?
You know, if we're being honest, you know what I was thinking about the other day? They should make.
So, they want to expand the field of 64 or 68. I don't think they should. I don't think they should have done the four-playing games. I think they should have left it at 64, but there's all this talk about expanding it. I don't think they should expand it.
I think they should make it a double elimination tournament. You gotta lose twice to be out of the tournament, and there's a losers' bracket. I'd be okay. That would be crazy. Can we retroactively implement that for this show?
But then you got two tournament games, no matter what, you lose twice. And think of all the TV.
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. Weekend, yeah. Hmm. I can get down with that, but who cares about basketball, man? Who's it's not over, man.
It's over. The Masters is coming up. I'm ready for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't know.
Once the ACC teams are out, I don't, I don't pay attention anymore, so it's like it's not even happening. It's not even a thing. Yeah, so let me Let me ask you this, guys, and since we're on the sports topic as we open up the show, if you're Tiger Woods' attorney, How do you advise him moving forward? I remember, I don't know if you guys remember Mo Vaughan, who was with the Boston Red Sox, and he had a number of issues driving. And the big argument 20 years ago was: dude, you make all this money, get a driver.
Have somebody drive you wherever you need to go. And it's almost like we're at that stage with Tiger. He's obviously admitted he's got an issue. Yeah.
And it sounds like he's going into rehab, which is Sounds like what he needs to do. But boy, I tell you, if you're an attorney and you're working for Tiger, you're working overtime right now. Yeah, you probably Probably making a healthy living doing so as well, I would assume. It's a give and take, you know. Yeah, I don't know.
He sounds like he knows he maybe needs some help. And when that kind of thing keeps happening, you know, it's not a. That's not good, but hopefully, he can get the help he needs. But yeah, you think once you hit a certain level of income, you know. You know, having a having a personal driver probably isn't too Too difficult.
You've got one, don't you, Josh? No. Don't you? No. I haven't hit a chauffeur.
I haven't hit that. I haven't hit that stratosphere.
Okay. Yeah, yeah. But you know, I'm also one of those people, and maybe Tigers like this too. Like, I want to drive, I don't want anybody to drive anywhere. I don't like.
My wife's a fine driver. This isn't a commentary on her, but I don't want her to drive. I don't want my kids, you know. I'm not going to drive anywhere. My kids are learning how to drive.
I'd rather just drive. I'd just rather drive. Yeah, and I'm I'm in that boat too, and I've been accused of being kind of uh a dictator when it comes to driving. If if I'm in the car, I want to be driving, and it's it's kind of hard to Give that up. Yeah.
I like riding. I'm gonna be concerned here. And uh I like just being able to to kick my feet back and Yeah, and you like riding in the back seat. Like, if your wife is going to drive, you know, honey, I'm just getting in the back. I'm just a big driving Miss Daisy fan.
I try to reenact that anytime I can. It makes me feel important. My wife was talking about it. I don't know what brought that up, but my wife was talking about that movie the other day. I was like, I've never seen it.
It's one of the many movies that I've never seen. Yeah, I've never seen it either. I know of it. I saw SNL make fun of it, so I'm assuming I've got. the gist of it now.
There's nothing that I never see myself sitting around with enough time. And I got nothing left to watch. I'm like. Today's driving Miss Daisy. Driving Miss Daisy.
And I was like that.
So last night I got, I got, last night, we were really busy at the firm. Big scheduled day at the firm, so I get home. I got a kid going to practice. I got a kid with a track meet. I get home.
There's nothing I want to watch. My youngest son has been making us re-watch Malcolm in the Middle because the new Malcolm in the Middle is coming out. He's making music. Demanding. You're getting home and he's.
Sit in this chair, Dad. Yeah, basically, when are we doing it, Dad? When are we doing it? But that's good quality time. Oh, it's good.
It's good. He enjoys it. It's a good show. It's worth watching if you never watched it. But then we got I-Man quality time between.
I'd argue it's probably a lot better, a lot more entertaining. But then we watched an episode or two of that, and then he had to go to bed, and I'm sitting there. No sports on I wanted to watch. It was quiet. I just went to sleep.
So, I don't see how we ever get to driving Miss Daisy time because if it gets that point. I'm just gonna go to sleep. Yeah.
It could it could help you go to sleep, man. That could be your uh That could be your melatonin. Just put on Drive of Miss Daisy.
