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 North Carolina, gonna hit some questions for you. The secret will in the gun safe. The HOA president bought the common area and the neighbor's boat dock. You don't want to go anywhere. Those questions and more coming up next.
Right. Whitaker and Hamer presents. Judica County. with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hayman. Welcome into Judica County Radio.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina. That's exactly where they practice law. And they've placed offices convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucuv Arena, down near Charlotte and Gastonia, and on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. It's a pleasure to jump on with the attorneys and we'll hit some legal questions, some scenarios, and we'll see how the attorneys are going to handle it.
But before we do that, we got to check in. It's been a minute. We've had vacations, had stuff going on. But, Josh, how you been? Yeah.
I had to cough there. It's a good cough, man. Besides that cough, I've been doing pretty good. I was going to say, I could edit that out, but now it's going to be hard to believe it, man. No, no, that's authentic.
We made a lot of costs this episode. All right. But uh no, no, yeah, July, man, we should get like uh There should be some kind of bill that passes where everybody has to take July off, but somehow it's paid one of those. The whole month? Yeah, the whole month.
Okay. But somehow you get paid. I don't know how I don't know the specifics. You got a good start. Good start.
You're in a great profession, you're a lawyer. That's true. That's always the question mark, though, right? That's how you, how, how do you, how do you pay for that free month off? How do you block it off your calendar?
I was watching the old uh you guys watch the South Park, right? Mm-hmm. I did when I was like nine. I was real into it. Yeah, well I was watching the one the other day.
I want to move south part? No, that's old. I only watch that. But I was watching the South Park the other day, and it was the one. I feel like I may have talked about this before.
I don't know. But. It's the one, do you remember the underpants gnomes? Do you remember the underpants gnomes? Yep, yep, yep.
I'm familiar.
Okay. I think I've told you this story. This, uh, this I told my kids this story, you know, like uh, but when you're trying to figure out how to pay for something, right? You know, like the South Park. The kids are getting, their kids are going crazy because there's these gnomes.
Stealing their underpants, right? That's what's that's what it sounds far-fetched, right? It's South Park, that's what's happening, right?
So, the kids are going crazy.
So, they're trying to figure out why these little gnomes are stealing their underpants, and they figure out where the gnomes are. And they go down there in the caverns, and the gnomes give a PowerPoint presentation. Because they ask the gnomes, why are you stealing? are underpants, right? Why are you doing this?
'Cause they have all these underpants, right? And so they do this PowerPoint, and the slide one is. steel underpants. That's slide one. This is their business plan, right?
Slide two is question mark. Right. And then slide the final slide, slide three, is profits. Is that how you're going to fund your July off is stealing people's underpants? Is that it?
No, no, it's it's the question work, man. Everybody has all these good ideas like, you know, uh. universal health care, you know You know, all this time off. Everybody has all these ideas, but the middle slide. is the is question mark, right?
And no one ever cares what that middle slot is, right? Yeah, it sounds good to have July off. It sounds good that it's paid. Question mark.
So one day we just need a politician that goes straight to the question mark, right? Yeah. I liked it. Hopefully, they can figure it out, man. I would enjoy July being off.
That would be nice. And, uh,. I'll support you when you run for office. That's going to be my sole platform.
Well, but we also need to consider, too, that when Josh takes the entire month of July off, Joe, it all falls on you, big guy. I'll just take August off then. Let's just do that. Let's just do that. Yeah, that's important.
I think we just solved our problem. That's. I like that. I like that. It's good planning.
In July, I took five business days off. I think it's how it worked out in July. He got kept our firm alive and running. What did you take off? You took off a couple days.
What was that? June? What was your. You know. Do I ever really take, you know, even when I'm not here, man, I'm here.
Yeah, you had a beach week, right? I had a beach week. That was a thing. Yeah, I'll give you that. Uh You know, I was reading I was reading our oldest is going into his senior year.
My wife's very sad about that. My wife reminds me constantly that this is going to be his senior year. And she keeps sharing baby pictures with me, you know? And so she's very sad. We had to go somewhere, right?
You can't have your kids at home from school and not do anything. Right. Yeah, you can't waste that time more than we already do.
Well, I will say this. You have a lovely wife, and we're friends on social media.
So I've seen these pictures, and she is really going through it. I mean, she's. Yeah, I haven't seen the ones this week, but the ones I have seen, it's like. I mean, when they start, it's like the accelerator is all the way to the floor and they're just growing up really quick. Yeah, man, it happens.
It happens for sure. I know. Joe feeds them. Joe's kids. Your kids just went to school, didn't they?
When their first went back. They went back yesterday. What is that, year-round? What is that schedule? No, it's just they.
Go back early. I think they get out some early. It's a charter school. Got it. But yeah, they're back, man.
They're back at it. I don't like it. I don't like it. No, I like it when they're home and hanging out. I still got mine home for a couple of weeks and then they go back.
But uh Anyway, summer's almost done, right? All right, so let me just jump in.
So Josh wants the entire month of July, and we've gonna we're bartering uh the month of August for Joe. I'll take August. I'll take August. But Joe, any anything in the last couple of weeks? Spectacular, you want to report?
