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, going to handle some legal questions in the categories of real estate, the mystery storage unit, and a Halloween decoration discrepancy. You don't want to miss it. All coming up next, Judica County. Whitaker and Hamer presents Judica County. With Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer.
Welcome into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in the state of North Carolina. Offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, down near Charlotte in Gastonia, and over at the coast, Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Absolute pleasure. Before we dive in. On topic number one, with our legal Q and A, I always ask. We'll start with Josh. How was your week?
It's been a, it's been a week, man. It's been it's been a week, but we're we're getting through it. We get hockey back this week, right? And that's right. Good week, bad week.
You know, a week. A week. It's been a week, right? It's really hard to be a bad week, right? If everybody's alive and healthy, you can't really.
Yeah, it's very positive for you, man. I know. We're upright. We're upright. We're moving forward.
That's right. We got out of bed. We uh, we we made it into the office. There's things to do, and so that's all good, right? That's good stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
So everything's great, is what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.
As as youth hockey, is youth hockey back up and running? Does it ever stop? What's that? I don't think it's back. It's back.
It's that we well the the the youth hockey that I participate in, and by me, I mean my child. I was going to say, Joe, are you out there skating against some man? I get killed. They would destroy me, man. I don't have the skating base to to to do it.
But now, usually, fall and spring. Fall, we started back for the fall. What three weeks ago, approximately?
So, yep, good stuff, man. Youth hockey's fine, man. If you, I mean, I'm sure there's some levels of it that is that's crazy, but if you just do the house league, man, it's easy. Two days a week, weekends, you knock it out, you go on, you live your life. Yeah, I wonder.
You know, I've been wondering here lately. The kids, my kids, have so much going on. Like, you know, when they get and when they when we go empty nest, whenever that day comes, and I'm still.
Next week, if you want it to, man, you can make that happen at any point. I don't know what I am going to do myself, man. I was telling my wife, "is like I might have to if my kids all move out and and go to college and do stuff. I am going to have to make some some friends that I hang out with." And yeah, not her. What are you talking about, man?
You still you you could you could do some practicing. You could get like I don't know three tiny homes, yeah, and put them out in the back and have you got to have your have your kids live in a tiny home. Yeah, practice first. Yeah, yeah.
I think making real friends will be too difficult. I don't think I'm going to want to do that. I'll just bug you guys. Yeah, I've seen you operate, Josh. It's basically your wife, and then occasionally, you know, the the fantasy football league guys, and I think that might be it.
That's it, man.
Well, it's the way it goes, man.
Sounds real lonely. I do want to throw this out to you guys. This week, the Hurricanes got their championship rings. Have you seen a picture of the the ring? I think I did see one on on.
I mean, it looks it looks like an Apple Watch. I mean, it's huge. It's supposed to be legit, man.
Well, yeah, but I mean, they had the they they absolutely they went bigger because they showed side by side comparison of the 2006 and now the 26. And it's like doubled in size. I mean, it's there's no way you wear it. I mean, it's you just you put it in a case and. You know, you you get to look at it.
I guess we should make you wear that. You earn that. We should have a Judica County Radio Championship ring.
Well, I was going to say we should we.
Well, that sounds better than what I was going to say. I was going to say we should make up a Division Two university that doesn't exist, has never existed. And make championship rings and give them to ourselves. Judica University. Yeah, and then just tell people this is when we won the Division Three championship back in the back in the eighties.
You know. If you win a championship, man, you you wear whatever they give you, as evidenced by my. Adult basketball twenty twenty four. Don't pull your shirt up like that again. Don't ever pull your shirt up like that.
Everybody needed to see that, man. That's important. When my kids my kids were playing flag football, I pulled out my old NC State flag football championship shirt, which is oddly it's oddly Duke blue that year. That's probably your best athletic accomplishment, honestly, man. That's not that's no small feat, and.
I was like, you know, one day I'll let you touch this shirt. I put it. I put it like the shroud. And then we have, but yeah, yeah, we have all that. We all that stuff.
But we need big fat championship rings that we don't really explain. Yeah, like what position did you play? Oh, it's not important. It's the past. I just like to, I just like to show the ring.