Now I might be one day I might be let's say I'm eighty eight. Right, well, say I'm 88, so a couple years from now, a couple years down the road, a few, and I got nothing to do. Kids are off with their families doing stuff, I'm not working. Got the yard all squared away. Yeah.
You know, taking it easy. It's time.
Somebody else is squaring away there. It's like driving Miss Daisy time. I was like, I wish Morgan and Joe were here. It's going, it's going down. What?
Are we going to be dead? I don't know. No, no, no. I like this. I like this where it's going.
Let's do a movie night. Yeah.
Of course, when you're in your 80s, that means I'm going to be in my 90s. You guys may have to come pick me up or send a driver. Send a driver. Send Morgan Freeman to come pick me up. We'll send the robots.
At that point, it'll just be the robot. It will be. Morgan Freeman will be 200 years old at that point. Joe, send your fourth best robot to go get you don't get my A-team of robots. All right.
Okay, let's take a break and come back. We'll start with this question, the girlfriend on the deed issue. That's coming up next on Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. And again, they are practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina and offices all over our great state, Moorhead City, Gastonia, Fuquai Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Cleveland, Garner, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina, for your convenience.
If you've got a question about estate planning, question about I was recently in a car accident, don't know how to proceed, grab a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer, and you can do that right now. Just sign up at 919-7727000. Give that number a call. Leave your contact information. They'll get back in touch with you.
919-77270000. You can also visit wh.lawyer. We've got questions coming up next on Judica County. Yeah.
Welcome back, Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquave Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. During the course of today's show, we're going to hit some questions.
We'll hear from the attorneys, but you're going to have questions about your own situation in regards to estate planning or maybe a recent car accident, don't know how to proceed, grab a complimentary consult. You can do that at any time. 919-77270000. Call that number. Again, no cost, no obligation to become a client.
919-7727000. You can also visit WHO. Dot lawyer. Gentlemen, first question on the books. Uh the girlfriend on the deed issue.
Here it is. I added my girlfriend to my deed a few years ago. We've since broken up and she won't sign anything to remove herself. What can I do?
So Mm. I feel like we get versions of this question Every couple of weeks. And I know me and Joe, we shout this from the rooftops because we see a lot of this in our personal practice. Uh And I I have three boys. If you listen to the show, you know I have three boys.
And they all have several girlfriends. No, no, not not yet. But. Don't add anybody to your deed.
Alright, don't just don't Don't do it. Yeah.
Right. That's my advice. I'm answering.
Okay, again, that's not an absolute like there are situations. where it potentially could make sense. Sure. But it's a very narrow set of situ like it's very narrow. And Yeah, you need to check with us or with your attorney.
and understand the implications of what you're doing. You know, if you're married, right?
So if you marry your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your partner, you know, whatever language you want to use, if you get married. then there are a lot of laws that affect Property, whether it's in your sole name, whether you inherited it, your spouse is going to have a marital interest there. There are laws that kind of try to aim at protecting uh both spouses so you know um But but if you're gonna add someone you're not married to Uh to to a deed. There's very few. You're right.
There probably are some, Joe, but here in the. I just don't do it. Or or talk talk talk to me or Joe. 'Cause Once you add someone to the deeds, you don't get to unilaterally decide to take them off. Right.
You can on your own go and sign a deed and add Joe to the property, me, Morgan, girlfriend, boyfriend. You can put someone on a deed with just your signature. When you decide you want that person off, now that person has to join in. They have to sign. They have to agree to come off title.
You have given them. In our example, this person added their girlfriend to the title. They have basically made a gift of half. of their property. to this person.
and that person has accepted that gift. And the only way you get it back is if they give it back to you. And if you're in a situation where you and your girlfriend now hate each other, Mm-hmm. She probably shouldn't have to be the situation. That is going to make this problematic, right?
Hence, the relationship ends. Yes. Yeah, I would think back, I would take time to think back. You know, me, Morgan, and Joe are all happily married, but but think back. To previous girlfriends that you may have had in the past, or boyfriends, or whatever.
I'm not here to judge you. But Think back to how many of them, if they were on title to your property. At the relationship's end, they'd have been like, Oh, let me come by the attorney's office to sign over. That half of the property you gave me. Do you think your own, if you look back in your own history, Your own rearview mirror, how many of your exes would be like, oh, I'll.