No, man, nothing spectacular. Just finished up the uh, finished up the summer strong, and uh. Back into the school swing. Don't love it. As I've mentioned before, but uh It's all good, man.
No complaints, man. No complaints. It's been raining a lot. That's a thing. That's July, man.
I think it's just July in North Carolina now. It's just thunderstorms and rain. We're about to get football back. That's something. Yeah.
Preseason started this week. But you're right, it's time. It's time. Yeah, high school kicks up here in a couple of weeks, and we'll be that's all we'll be able to talk about: the football. Yeah, fantasy drafts are going to be happening.
And I guess a shout out to that Clayton. You see the Little League softball team? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I know they went to the worlds.
Has that already played games? I have nothing closely. They played games, man. They played games. They were killing it early on.
I got to check back in, but they were. I know on their first day they won two games, so a shout out to those guys. Uh are those ladies because they're there. They're representing the North Carolina. We've got some real talent down here in Johnston County, Josh, if you didn't know.
Yeah, it's in the water. It's in the water. But yeah, we got a load of questions today. We're fresh. We took two weeks off, so we're refreshing.
Well, moderately fresh. We're moderately fresh. And somewhat ready to go. Yeah, the show took a knee, and now they're fully rested. Oh, look, man, last night I'm sleeping.
I don't know if this ever happens to you guys. I says, Sleep, man, and I woke up. I had the worst. Calf crimp I've ever had in my life. Ah.
Like. Out of sleep, I just woke up like I crumpled on the floor. What kind of dream are you having, right? I don't know. I don't know.
It was where you get your exercise and just running your sleep, get your heart rate up. But I woke up this morning and I got a limp. I got a limp because it was so bad. It took me a while to get back to sleep, too, man. Does that ever happen to you guys?
You ever got a cramp in the middle of the night? I don't know that I've ever had the middle of the night. Calf cramp. I don't think that's happened to me. I haven't had a cramp, man, knock on wood in a while.
That's one of the worst. It's terrible. That's one of the worst things that can happen to you, I feel like. Yeah, it's a sign of getting older. I've had them, and especially after leg day at the gym, and you do those calf raises.
Do you guys familiar with calf raises? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Somewhat. Vaguely.
And it's not fun. But hydrate, get some salt in your diet. Josh, you start to start. You should start pounding Gatorade's before I go to bed. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean that may help that may help All right, well, we're going to take a short break and we're going to get into the questions. First one up is going to be the secret will that's in the gun safe. That's the category that's coming up next. Judica County, we do offer complimentary consults in and around estate planning. And if you are involved with a personal injury case and you've got some questions, again, no cost, no obligation.
Get some direction from Whitaker and Hamer. Again, offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. Give us a call and grab one of those consults, 919-299. 77270000. Just leave your contact information.
Say you want to consult, and they will get in touch with you and set that up. In and around estate planning and personal injury, 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000, the number to call. And you can also visit the website. Great resource for you.
And you can sign up there as well. w.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. We've got more at Judica County coming up. We'll start with our questions on the other side.
We are back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in North Carolina. They have placed offices for your convenience: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. And we do, during the course of this show, offer up complimentary consults, estate planning.
If you've got questions, maybe you're involved with a personal injury case. You can grab one of these. Again, no-cost consultations by calling 919-77270000. Here to help. 919-7727000.
You can also visit wh.lawyer. Again, Whitaker and Hamer, your law firm for life. All right, first question up, guys. Category is the secret will that's in the gun safe. Here's the question: My father.
Passed away in January, and we probated a 2018 will that divided everything equally between my sister and me. Last month, while cleaning out his gun safe, we found a notarized 2024 will leaving almost everything to my sister because she had been caring for him. The estate is already mostly distributed. Does the newer will probably control now?
Well, you know, so this question is. I think it is designed to get us to talk about probate, right? We talk about estate planning a lot on the show and So here You know, someone's father's passed away. They find what they think is his most recent will. You know, every time you make a will, you revoke.
The last will you made, that's the first paragraph of your new will. I, Josh Whitaker, hereby revoke any prior will that I have made. Um But somebody's got to find that will, right?
So if I make a new will and I don't tell anybody about it and I hide it away in a safe, people probably aren't going to find that will. They're going to find the last one they know about. and then they're going to probate it. And so that's what happened here. Um, so uh, the 2018 the old will got probated.
It split everything between a brother and a sister. They were cleaning the gun safe, they found a 2024 will. Where the sister gets most everything for taking care of the father, and so they make a note here to tell us that probate's almost done, right? It's a process. When you talk to Joe and I about estate planning, we talk about avoiding probate, right?
Probate is a process. It takes a while. The clerk reviews stuff downtown at the clerk's office. at the courthouse. And so here the clerk has has Sounds like approved most of the distributions.
So, the estate doesn't have much left, it's almost done. Here's this new will that changes everything. Um Will the newer wheel probably control? That's the question that this thing asks us. And and I don't know, Joe, what do you think about that?
I mean yeah. But it's You're looking at a really tricky situation, man. This is a very uh sticky one. Because, yeah, the new will, it's going to revoke the prior will. If it's valid, then, yeah, arguably so.