But no, yeah, they were they were big. I saw those, and they came in little boxes that rotated. You see that? Yeah, you got to have a rotating box. You have to.
I feel like I feel like you know people getting engaged now. That you have to compete with that, right? You have to compete with the championship rings when you propose to your significant other. Rotating ring boxes and lights and size matters. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know how they do that. I don't know how the kids today they they do that kind of stuff. But uh, but yeah, we got football. We get hockey back. And that's kind of what that's what's keeping me going, getting me getting me through the week these days.
And you're you're not a baseball guy, correct? I'm a baseball guy more so than a hockey guy. Baseball playoffs, I forgot about that till you said it. Yeah, yeah, I was going to say we got got a lot of that going on, but because the Braves Braves made it, Braves are in there, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So, all right.
So we're going to get into some legal questions, real estate. There's a mystery storage unit question. There's a Halloween decoration discrepancy. I love this one because obviously it's the perfect time of the year. But let's let's hit this first one real quick, guys.
And here's the category: We bought the house, and the seller is still living there.
So here's the question: We closed on our house three weeks ago. The sellers asked for five days after closing just to move out, and we agreed because their new house wasn't ready. We didn't have a separate written agreement because everyone seemed trustworthy. Seemed trustworthy. Five days became two weeks, and they're still there.
Now they're saying their construction has been delayed another month. We own the house and have already made our first mortgage payment. Can we just change the locks while they're at work?
Well, you know, you know these closings when you're when you're buying and selling a house, kind of at the same time, right? You're selling you're selling a house, and then you're you're buying a new house. And you've got people buying your house, and the sellers have people buying their house. This ends up usually usually being a chain reaction. Everybody's got a lot of different dates, right?
They got mortgage rate locks. When their rate lock will expire, if somebody's buying new construction, like this question, the house may not be ready yet.
So you have a lot of type of the this thing happen where the buyers got to go ahead and buy the house. They have time constraints. They have deadlines, and the seller may not be ready to move out. That's what happened here, right? The buyers had to to close, but their sellers didn't have anywhere to go, and so this is a you know possession after closing, which happens a lot, and and you document it, right?
This is you are a landlord. You may be a landlord for three days, but this is a short term lease. You are you are a landlord. Your sellers are your tenants, and if they hold over. Right, if they don't, they don't leave.
They're holdover tenants, and and self help—that's what we call it when you change the locks, right? When you change the locks or you try to force a tenant out, anything short of a court ordered eviction—that's called self help. And in a residential context, you really—I mean, Joe—I mean, I would say you really can't do that. Yeah, it's it's it's. Very much frowned upon, and that's why.
When before you get into a situation like this, you know it's not a terribly uncommon thing to to at least be asked to do this. This is a situation that does happen. There's times where it happens, and everything's fine, right? Like there's no issues whatsoever, everything's great. But you got to understand what you're getting into, and like you said, Josh, you're essentially It's a lease, you know, and and if those folks, just like any other tenant, they don't leave, you got you're going to have to take some legal action to get them out.
Can't just lock the doors. We are going to get into a lot of legal questions today, and of course, just finishing up with that real estate question, we're going to move to the storage unit—the mystery storage unit. When we come back from the break, we want to remind you too: we're here to help. Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program. We have complimentary consults in and around estate planning, or maybe you're involved with a personal injury case and you've got some questions.
Again, grab one of our consults—no cost or obligation. Nine one nine seven Seven two seven thousand. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit the website wh dot lawyer again nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or wh dot lawyer. Judica County continues right 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 practice law right here in North Carolina. Offices located down at the coast, Moorehead City, over near Charlotte in Gastonia, but also right here in the Triangle: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, and Fuquay Varina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with.
The attorneys and legal questions we are hitting today. The category: Dad had a storage unit nobody knew about. Here is the question: My father passed away last year, and we finished administering the estate. Or at least we thought we did. Last month, we received a notice about a storage unit in his name that hadn't been paid.
We opened it and found antique firearms, old coins, jewelry, and what appears to be a pretty valuable baseball card collection. We're already distributing the estate and close the file. What happens at this point now? What a Hey, I got an unrelated question. I was just thinking about here during the break.