I'll get by Josh's office and sign that that deed for you, don't worry about it. Very, very, very, very few. More in Well, I mean, I I I'll say this. I understand this is probably something you don't want to do. Uh but having been married and having, you know, a pretty amicable uh you know divorce, um, you know, we were able to come to an agreement.
But I would also say from a girlfriend-boyfriend standpoint, as Joe mentioned, I mean, it's usually ending and it's pr it's probably nuclear nuclear for the most part. Um Maybe that other person doesn't want to have anything to do with the other person, and that's something that can happen, but the fact that You don't have to. Maybe there's a financial Exchange To get the name off there. I don't know. Well, and that's the thing, man.
You got to understand, you are, when you add somebody to title, you can't do anything. There's nothing you can do without their signature, right? You can't refinance, you can't sell the property, you have to have their signature. And You can't just force them to sign absent some kind of legal action. And the problem is, man, what what we see pretty commonly.
Is someone will make the hasty, rash decision to add a girlfriend to title, and this will be a person that never spends a dollar towards the improvement of the property. They don't do anything, right? They don't pay the mortgage, they don't pay a bill, they're just on title. They break up because they're a crazy person and Then they have got leverage over you.
So they can dictate. or at least try to dictate. How the resolution of their interest looks, and they're going to ask for money. I mean, that's ultimately what it's going to be. And I will tell you, this girlfriend, this is a listener.
Or boyfriend, right? Or boyfriend.
Well, I was going to say, this question is: I did my girlfriend. But I will tell you, most of the situations where I'm trying to help unwind a situation, it is a. Lady. It is a girl who has gone, you know, got a job. bought a house, doing very, very well, and then they add.
A boyfriend to title. That's usually, honestly, that's 80% of the times I see this situation. It is the reverse. It is a it is a it is a female who is adding her her boyfriend a title. And and and again.
Without cooperation. Like Joe said, you're paying them money to get them off title, or you're. Asking a judge to order a sale. Right. We talk about petition to partition on this, on this.
But if you own, if me, Morgan, and Joe own property, I want to sell it, they don't. I have a statutory right to force a sale. But then that's not always. the best case scenario either because this may be property you don't want to sell. But that's kind of where you get stuck.
So I want to put that advice on the back of my card. Anytime I give anybody my card, I just point to the back. Don't add your boyfriend/slash girlfriend to the title. Don't make me point at the card again. Just, you know.
But uh, but yeah, that's that's not a good situation to be in, and and uh You know, just don't do it. And if you've got a girlfriend or boyfriend who's really pushing for you to add them to the deed, I think that's weird. Right, right, I mean, I guess maybe they're paying some of the mortgage or something. If they're paying, if you guys are cohabitating. If you never have any, you know, there's some folks that don't want to get married, you know, they've done it before.
And if you still plan to spend your life together, like we said, there are situations where. It could make sense to do that. Uh but Again, understanding what the risks are. Um You know, if you could ahead of time, if you could put some kind of agreement in place, again, you'd still have to sue based on that agreement, but it's better than having nothing, right? Like, if you can establish the understanding of this is how we'll split proceeds, this is how we're going to value the property if it goes south.
Um And in a situation where you're adding somebody to title who's paying their fair share. and help them with things, that's one thing. But again, that nightmare scenario is you get the deadbeat that you add because they pressure you. They do nothing. They pay nothing.
And then they. They in theory own half of your your interest in the property. Just tell your girlfriend or boyfriend that just tell them how being a tenant's fine. Just be, just be, I'll be the landlord, you be the tenant. Yeah.
Role-play. Couples like that. Yeah.
Really? Yeah, it'll all work out. It'll all work out one way or the other. Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts of the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
The opportunity to get on their calendar, no cost, no obligation for a consult with estate planning or possibly maybe a recent car accident you don't know the next steps to take. A complimentary consult to talk about that. Just call 919-772-7000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit wh.lawyer.
We are going to get into more questions coming up on the other side.
So if you settled that, you know, it's up to you. But again, the attorneys are saying probably not the best idea. But again, this is going to be something you would want to seek some legal advice about.
So Judica County Radio rolls on right after this. You're locked in to Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, and they've placed offices all across our state for your convenience down at the coast in Moorhead City.
Over near Charlotte and Gastonia, we got Fuquay Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the cap city, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. If you have a question, That you'd like to have answered on a future broadcast, you can send it to us questions at judicacountyradio.com. Again, that's questions at judicacountyradio.com.