But. You've already had a substantial distribution of assets.
So again, it's a complicated proposition. That's one of the reasons why when we sit down with folks, we always. Heavily emphasize, you know, your will is only as good as Being able to produce it. If you put it somewhere, no one knows where it is, it's worthless to you. When I sit down with folks to to do the signing, right?
So when I sit down with folks and we've got the estate plan done, we're ready to sign and have everything witnessed and notarized, I tell people, you know, they're going to leave the office with their Originals. Right, so here's your will, here's your trust, here's everything. You're gonna leave with all of your originals. And then the way we do it at our firm, every firm's probably different, right, but at our firm, we're gonna email you PDF copies of your entire estate plan. And I always tell people, take that email and forward it to your backups, to your...
To your kids, whoever you want to know that you've done this estate plan. That way they'll have copies of everything. They'll know what law firm helped you. and when you forward that email, tell them where the originals will be. Right?
You know, we've had it happen a time or two where we lose. a couple, right? We lose a husband and a wife. Um at the same time. And maybe there's some underage kids, people don't really know where things are if there is an estate plan.
So making your estate plan is step number one, and that's a hurdle a lot of people Struggle to do, right? They struggle to make the call. They struggle to. You know, no one wants to talk about death and it's kind of a pain in the butt sometimes to have to do it. But if you've actually done your estate plan and you've done your will, you need to let the people.
who'll be executing that estate plan when you're gone, know about it. And here that didn't happen. And like you said, Joe, that 2024 will, if it's valid, right, we're assuming it is, right? We don't know any he wasn't coerced to make it. The sister didn't force him to make it while he was in her care.
You know, there's nothing like that going on. Assuming the will's valid, like you said, it's going to revoke the old will. And you got a problem because the clerk's going to look to bring all the money back in, all the money that's been dispersed, right? You might, maybe the son got a $50,000 check and he already went and bought a boat. The clerk's going to try to get all that money back.
What usually happens in this situation is there's a compromise, right? There's a family settlement. that that's done because uh you know Um But anyway, this is a situation you don't want to be in, obviously. It's not the kids' fault here. They didn't know about it.
I would think this would have happened earlier on, right? That's one of the things the executor does. If a will's probated, it has an executor. I don't know if it was the son or the daughter. But one of the things you have to do is you have to collect all the property, right?
So it seems like this gun safe should have been explored. Maybe there's a reason it wasn't, but. That should have been done early on. This should have been caught earlier. But um anyway, yeah, the messy situation here.
It can definitely be worked out, but this is where hopefully the brother and sister get along 'cause if they can come to some kind of agreement, that'll be way easier than the other option.
Well, just important to remember, I mean, have your Documentation, have your affairs in order, have that estate plan. And we do offer up complimentary consults on estate planning with Whitaker and Hamern. You can have these types of conversations before it gets interesting, sticky, whatever, confusing. Call the number 919-7727000. Grab one of those consults.
Just say, hey, we want to talk some estate planning. We'd love one of the consults, 919-772-7000. Leave your contact information. They'll be in touch with you. And then if you've been involved in a personal injury case, we're here for you.
If you've got questions there, grab one of these consults, 919-7727000, 919-772-7000. You can also visit wh.lawyer. All right, real quickly, guys. Let's hit the HOA president bought the common area. That's the category.
Here's the question. Our HOA owned a vacant lot that everyone thought would become a playground. Last month, we discovered the board quietly sold it to the HOA president's construction company for $40,000. Similar lots nearby were sold for over $150,000. Can homeowners probably challenge the sale?
You know, we talk about, you know, here on the show, we talk about HOAs a lot: Homeowners Association, condo, you know, associations, any of these associations that. Owners use to kind of manage their property, enforce covenants, you know, things like that. If you're on the board, You have a you have a fiduciary duty. To the other homeowners to act in everybody's best interest as best you can. The self-dealing.
Um, that's what this is. This is self-dealing, an HOA president. I bought this lot for 40 grand. Value might be as high as 150. Can homeowners probably challenge the sale?
Yeah, they can probably challenge the sale. And maybe this lot is only worth 40 grand. Maybe it's not a buildable lot, right? Maybe it's got a lot of. Protected drainage easements or swampy water areas, and you can't really build, or you can only build a smaller house, or maybe there's something wrong with it that we don't know about here.
But if that lot is worth $150 and the HOA sold it to the president for $40, you can't do that. Yeah, we talk about fiduciary duties a lot and in a lot of different contexts, but this is a good example of it. You know, you've If you're on that board, you've got a fiduciary duty to the HOA. You know, this is... arguably something that could potentially violate that duty.
could take money out of the HOA's pockets.
So yeah, I think I think you could have an issue there. When we talk about, so right now, like if me and Joe just meet on the street, like if me, Joe, and Morgan just meet on the street, I don't owe you much of a duty. I can't hurt you. I can't haul off and punch Morgan in the face if I meet him on the street. I have a duty not to.
I can tell you want to, though. And that's the law doesn't care about intent. You got to hold that back.