What, how much coffee you guys drink, like on an average work day? Yeah, a lot, a bunch. Yeah, good amount. I'd say four cups in the morning. What do you think that is?
That we'd say that's like half a pot or a pot. What do you think that is? I mean, eight ounce cup. I mean, that's a lot of coffee. That's thirty two.
That's thirty two ounces of coffee. What do you do? You black? What do you do with your coffee there? I foo foo it up.
I do a little. I do a little half and half, and usually some kind of stevia. Black, straight black. Yeah, yeah.
That's what I do. It's the only way, man. I got to where you know I had I don't know I probably had COVID or something a while back, and I got to where I couldn't drink a lot of coffee. I didn't want it. I didn't want coffee, but I've like completely conquered that problem, and I feel like I'm up to like an all time high.
I'm just drinking like a pot of coffee every morning. You know. Do you guys ever do coffee dates with your significant other? No, no, I don't think so.
Well, it's an experience. Feel bad now. No, I could if that's what I must.
Well, you're spending seven or eight dollars, but the the real treat is to just watch your significant other order the coffee. And my particular person in life is fantastic at it. Oh, to the point where it's comedy. I mean, I. I'm like I didn't even know you could do that to a cup of coffee.
She's got a complicated order. Oh yeah, oh yeah, and it's it's fun because I just watch the expression on the barista. They're just like, really okay, here we go. Yeah, if I if I go in, I'm always black coffee. There room for cream?
No, fill it up to the brim. Yeah, nutritious coffee. Yeah, I want to burn myself. Just give me as much as you possible. Super hot.
The um. All right, just our questions.
So we got someone. A lot of our questions involve death, which always is kind of depressing, right?
So here, a father died. Such as life, right? Such as life. A father died. This family opened up an estate.
Collected assets, distributed assets, closed it down. Got the clerk to approve it. Estates closed. Bam! They find a lot of personal.
That's what they did. They found personal property.
So the estate's been closed down. They find some some looks like valuable personal property collectibles. I want to see what's in that valuable baseball card collection. That would be interesting. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. But. You know, it it depends on what the family. I mean, what should happen?
This what legally what should happen is the estate should be reopened. The clerk should know about these additional assets. They should be distributed according to the will, right? Looks like everybody was supposed to split, so everything should get split. Everybody should sign receipts, and then the clerk should should close it back down.
That's what should happen. Um. It just depends on on what the heirs want to do, but but that's that's what technically should happen. I mean, clearly, Pop didn't want the family to know about it.
Well, you know, it's weird. This is this is the thing, man. You know, people come in and do their estate plan. You know, they'll get their beneficiaries updated on all their accounts, but your family still has to know these things exist. Right, your family still has to know you have a storage unit, right?
And a lot of this stuff doesn't, you know, if you're not particularly close to your family, or if everybody lives far away, or you're like the last of your your line, right? You know, people don't know these things exist, so it's hard to collect, you know. I think I said this early on another show, but back in the day, a lot of a lot of people would just wait for mail to come in, right? Statements, bills, and that's how they would, you know, if they weren't particular, they didn't have anybody particularly close handling their estates. Because I think if I, I think if I drop dead tomorrow, I think I've done a great job, like trying to make you know my family aware of what things are, and there's still going to be things they don't know about that they find out about kind of after the fact, you know, nothing crazy.
Um, they're not going to find another family or anything, right? Just, I don't know. That's a personal question, Josh. But, but it's it's it's hard to condense all that you know into like a your estate planning binder. Like a lot of times, people will make a list of their current accounts.
Here are accounts I have right now. Will I have them when I die? Maybe not. But it's usually a clue, right? I have these these at Fidelity Investments, and I have these at Edward Jones, and I have these, you know, at the local bank.
And and and anyway, it's uh it can be tough to find everything in the in the three six month window when you're kind of supposed to be collecting assets and and getting ready to distribute them, but here. You you have to open the estate back up and and deal with the new property value it make sure everybody gets their fair share. All right, next question, and again, this is one that's seasonal and it's perfect. The HOA says our twelve foot skeleton has to go, has to absolutely go.