We'll get back into our questions now. And the next one, fellas, is this. Category, the no permit deck. And here's the question: I built a deck without a permit, and now I'm selling my house. Do I have to disclose This to the new buyer.
I mean, the answer, we'll talk about this. The answer is yes. Yeah, the answer is yes. Wouldn't you agree, Joseph? Yeah, the answer is yes.
Yeah.
If you if you know so North Carolina when you sell a house there are laws that require you to make certain disclosures. Um And in making those disclosures, there's certain topics that you have to cover. Um And Involved in those disclosures any material facts. Right, and if you know you built a deck without a permit. That's a mm that's a material or I would argue that's a material fact.
And you need to let anybody who's going to buy your house know about that because if they find out later, you're going to get sued. And if you have an unpermitted deck, that deck's probably not going to stand, right? That deck's probably going to have to be removed because that means the the the county didn't come out and and see how deep your footings were. They didn't improve your footings, they didn't improve the materials, they didn't improve the structure. They didn't approve where you built it.
What if you built it over a septic line, right, or a septic tank? or something you need to be able to access. If it's unpermitted, then maybe there was no survey done as part of that deck on a neighbor's property, or is it violating setbacks, right? You can't build, but so close to your. to your property lines depending on on where you're at.
This unpermitted deck, which may not seem like a big deal, Um could could be a big deal. And if you don't disclose it, and then your buyers find out about it later. You're probably going to get sued. You're going to have a problem. And maybe your buyers don't care.
Disclose it. And. Yeah.
Yeah, you told him about it. Yep, exactly. You know, this comes up a lot, you know, for some reason. Like, there's a ton, there was a period in time where people got a lot of unpermitted sunrooms. Right.
And or closed in a garage and made it into a room and never pulled pulled permits for that, you know, and um That comes up a lot and it's a problem. And it's a problem to go back retroactively and get things permitted that weren't originally permitted. And then. You know, if it's an enclosed space, there's probably some old taxes, right? If you built an unpermitted sunroom 12 years ago, And it's heated.
space, the county wants to tax you. For that heated space. And so you might have 12 years of. unpaid property taxes on you know a thousand square foot sunroom or or what have you or um closed in deck or Anyway. You know about that stuff, you save yourself a lot of time by disclosing it if it's something you can't really fix, because if you can fix it, Fix it.
Fix it. Yep. But if you can't if you can't fix it, then you need to disclose it so your buyer is kind of You know, you're not trying to pull a fast one over on your buyer. Yeah, it's great answer Josh really knocked that one out of the park Yeah, I didn't expect that one to go that quick. I thought we'd have more discussion on that.
Or you'd be like, oh, I remember that one time. Yeah, and it's funny, you guys mentioned it. I mean, we've all owned homes, but I would see the deck thing happening more often than the sunroom. But you said there was like a wave where a lot of people just added sunrooms and. People don't think about that.
Added square footage, back taxes. I mean, it's a thing. And again, just got to be aware of it. Yeah, you know, and usually it happens like most, you know, if you hire a general contractor to go do something, a general contractor has a license, they're going to pull a permit. They don't want anything bad to happen, they know what you're dealing with.
A lot of this happened when. You know, people just did it on their own, or them and their buddies got together and just built a deck one weekend and.
So it it happens and it doesn't mean you're doing anything you probably didn't mean to do anything wrong, you know, but uh yeah, if you if you know about it, you need to disclose it 'cause you're just opening yourself up to liability down the road. And no one wants to be four or five years removed and just get a lawsuit in the mail. I got an even cooler idea, man. You just permit your deck when you build it. Yeah.
Thought about that one. Yeah.
Yeah.
We had to we had a we had a we had a piece of property, we had to repair deck, we had to dig new footings and give it extra support. And uh Yeah, you dig those footings. You got to get them out there to look at the depth of the footings. You got to get them to look after the concrete's poured and uh. Yeah, you gotta do it, man.
You got to do it. It's all part of it. Got to take the steps or maybe face some issues later on. Judica County Radio, we are into some questions, and again, the attorneys are handling them. The next one, guys, this category: sibling won't open the estate.
So here's the question: My brother has my mom's will but refuses to file it or open the estate. What can I do?
Well, there's a statute, you know, so.