So my duty to a normal person that I just meet is very low. I can't hurt you. I can't harm you. But I don't have to help you in any shape or form. When you have a fiduciary duty, now I got to deal in your best interest.
I got to put your interest almost above mine or at least at the same level as mine. And that's a fiduciary duty.
So the law does not like when a fiduciary duty is violated.
So here there'd be some penalties. Um, you know, this is getting a little fraudish, you know.
So, this HOA president, you know, is no bueno. That's what I, that's the answer here: no bueno. We've got more Judica County coming up. Again, compliment rate consult available, estate planning, personal injury case you're facing. Give us a call: 919-7727000, 919-77270000.
You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. More Judica County coming up. Judica County Radio, we are back. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts at the Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices all over our great state, down at the coast, Moorhead City, over near Charlotte and Gastonia, but also Fuquevarina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're going to give you an opportunity for a complimentary consult in and around estate planning or personal injury case that you might be facing. Got some questions. You can grab one of those consults during the course of today's show: 919-7727000.
Just leave your contact information. They'll get back in touch with you and they'll line up that complimentary consult: 919-7727000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. All right, gentlemen, attorneys. Here's the next category: the neighbor's boat dock.
And here's the question. Neighbor rebuilt his dock, and now it's twice as long as before. Boats tied to the dock now block my access to open water. He says everything was permitted. Does permit, does a permit, probably settle this issue?
Ugh. I wonder how this, you know, sometimes we get these questions, and I don't think we're attorneys want to know all the facts, right? We want to know all the facts. Before we answer any questions.
So, we got this question: How would you build a dock? In such a way. To completely block your neighbor's access to open water. It's just a long dock, dude. It goes all the way across the lake.
It's like a damage. It's a long dock, big boat. I mean, you might not be able to get around it. And you probably wouldn't, you probably wouldn't have got a permit for like you know, that's the other thing.
So, this question is setting up an untenable fact pattern. But let's say, okay, let's just say this happens somehow. Permit is only evidence that you followed the local, right? You dug the footings, the proper distance. You got the anyway, you built it to code, right?
You at every every, you know, like when you build a deck, they're gonna come out there and check, you know, make sure everything's deep enough and give you like a weight limit you have to meet. And so, permit just says you followed the local law and got built to code. That's all the permit does, and you need a permit. And that's good, right? That's good evidence you did.
Yeah, it's good evidence you did what you were supposed to do, but. You know, if the town or the county allowed this to be built. In such a way as to block access to open water to the neighbor, then that guy's got a problem, right? This is riparian rights. That's a whole section in law school.
I can't remember what class, that real property class, I guess. Yeah, you talk about navigable waters and who has jurisdiction over navigable waters and what your upstream neighbor can do and what the downstream neighbor can do. And anyway, you can't block.
Someone's access to open waters. And so this guy's gonna have to change his dock around. Uh or or get sued, you know. Simple as that. Yeah, I don't think this one's overly complex.
It's just you have to make such a weird fact pattern. I felt bad all this. Did you read about those people taking the bar? Was it in Washington? You guys keep up with the news?
No, not like you, man. We're very simple, folks. Enlighten us, but do it very quickly.
Well, I don't remember much. I just read like a headline, but I think it was Washington, but they were taking the bar and there's like a new part and it wasn't ready.
So the people who showed up to take the bar haven't finished the bar. They're just kind of in limbo 'cause they can't. Yeah. 'Cause I was thinking, Mike, when I took the bar, it was two days. Maybe they just auto-pass everybody in that scenario.
Just let them, you know. You remember taking the bar? Yeah, but I mean, I hope so. Yeah, I mean, yes, I remember taking the bar. I don't remember it being a particularly enjoyable experience.
But I got it done, man. I got it done. Yeah, I wouldn't want to do it again. One time was enough for me. All right.
Judica County Radio going to continue on the other side. A little short sprint there for you, tackling one question. We've got more coming up. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, your host, managing partners. Whitaker and Hamer, a law firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Office is placed in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Afuquave Arena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. And the complimentary consults available through the course of today's show in and around estate planning and personal injury cases you might be facing. Got some questions, grab one of the consults. No cost, no obligation. 919-77270000.
That's 919-7727000. You can also visit wh.lawyer. Back after this. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Offices, again, Moorhead City, Gastonia, Fucuave Arena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina, placed there for your convenience. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to be on and with the attorneys and hitting these different category questions. And the next category, guys, is the Airbnb wedding. Here's the question.
A family rented a large vacation home for the weekend and hosted a 175 person wedding reception without telling the owner. the neighbors complained, and the owner was fined by the county. Can the owner probably recover those fines from the renters? It's a lot of people. That is, man, popular.
I wonder how big that house was. The um So when you when you re when you you know, rent a vacation home. If you're going through Airbnb or you're going through uh You know, real estate, however, you rent these homes, there's usually a method, and there's usually going to be. a vacation rental contract, right, a lease. North Carolina has certain statutes that deal only with vacation rentals.
Um But yeah, that's I imagine any well-drafted or even poorly drafted. uh lease is going to have uh some limit On it to the number of people, make you list the people who are actually going to be there.