So here's the question: We put up one of those twelve foot Halloween skeletons, and we're starting to see them around the area here locally. But this was in our front yard. We put it up on September. Number fifteenth, our HOA sent us a violation saying holiday decorations can't be displayed more than thirty days before the holiday. The problem is we've read our covenants and can't find that rule anywhere.
The HOA says it's in the board's architectural guidelines. Can the board create rules that aren't actually in the covenants? You see a lot of these skeletons around a lot, yeah. And now they're doing the half ones where they're climbing out of the ground, which I think is maybe a little bit more appropriate, not as not as tall. T here is t here is one down here by where I live.
I think they get on television. But the skeletons are skeletons have a dog, and they're up all year round. They're hurricanes fans during hockey season, and you know they have graduation gowns on during graduation. They're just all year round. Twelve foot skeletons, but uh, but is it?
I mean, they're probably not in an HOA, and there's probably no bone of contention. I don't. You like you like the puns? Oh, I was just messing with you. The um, well, I mean, just just by way of review, right?
You buy a home in a subdivision. If you live out in the country, this this isn't a big deal for you. But if you buy a home in a subdivision, there are recorded. Declaration restrictions covenants a lot of different words for them, but but you usually get those in the home buying process. Whether the seller gives them to you, the real estate your real estate agent, the closing attorney, usually there are recorded covenants.
But the covenants are usually broad in nature. They might have some things you can't short term rental this property. You can't have. Chickens, you know, you can't do certain things, but usually in those covenants, they they give the HOA the right to make additional rules.
So architectural review normally that's not recorded, that's not public record. That's something you have to get directly from the HOA, and so the HOA has this broad authority to create these type of rules.
So here. You can't have Halloween decorations out more than thirty days before the holiday.
So that is a rule that an HOA could reasonably have. And while this is a broad authority, this is not unlimited authority. That you know you you can request to see them. You can dispute certain things, but but but yeah, I'd say the HOA probably, as long as everything's been written down and they can document it, they probably have the right to do this.
Well, you really buried that question. Nice job. We're going to move on and talk about our complimentary consults, estate planning, personal injury case you're facing, and you've got some questions. Grab one of our consults, no cost, no obligation. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand gets you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer.
Just. Your contact information, and again, estate planning or personal injury case, just acknowledge that, and they will give you a call back, and they'll set up the consultation nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand again nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or visit wh dot lawyer. When we return on Judica County, someone's buried in the backyard. That's an interesting category. We are dealing with a lot of death on this program.
We'll talk about that coming up next. You're listening to Judica County Radio. We are back on Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts, and they are the managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They practice law right here in North Carolina.
The offices are located across the state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. Legal questions today, and here's our next. One guys, the category.
Someone is buried in the backyard, so we're under contract to buy a farmhouse on 18 acres. During the inspection, the seller casually mentioned that his grandparents and two other relatives are buried near the back of the property. There aren't really headstones anymore; just some rocks marking the graves. We still want the property, but does having a family Cemetery on the land create legal rights for the sellers' relatives after we make the purchase. This, you know, when we we do these we do these questions, and this this comes up a lot actually in in the in these questions, and and in real life, this comes up a lot more than you you think it would, right?
A lot of people with folks buried in their backyards, yeah, especially you know, with with the urban area kind of expanding into different parts of Wake and Johnston and surrounding counties that used to be you know family farms and and things like that, because there was a there was a When this, I think that was probably pretty common, right? Your family passed away, and you had a hill, you know, yeah.
So it is a it is a issue. It is it is a problem. The law creates rights easements for people to be able to access these family graves, and and you know we've seen that happen a time or two. Yeah, it's something you want to know about. You want to know where they're at.
Right, I would I would say you want to survey because you want to know exactly where those things are at. Those things, yeah, people. Josh, come on, man, family bones. Yeah, let's be nice about it. Be respectful.
Yeah, so you want to know where those are? Those are located. I'd want to know exactly, and then just be aware that if family shows up, like to visit. They they have access, and you can't obviously move those remains. You can't build a new house on top of those remains.