So th in this situation, this this person's mother has passed away. Um It sounds like the brother has the original will. But refuses to file it or open a state, what can I do? You can bring an action, right? I mean, you can.
You can, you know, if you had a copy of it, you could go downtown and open the estate and put the copy in there and tell where the original is. The clerk can. Subpoena that kind of stuff. The clerk has has powers to kind of help you. You know, in this situation, I hope I hope there's a copy of the will.
Um But yeah, the court The clerk of court won't let this happen. You know, the clerk of court. If you can prove that there is a will and you prove someone has a copy, they can send the sheriff out there. They're going to compel it. They can hold someone in contempt.
They can put someone in jail under the right circumstances. Like, they. They can force the issue. Um But you want to make sure you're on the right side that you know there is a will. This can't be a hunch.
Um But even if there isn't a will, this person could go open up. We call it an administration, right? If you have a will, it's probate. And you're dist distributing per the will. If you don't have a will, then it's administered under the laws of North Carolina.
So, um,. But yeah, an attorney, you probably want to see an attorney.
So, something like that, you probably want to sit down with your attorney, give them all the information you have. And let an attorney kind of guide you through that. The clerks down at the courthouse, they can help a lot. They can give you a lot of information, but they can't give you legal advice.
So, when you go down to meet with the clerk of court, you can kind of tell them what's going on, but you may need an attorney to. Who knows the law to kind of push the right buttons, file the right actions, get things moving?
So that's um. That's one you may not want to tackle on your own, but yeah, you're not. You know, I've run into that before where people don't know the law. They're not lawyers. That's fine.
But they don't know the law, and then they let other family members pressure them. Into things they don't have to deal with. Like this brother. In our situation, who has the will, who's not opening the estate.
Sounds like he wants to kinda control this. the situation. Right, if you didn't know the law, if you didn't go meet with an attorney, you might let him. Do that, right? You know, I've met with people who have been separated, so I've met with people in North Carolina who are trying to fix an issue.
And I asked them about their spouse, and they're like, oh, we're separated. I'm like, oh, okay. Just recently like, no, we've been separated for 11 years. Yeah.
And then they have not gotten divorced because the other spouse won't agree to a divorce. And I was like, the other spouse doesn't have to agree. You don't have to both agree to a divorce. If you've been separated for a year and a day, Either one of you can initiate The divorce.
Now, you may not settle all the outstanding issues. Between you. As to property and alimony and all that other stuff, but you can get divorced. And you would have thought This this person had been suffering for like 10 years. And I was like, you just get divorced.
Just get divorced. You don't have to have a good reason. But they didn't know the law. They had never thought to ask an attorney. They just thought.
I don't know if it's because someone told them or they just thought this was the way it was. They thought that this person had to agree. They're separated a strange spouse that they had to agree on everything before they get divorced. I'm like, no, just get divorced. Get divorced, man.
And that person got divorced and it solved 98% of all their problems. Um.
So a lot of times, you know, don't assume you know the law. you know or don't don't Don't assume what you saw in Judge Judy is how it rolls. Right. In North Carolina, I've seen people tell me what they saw. On Judge Judy.
And that's only mildly less insulting than someone telling me what Chat GPT told them. Like on the ways to insult an attorney.
Now, if they said Judge Joe Brown, you know, you take that to the bank.
So if we make a list on the biggest insults you can hurl at an attorney. Yeah.
And and Josh, I think you bring up a really good point. It's important to have You know, legal advice. I think a lot of people go online, they use ChatGPT, they use AI. Or they just do a a search and and they try to find their answers, but just the I guess the value Of having an attorney that's done this many, many times just to kind of overlook and take a look at what's going on with your particular case and be able to advise you, someone that has this kind of professional background, it goes. I mean, it's in the end, it's worth it.
I mean, because it can get really expensive if you make some mistakes in certain areas, but why not have somebody walk with you down that path?
Well, you know, it's like when you, like, a couple of years back, I had to get like a CT scan for something. And the person reading the CT scan was like, hey, You got this showing up here, you need to go get this checked out, right? And I made an appointment, my appointment was two months out. I remember this. And so I read everything there was to read about this thing that the CT scan alluded may be there, and I was like, I'm done, man.
Stage four, I'm dead. You know, I read everything that Chat GDP gave me, and I was like, Oh, and then I went to the doctor, and the doctor's like, Oh yeah, you're good. You should probably eat better. Take it easy, you know. Take it easy.