Sometimes you have to give like car license plates and things like that, depending on the community that the house is in. Um But yeah, you're g you're gonna the renter's gonna get sued or or lose any you know, deposit or or anything like that, I would imagine. You know, um But hopefully, there's a good vacation rental lease, rental contract, whatever you want to say there that says. That would have pretty much been a good idea. Yeah.
Yeah. That limits. You know, and a lot of these bigger houses do, you know, a lot of these like luxury houses where you can take four or five families, they're going to have some limiting language in there.
Now the bad thing for the owner is, you know, did the owner The landlord in a situation, right? Did the owner get enough security deposit to cover the damage? 'Cause if they didn't, then they gotta sue, right? They gotta sue uh the renter. And who knows what the renter has, you know.
So, something to think about, right? If you own this kind of property that can have this kind of issue. You know, when you do it like a little a residential lease, You know, you do like a year normal residential lease, you're going to have in there who's on the lease, who's the actual tenant. And then, who else is going to be there, right? Underage kids, you know, whoever you're going to list, who else is going to be living there?
It doesn't mean you can't have visitors. Um But a lot of people end up getting themselves evicted because they'll move in somebody who's not approved to live there. It's not. When you lease property, it's it's not yours, you know? Yeah.
So you gotta. You gotta abide by your lease there. Um But yeah, this is a. You see the stories about this all the time, man. People rent the Airbnb and like throw a party or put like 180 people in a regular pool or.
You get in trouble for that kind of thing. Yeah, if it's frowned upon. They don't like it. I'll tell you, the questions keep coming in, different categories, and you probably got some of your own questions. And you could send us a question.
Just go to the website, wh.lawyer. We'll answer it on a future broadcast. But the opportunity to get on the calendar with a complimentary consult for a state planning or personal injury case you're facing, got some questions, just grab one of the consults, 919-7727000. It's 919-772-7000. You can also visit wh.lawyer.
Next category: the forgotten easement.
So here's the question: A developer built six homes, gentlemen, using a driveway that crosses neighboring property. 25 years later, get in that time machine, a title search reveals no recorded easement. The neighbor installs a gate. Do the homeowners probably have Legal access here. Possibly.
Yeah. Yeah. The these easement questions, man, we get so many easement questions. Um And you spend a lot of time, you know. I keep thinking about law school now that we talked about last segment, we talked about repairing rights, and I had a flashback to sitting in real estate.
Property talking about riparian rights and maritime law and all this other stuff, but. Easements are important. You know, easements are, or, you know, if you're not, if you don't, if your parcel does not have access to a public Then you access it. buy an easement, right?
So these easement questions come up all the time. I know you see him, Joseph. Yeah, yeah. Um it's a very it's a very common situation. And This, you know, this particular situation, I don't know that this is necessarily super duper common.
But uh easements in general, man, popular, popular thing, something we see a whole, whole lot of. Um access is important, man. And if you don't have access to your property, You have Property that is not very valuable. You're, you know, landlocked. Landlocked, we would call it, right?
If you don't, you know, landlocked property loses a lot of value because how the heck are you going to get to it, right? If you don't have the, if you don't have an easement to cross over somebody's property to get to it, then your landlocked property is maybe very valuable to somebody who abuts it. Yeah. But the law does not like to deprive folks Of a way to get to their property. Yeah, so it's it's a high bar.
And a lot of times the law will kind of give you a lot of ways to go about correcting that issue.
So if this developer split up I mean, this developer split up a parcel into six lots, sold the lots to different homeowners.
So, there's probably a plat that shows this easement. I imagine a title search would show that everybody kind of probably has a right to use this easement. I don't think you even have to get, but I just want to tell people out there. If you're the person who's installing gates, like if you have like an old country road or a private easement, a lot of people live on that easement. And you decide that somebody doesn't have access.
You know, and you install a gate and you're blocking somebody from getting to their house, you're always, I mean, you rarely win that. Five. You know, if you're the guy who installed the gate, you're almost always removing that gate, and you usually don't have the right to do it. I mean, sometimes you do. But if you're the neighbor that's going to install a gate on an easement, On a private road, really, you know, go talk to an attorney before you take it upon yourself to.
to block an easement 'cause you're rarely in the right. rarely in the right yeah I was gonna I was gonna say gentlemen in the area that we all live in it just seems like there's just been a massive amount of growth in the last twenty years a lot of people have moved in here Down in the Fuquay area, the Clayton area, the Holly Springs area, a lot of these family farms are being sold or partially sold.
So I could see this particular type of Yeah. Situation comes up quite a bit. What I see more often is the scenario where. There's an existing path. No gate, but there's like a neighbor that comes out with a shotgun and is like, Hey, You're not.
Yeah. But yeah, very common, man. A lot of growth. And studies have shown, man, our radio show when it started. I think they said growth increased is like 20,000%.
That really pulled the people in. That was a study. Yeah. Well, I know the laugh factor went up like 20%. Oh, yeah, for sure.
30%. You know, and the girl I think you know, I live in Southern Wake County and um I feel like the growth really, really, at least in our area, amped up a lot over the past 10 years. You know, I think. I don't know why. I know Clayton and Apex and Holly Springs and Cary, a lot of these places have had exponential growth, but I just feel like Southern Wake County was protected somehow.