That was a really quick diagnosis. Did he just take a look and go, Yeah, you need to eat better, Josh? Yeah, he just back away from the barbecue, Josh. I think you need to eat more, man. I think you're waking away.
I'm worried about you. But you know, that's kind of the reverse of that situation. But like, I had gathered all this information and diagnosed myself. And I was like, I mean, what was your stress level? I mean, what was your blood pressure at that time?
I don't know. You're probably freaking out. Josh doesn't believe in blood pressure, he doesn't think it's a real thing. It's a hoax. They just make that up to control you.
Yeah, yeah. Every time I stand up, pass out. Is there a problem? Every time I stand up, I pass out. But Well, we're gonna take a short break.
We'll be back on the other side. We've got more questions. Again, if you've got a situation you're facing in the category of estate planning, you've got some questions there. Maybe you want to get the ball rolling, haven't started that. And this is a big one.
A lot of people are in fenderbenders, they're in accidents, and they don't know what steps to take next. Grab one of our complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer by calling 919-772-7000. It's 919-7727000. You can also visit wh.lawyer, get signed up there. We're back with more Judica County coming up after this.
Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, talk some legalese, answer some questions.
If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to tackle on a future broadcast, you can send it to us: questions at judicacountyradio.com. Again, that's questions at JudicaCountyRadio.com. Complimentary consult in around estate planning, or maybe you've been in a recent auto accident and you need next steps, grab one of the consults at any time, 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000, or visit wh.lawyer. All right, next up, and we are going to go to this one: category: buying a house while married but separated.
Here's the question. I'm separated but not divorced. If I buy a house in just my name, is my spouse entitled to it?
Well, I don't know if entitled to it's the. I don't know if I could. In North Carolina, we said this before, I think we can say safely, no, they're not entitled to the house, but. Yeah, I know where you're going with this, Josh, because we have the same knowledge. And When you buy a house, you're separated.
You know, spouse is in North Carolina, and even if you're separated, this person is still, until you're divorced. You know, you can essentially consider them your spouse, right? Like, they don't just not become your spouse.
Now, if you've got a separation agreement and that's been recorded on public record, or if you've got a free trader agreement that's been recorded saying you guys can separately own property, that's a different situation. But let's just assume in this scenario that you don't have that in place. You buy this house. You can buy it in your sole name. You know, you don't have to have them.
To sign, you know, that's not an issue for you. But they're going to have a marital interest in the property. And In the absence of you finalizing that separation agreement and getting it on record. You're going to have a problem. It's the same scenario we talked about earlier with adding the girlfriend to the deed.
They've got an interest in the property. They're going to have to sign if you want to sell. They're going to have to sign if you want to refinance from that point forward.
So. Yeah Yeah, the yeah, like Joe said, you're married or you're not married. North Carolina, for real estate purposes, for a lot of different areas of law, you're married or you're not married. And there's no third. Designation for marital status.
So you and your spouse can both be super ready to be done with each other. You can. You can have a recorded separation agreement that waives. you know, any rights In any property. A lot of spouses do that, right?
A lot of spouses, when they decide they're going to get separated and they want to move on, they'll come together and sign a separation agreement. Part of that separation agreement is, hey, you can go buy a house, I can go buy a house. We're not going to have any interest in each other's property after this point.
So, you can definitely fix it up so that you're You're protected. But if you don't do that, you just buy another house, and like Joe said, in theory, that spouse may have an interest, right? They could say, Hey, where did your down payment come from? Did that down payment come from marital assets? Until you're divorced, they have a marital interest, even if they're not on title.
Um and so you could be Uh you could be causing yourself some some headache there. Um But I think a lot of spouses in that situation come together. And again, you want to turn to look at it. You don't want to pull a form off. off the off the internet.
And hope it works. You want to get with an attorney and make sure you're protected going forward and you're not making a bad situation. A lot of people do that unknowingly. Right, you take a you know, you take a bad situation and then you do you make s you make it worse. Mm.
Um and so you don't you don't want to do that. You don't want to do that. It's a bad plan. We are in the middle of some legal questions. Again, Judica County Radio, you're tuned to it.
Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, are your hosts of the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. You guys ready to move on to our next question? Sure. Okay, category, security deposit gone. And here's the question.