Mm. But at least the little part that I live in has really changed a lot, you know, and that's good and bad, you know. 'Cause you're you're growing or you're dying, right? You're gaining people or you're losing people. And so if that's our option, losing people and losing industry versus gaining it, then we're on the right end of it.
But it is still sad to see. You know, North Carolina lose kind of its rural and people don't have the accent anymore. That's a big study, right?
Southern people are losing their accent, you know. I don't know. Yeah, we're a big melting pot, big melting pot. A lot of people moving in, but hey, come on in. We welcome you.
That's right. We're a friendly state. Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They are your hosts. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuqua, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. Complimentary consult available to you, estate planning, or a personal injury case you're facing. Got some questions? Give us a call. 919-7727000.
919-7727000 or visit the website wh.lawyer. More Judica County coming up. Welcome back to Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and their practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They placed offices. All over our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and down at the coast in Moorhead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, but also want to tell you about the complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've got questions, maybe you're thinking about starting and you haven't, or maybe you got questions about a current estate plan, grab one of the complimentary consults, but also the personal injury side of things. If you're involved in a case and you've got some questions there, grab one of the consults, come on in, no cost, no obligation. 919-772-7000.
That's 919-772-7000. You can visit the website, wh.lawyer. All right, next category, guys, for a question for you. The missing LLC member: here's the question: Three friends formed an LLC to buy rental property. One member moved overseas and disappeared for 12 years.
The remaining members. Continued operating the business and eventually sold the property. The missing member has returned, demanding one third of the profits. Does he probably have a claim here?
Well Yeah. You know, this is, I think this question is designed to get us to talk about LLCs and uh And the rights of members, right?
So in an LLC, your owners are members. Um You know, in corporations, you have shareholders, and in LLCs, you have members. And so, here we have three friends who formed an LLC. Notice they can form an LLC and not have. You know, anybody can go down to the Secretary of State's office, fill out the paperwork, and you've got an LLC, right?
You call the IRS, you pull your EIN number, you could open a bank account, and so you're up and running. You've got this business with no framework for which you have to operate. Yeah, so you know, it seems like every other week we get one of these questions, but the second part of forming an LLC is creating an operating agreement, right? And that's what. Tells you how you're going to govern when people when members leave or members abandon the LLC or members aren't making their contributions or missing meetings, right?
You you can come up with all these rules. The the statutes for an LLC, right? If you don't have an operating agreement, if you haven't made an agreement between all the members on how this LLC is going to operate, you're left with whatever the statutes say. And the statutes are very broad and very general on purpose because they shouldn't be specific. The statutes leave it up to you as the members to decide this is how we're going to run the business and this is what we're going to do.
You have a lot of leeway on how to make your LLC operate. Um And so here, no opera. That's that's the advice. I'd be like, hey, what does your operating agreement say? That's the first thing I would ask these people.
Give me your operating agreement. What does it say about this member who. Abandoned the LLC and has been gone for 12 years and hasn't put in any more money and hasn't been actively involved in the business. And so these people are gonna say, Oh, we we didn't we didn't do an operating agreement. And I'm gonna be like, Well, that's Terrible news.
Bad day. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to hear that, because now we're just left with the statutes. And if we're left with the statutes.
This this member who comes back and wants wants some money Uh Probably has a viable, we'll call it a viable claim. Yeah. Because they weren't bought out. Yeah. I'm sure there was some money that was put in if they bought.
property. Um So, this is a viable claim, but people get themselves. You know, a lot of people, you know, you're starting a business, you don't have a lot of maybe up money to. to for attorneys or for CPAs and and um You know, lo and behold, the business succeeds, and now you're having to go backwards and try to fix things that were pretty easy to fix from the beginning because. You know, me and Joe know each other very well, and me and Joe can agree on: hey, we want to do this thing.
You know, we want to go play some basketball, right? But to Joe, that might mean going You know, somewhere in Clayton, you know, outside and playing full court, hardcore basketball for me. I'd like to be in an air-conditioned gym playing half-court with really slow three-on-three.
So we can agree that there's fans in the corner that are blowing on you at all times. A lot of water breaks, right? But. But we agreed we want to play basketball, but in our mind basketball means two different things. And that's what happens when people go into a business like hey, I want to start A power washing business.
Well, it can mean one thing to one person and one thing to another person. That's why you. Write down in the operating agreements. We all agree this is what we're. we're doing and it's um I mean, I get calls once a week, you know, where business owners have disagreed, and they've been successful enough where it's important.
Yeah, they're You know, these misunderstandings can blossom into very expensive lawsuits.
So here, you know, this this member coming back wanting their one-third Of profits probably has a decent claim, a claim that's going to have to be addressed or settled. or litigated and tried. Um and if they had You know, thought about this in the, you know, and this should have come up when he left. Right? When this person left, everybody should be like, all right, well, what's going on here?
We got a problem. You can't just. you know, push these things down the road they get you know, you plan you plan anyway Either here nor there. Operating agreement would have helped. There's a lot of things these guys could have done to prevent this dispute, but now they got a.