My landlord kept my entire security deposit and won't explain why is that allowed? You know, landlord-tenant law is an interesting field of law. And if you're a landlord and you need an attorney, or if you're a tenant and you need an attorney, and you start calling around to law firms or looking on the web. You'll notice that most law firms that that practice landlord-tenant either represent landlords Or they just represent. tenants.
Right, you think it would kind of be. Both. Right, but but that's not usually how it how it works out. And so being a tenant in North Carolina. Um Your landlord, you and your landlord have a lease.
That lease is going to govern a lot of stuff. If that lease doesn't talk about security deposits and things like that and you're stuck with uh The statutes, right? That's what the statutes, North Carolina statutes fill in the gaps. And so if you don't have an agreement to the contrary, Um Well, if the landlord keeps your security deposit, they have to send you Usually within 30 days, with some exceptions, they have to send you an itemized list. of what they use that security deposit for.
Um if they don't Then you can make an argument that you get it back, right? Um But you know the Actual damage that you cause to the unit outside of normal wear and tear. Rant. Fees, fines you hadn't paid, court costs, a lot of that stuff can come out of your security deposit if the lease is drafted correctly. Um And uh and and so that's that's what that's what we we see.
And it's expensive to get an attorney, right?
So if you A lot of times, you know, if this is a tenant issue, a tenant matter, and your security deposits. You know, a month's rent, it's like $2,000. That's a lot of money. $2,000 is a lot of money to everybody. But when you have to pay an attorney, attorney's fees to go after two thousand dollars, it gets really expensive really fast, you know.
And a lot of times when you're in that ballpark. You know, you can take it to small claims. We talked about Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown, right? That's really kind of what small claims is like. It's just the parties, there's no attorneys.
You don't have somebody as entertaining usually as Judge Shudy or Judge Joe Brown, I guess. I don't know of any judge that is. The TV judges are certainly exaggerating it for TV, you know, 100%. I say that as a person who's never actually seen any of those shows. Ever?
I don't know. No, I saw the People's Court growing up because it was the only thing on in the afternoon if you're home six. I've seen Judge Judy. I was going to say, I think we could go back. I think you've referenced Judge Judy at least a thousand times during the course of this showrunner.
And you've never seen that. He knows of her. He knows of her. I've seen the commercials. Yeah.
Yeah.
I've seen the commercials. Either way, no, that's exaggerated. And small claims court is a good form when you have. You know, it's almost tough to justify attorneys' fees if you have, I mean.
Some would say under $5,000 in damage, under $10,000 in damage. You know, it's just hard to pay an attorney to go after that. And that's what Small Claims is designed for. And so, Small Claims is nothing like Judge Judy or Judge Joe Brown. Shows I have not seen, but think I understand.
And. It's it's not that bad. Judica County Radio, we've got one more segment coming up. We've got a couple more questions to get to. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, right here in North Carolina, where they practice law.
Again, the offices are everywhere for your convenience. Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. Complimentary consult in and around estate planning. Or if you've been in a recent auto accident, don't know how to proceed, grab one of the consults and come in and talk about it. 919-7727000.
That's 919-7727000. You can also visit wh.lawyer. We're back with more at Judica County. Final segment coming up. We are back.
Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, and they placed offices all over our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Puqueway, Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to go after in a future program, just send it to us. Questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on, and we are hitting some of these questions today. And the next one, gentlemen, is this: the forgot to update my will problem.
So, the question: I got divorced, but I never updated my will. Does my ex still inherit?
So You know, to backtrack, when we talk about estate planning, When we sit down with you, if you call us, you want to meet with me and Joe, we're going to talk about probate assets. And non-probate assets. Like assets that go through your estate are probate assets. Assets that otherwise pass outside of the estate are non-probate. If you have your ex-spouse in your will and you never update it, 25-30 years go by, you don't update the will.
You die. That's your last will. It gets probated, it leaves everything to your ex-spouse. Your ex-spouse is thrown a party. Yeah.
Um There is a statute in North Carolina that says An ex spouse cannot take Via that will. There's a statute that comes in and makes up for your 20, 30 years of ignoring that problem and says, nope, your ex spouse is not going to get this. It's going to go to your natural heirs. And that's a great statute. And I've seen it come into play.
uh several times That only affects probate assets, right? If you were real lazy in updating your will and you didn't update other non-probate assets like life insurance beneficiaries. Investment account beneficiaries. Um if your ex-spouse is still on that stuff. Your ex-spouse is getting that stuff.