They got something I got to deal with. We're gonna hit this one real quick, guys, and we'll take a break. Come back on the other side and answer a few more. But here it is: The Neighbors Fireworks Show is the category, and here's the question: every 4th of July, My neighbor spends thousands of dollars on professional great fireworks, and this is a scenario that happens a lot around the country and probably in a lot of neighborhoods.
So this year, burning debris landed on my roof and scorched it. He says fireworks are legal where we live. Is he probably responsible? Yeah, possibly. Cause for effect.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, just because it's a legal activity, you know, if you live out in the country and it's legal to go. you know, shoot a gun in your backyard. That's fine. It's legal to do.
But if you hurt somebody while you're doing it, that's on you. You know, we're all. We're all responsible for our our actions even if they're legal.
So Um this sounds like a great neighbor, right? Um So you can sit out there and watch his fireworks. Who doesn't love that? People love when their neighbor blasts fireworks into the sky. Just hose down your roof beforehand.
Yeah. But that's, you know, if you undertake that activity and you harm your neighbor's roof, I think you're 100% going to be liable. uh for the fireworks being legal. Um I wish they were legal in North Carolina. Like, why can't we get together?
And like just say, hey. 'Cause our f the fireworks you buy in North Carolina, they're really lame. Yeah. Yeah. They're all showers of sparks.
Well, can I black snakes? Can I I was gonna say, can I just add that I I lived right on the border of Tennessee up in the mountains and you go, I don't know, a couple of miles and you can get It seems like legal dynamite. From Tennessee. I mean, you got some scary stuff going on in Tennessee. And again, same thing for South Carolina.
So you see all of these firework places popping up right along the state lines because you can basically get. Ammunition. From those two states. Yeah. I I never understood that, you know.
We we always had the uncles or the neighbors who'd go get the real stuff, you know. The real stuff. They're heroes. They're heroes, right? That uncle that will drive.
to another state to get legal dynamite to scorch your neighbor's roof. That's the real hero of life. National hero there. You guys remember the M80s from back in the day. I mean, you get those from Tennessee, and it's like a quarter stick of dynamite.
I mean, it's like crazy. Crazy. I remember those, and then bottle rockets, and then we had the Roman candles. Those were all a lot of fun. But now every time we go...
Buy fireworks from the store or whatever. Yeah. Just different showers of sparks. Yeah. Wimp, wimp.
And the kids like them, but the kids don't know any better. They don't even know. What do they know, man? Don't show them the Holy Grail. Because if you do, then you can't go back.
What a kid's no, man. All right, Judica County Radio. We're going to continue on the other side. One more segment for you. Get to a couple more questions and categories.
Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, are your hosts. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They're here to help. They got offices all over the state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. And the Copenhagen consults through the radio program in and around estate planning, or maybe you're involved with a personal injury case and you've got some questions, grab one of the consults.
No cost, no obligation. 919-772-7000. 919-772-7000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. Back after this.
Welcome back in. It's Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And the offices almost everywhere you look, almost like, I don't know, a popular coffee shop on every corner: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquave Arena, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. There are complimentary consults through the course of the show.
You can call at any time, estate planning. If you've got questions, maybe get started, or you've got questions on a current estate plan. You can grab one of the consults. Or if you're involved with a personal injury case and you just don't know what to do next and you got some questions, call the number 919-77270000. A complimentary consult awaits, 919-7727000, or you can visit the website, wh.law.
Great information there. As well. All right, so we've got a couple questions remaining, guys, and here is the category that we'll face next: the family farm equipment.
So here's the question: Three siblings inherited a working farm. One sibling sold all the tractors before the estate closed. because he claimed they were depreciating assets. The others wanted to keep on farming. was he probably allowed to do what he did?
Mm. I'm assuming so I'm assuming that, you know, the uh the estate left everything so this The father passed away, or mother passed away, and left their kids, three kids, a working farm.
So it's real property. the farmland, you know, structures. And as personal property, so anything that was on the farm, tools, tractors. uh whatever and um So, yeah, the the I'm assuming The sibling who sold all the. Anyway, I guess it doesn't matter.
They all inherited it, right?
So, this tractor had three owners. in one owner Can't just go selling property without permission. I'm sure it happens every day. Um Hmm. You know, but no, you can't.
I don't know what the penalty here is. You know, it depends on what the tractor's worth and. you know, how these siblings get along. But yeah, this this sibling, unless You know, he's got justifications, you know, unless like the tractors weren't working and he was just trying to create some kind of money to keep the farm going. There's all kinds of.
facts that can kind of change it. Right now it sounds like the sibling acted As if he owned the tractors and he didn't. There were three siblings. They all owned the tractors. They should all make it.
It'd be like selling a car, right? We all be you and. uh Joseph own and and uh I just decide to sell it and that That's no bueno.
Well, I mean, work and farm, and if you've looked at tractor prices, I mean. It's I mean, they're expensive, so I would imagine this would cause quite the hubbub, especially if two. of the siblings wanted to maintain the farm and keep it going. Yeah, I mean I mean it's a it's a it's a business, right? They're running a business and and they they all own it and um they all needed to to be in agreement there, but uh Yeah, and the penalty there, I don't know how much money.