Mm-hmm.
Sorry, that statute only updates. Probate. Um Items, probate assets. And sometimes that might not be much. You're you're you know, in s in a lot in a lot of circumstances, your will.
Doesn't actually control much because everything is set up to go outside of probate. Again, life insurance. Your investment accounts, stock. Bank accounts could all have payable on death beneficiaries. Your will doesn't control those things.
And so here If you didn't update anything. Yeah.
All that other stuff's going to your ex-spouse. Nothing's going to help you. There's no statutes that are going to help you. But there is a statute that'll kind of rewrite your will to make sure your ex-spouse doesn't. get anything and um You know, a state when you have a life change.
Estate planning is important. And we as attorneys, we as human beings, right, we're programmed to just keep. keep moving. I think that's how we're all programmed, right? I have this big theory during COVID.
This is where I have this big theory I put together. We all just kept. going right whatever we had to do You just you just keep moving. And I think people have these major life events.
Some are good to be celebrated, right? I got married, had a new kid, bought a new house.
So some of these life events are good. You need to update your estate plan, but some of them are bad, right? Or not as good, like divorce. Uh someone close to me died. You know, there can be all these Kind of bad reasons that your life changes.
Many time your life changes, you need to. Take a peek at your estate plan. You know, it doesn't have to be an expensive look. Like if we've done your estate plan, you can just call me and Joe and say, look. I was leaving some money to this person and they've passed away.
Do I need to make a change? What do I need to do? Or I've had a new child. Do I need to make a change? A lot of times the answer is no.
If you have a good estate plan in place, a lot of times you're not really going to have to make a change. But That's your signal. uh to kinda take a look at it and see what see what needs to be see what needs to happen. Perfect opportunity to throw out the estate planning consult opportunity for our listeners. Again, this is complimentary, no obligation.
919-7727000. Make sure you've got things in order. If you've been thinking about estate planning, this is a great opportunity to take a test drive with Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, complimentary, no obligation. 919-7727000 on estate planning.
But also, if you've been in a recent car accident, you can hit that as well. 919-7727000. Probably not the best way to phrase that, but again, if you've been in an auto accident, you've got questions about how to proceed. 919-77270000. All right, final question, guys.
We'll hit it real quick in the category co-signing regret. Here's the question: I co-signed a car loan for a friend. Who stopped paying? The lender again is taking a look at it. Lender is.
Do I have any defense?
So I guess the lender is coming after me.
So do I have any kind of defense? Uh No, I guess not against the lender. Yeah, if you co-sign for a car and it's not getting paid for, they can sue. Anybody on anybody who signed that note jointly, attorneys call it jointly and severally, so they can. If you owe $10,000 on that car, they can.
Sue your friend for it, they can sue you for it, they don't care where the ten thousand dollars comes from.
So, they're gonna go after whoever has the assets. And if you had to, if they required a co-signer, It's probably going to be you as the cosigner. All you can do is sue your friend. Right. You can sue your friend and be like, hey man, I co-signed this note for you, and I got sued.
But your friend doesn't sound like they have a lot, right, if you're co-signing for 'em.
So you're just in a bad spot. And I think that's before anyone, I mean. You got to just think that through. You know, someone's asking you to co-sign, and it's not like your spouse or. Your child.
You know, you really got to think that through because you're doing them a solid and. There could be serious repercussions from that. Yeah, it's a friendship, and you're going to have to make that decision. Do you eat it or do you go sue the friend and lose that friend? But again, those are questions you have, but right out of the gate, Co-signing Really think that over before you do it.
Opportunity to get on the calendar with Judica County's Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, we have compromised consults in and around estate planning. And if you've been in an auto accident and don't know how to proceed, also a consult for that. Call 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000.
You can also visit the website, w.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County is in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan. We'll see you on the radio next week. Judica County is hosted by attorneys licensed to practice law in North Carolina.
Some of the guests appearing on this podcast may be licensed North Carolina attorneys. Discussion on this podcast is meant to be general in nature, and in no way should the discussion be interpreted as legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered once an attorney, licensed in the state in which you live, has the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case with you. The attorneys appearing on this podcast are speaking in generalities about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of this show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at jmw at mwhlaw.lawyer.