You know, the siblings can split the money. They could sue the one sibling for selling it if they can't just buy more tractors. I don't know what the other siblings really do about it that's cost effective. You know, when people come to us That's one of the things I'm always doing. There's, you know, people come to us with a problem, and we're like, well, here's your problem.
And you could do this, right? Or you could do this. Or you could do this. But what's cost-effective, right? Maybe these were big, really expensive tractors.
They're not easy to replace, and new ones are way more expensive than old ones, and you can't really. get another comparable old one. There's all kinds of factual problems here. Like, well, you can sue your sibling, right? Or you guys could just come to an agreement.
It's already happened. The damage has been done. You can come to an, you know, or, you know, you could, you could litigate, but like, what's what's the most cost-effective Uh Method there because that's the one thing. You know, I say this on the show all the time. When someone comes to me and Joe and they have a problem or they need us to do a A closing, or you know, I never want to take people's money if I can't genuinely.
Help them. Right, and so you know, that's what I'm always doing in consults. I'm like, well, these are the things you can do, but C is going to cost a lot of money. And do you want to throw bad money or good money after bad? And so this is one of those situations where I'd probably, you know, whoever came to me.
I'd be like, well, these are all the things that can happen, but have we talked to the other side? Is there some kind of agreement we could come to? Um But anyway, that's a that would be a tough one. That would be a tough one for an attorney. Not legally speaking, just what's a good practical solution where everybody kind of wins, and these people still have to work together, right?
They inherited a working farm.
So unless somebody gets bought out, they all still have to work together.
So, what's the best thing a lawyer can do? Right. I mean, your family, too. I mean, you want the family dynamic to kind of still be there, hopefully.
So maybe work that thing out. Yeah, maybe. Maybe, maybe. All right, final question, guys. The category: the lost closing funds.
And here's the question: A buyer wired $650,000 to what appeared to be the closing attorney's account after receiving updated wiring instructions by email. The email had actually been sent by a hacker. The money disappeared overseas, and the closing never happened. Who probably bears this loss? This is a giant.
Yeah, this is a giant it depends. Um But this is a thing that happens, right? You're You know, this is a nationwide problem, but in North Carolina, Um You know, back in the day, back in the day, we always wanted you to bring, if you have to bring funds to closing, most people have to bring some money to closing. And back in the day, closing attorneys, settlement agents, title insurance companies, they wanted you to bring. a certified check.
That's what everybody did 20, 25 years ago. You brought a certified, you got went to your bank, you got a bank check, a certified check, a teller's check. And you brought it to closing. But people got so good at forging certified checks. That Closing attorneys, settlement agents, title companies decided, like, hey, you're going to have to wire funds in.
Yeah. Right, you're gonna have to wire funds into the bank account because once you wire a fund to a bank account, it ain't going nowhere, you can't get it back. That's the most certified of all certified funds. And so that's what every attorney switched to 15, 20 years ago. And now the hackers have gotten really good at trying to fool people who have to wire money to attorneys, right?
Pretending to be attorneys. These hackers get really good. A lot of them are in your Your email, right? Especially if you got a Gmail, a Yahoo, you know, a Yahoo mail is really bad, AOL email. Yeah, those emails have been You know, a lot of those emails have been compromised, even if we don't know it.
And um Hackers just sit in there and wait to send you phony wiring instructions. And they get better at it every day. Yeah, they get better at it every day. You know, most closing attorneys have certified ways that they'll give you. deliver you wiring instructions.
Most closing attorneys are not going to wire you. Are not going to email you wiring instructions. They're not going to verbally give you wiring instructions. They're going to deliver them to you through a secure portal. They're going to tell you how they're going to get them to you.
And um And then you always need to call to confirm, right? If you're going to wire money to anybody, really, but I mean, we're talking about in the context of a real estate closing to a closing attorney. You need to call whoever you've been dealing with at that attorney's office, right? And if someone if if someone emails you wiring instructions. Don't call the number in the email.
Don't call the number on the wiring instructions. You know, go to Google. independently confirm who you need to call. But always confirm those wiring instructions verbally. But that's a big that's a big Problem.
And we hear about like once a month, we hear someone in the somewhere nationwide where a million dollars has gone overseas and you're not getting it back. And most of the time, it's not the closing agents. Fault. Like, once you get in there and you try to figure out where everything came from, most of the time it's not the closing attorney's fault.
Someone was already in your email and somebody.
Somebody tricked you.
So, um. Big, big, big thing, big deal in the industry. And like Joe said, they're getting. The hackers, man, the bad guys. You wish they could spend a lot of time trying to figure out some good things to do, right?
Because they get very creative and they're. Um but anyway. The bad guys spend a lot of time on that and they get good at it. Opportunity to grab a consult, estate planning, personal injury case you might be facing right now. These are complimentary.
You can call 919-7727000, 919-77270000. You can also visit WH.lawyer. Just leave your contact information. They'll get in touch with you and line up that complimentary consult, 919-7727000 or visit w.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County Radio in the books.
Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina for the fellas. I'm Morgan. 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.