I've got a question. Since we have attorneys on this program, if you're gonna do something like that. And let's say you're not in. I mean, are there are there laws or rules in place? Let's just say we're we're semi-rural.
We're not in a a neighborhood. We have our own land. Are there rules about burying family members on your property?
Now there's there there's a lot of rules, you know.
Now you you you you have there's a there's a every county and town has different procedures for it, but you have to meet certain criteria for it to even be a thing. You have to require, you know, there's there's permits, there's all there's all kinds of things, and there's a hassle to move. People when they when they've already been been buried because that happens in a lot of commercial development remains have to be moved relocated for development but yeah if you're buying a piece of property and there's you know there's a cemetery or you know there's burial you want to know everything there is to know about it and be aware that. Yeah, things can happen after after you buy it.
Well, and I was also going to just throw in too. There's so many neighborhoods going up. Let's say in Southern Wake, Harnett, Johnston County, and you start seeing fenced off areas in these neighborhoods where there are some family plots that are still there.
So it's a thing.
Now, opportunity to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer. If you've got a question about estate planning or personal injury case, jump on the Appointments again. These are complimentary consults. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
You can also visit wh dot lawyer. Got more Juca County coming up. Judeca County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, and offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Want to remind you that during the course of today's show. We have complimentary consults in and around estate planning or personal injury case. If you've got questions in those areas, how about this? No cost, no obligation consult. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
Get your questions answered. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand and book an appointment. Complimentary consult. You can also go to the website wh. Dot lawyer.
Judica County rolling on. Here's our next category, guys. My brother sold. Dad's Rolex before we opened the estate, so that's the category. Here's the question.
Our father died unexpectedly, and before anyone opened an estate, my brother took my dad's Rolex and several guns from the house. He says that Dad told him years ago that he could have them. We recently learned he sold the watch for around twenty-two thousand. Dad's will actually says his personal property is divided equally among the three children. Can my brother just say it was a gift?
Well, he can. Yeah, you can say anything you want to say. Right? It's a free country. You can say anything you want to say.
The so we just had a question in the last segment or the segment today. We had a question. Personal property was found after the estate had been administered, and we were talking about how you have to open up the estate to deal with that personal property that was found after the fact.
So here. And we, you know, we've we've heard of this happening a lot, right?
Somebody dies, and then the family, you know, family or friends or whoever, show up at the house like right after the funeral and start taking things, you know, out of the house that they said they were promised, or and that's kind of what I thought about when I read this question. You know, I remember a client who had that issue where. Family pretty much just cleaned out a house like right after the funeral, and trying to get some of that personal property back and account for it. And and and here, you know, maybe this brother is a great guy and he's he's telling the truth. I think the question's asked in a way where I kind of suspect this brother just took the watch.
Right? That's what this question leads me to believe. Yeah. I don't think the you know anyway. Um, he's got to account for that, you know.
And I think you would, if it were me, you know, whatever, whatever the the brother was going to get, I would, you know, if he's going to withhold that twenty two thousand dollars from the estate and the other heirs, I would deduct that from from his share. And the clerk will allow stuff like that. And it's kind of his. I think he's kind of he's the one who's got to prove it here. He's got to prove that this was a gift.
That that's kind of on him. You don't have to just. Take him at his word, unless you want to. Right? Maybe this isn't a big deal for this family, or maybe this brother's super trustworthy and everybody believes him.
But yeah, he's also got a bunch of guns now too, so you got to consider that. You know, confronting him and a cool Rolex. Oh, I didn't even see the guns.
Well, he sold the Rolex. He doesn't have the Rolex anymore. Oh, so he's got the guns. Let me let me ask you this. You got to listen to these questions, man.
You got to give give them the respect they deserve. That's right. That's right. Well, I mean, you guys obviously deal with estate planning, and it's it's one of the the many things that your firm does. Are you guys set in that category as far as just having your stuff in order?
Have you had have you had any issues in your past? Family-wise, where something like this has come up, I know that my parents. I have I have one sibling, and my parents basically said, "If you want something, it's almost like put a post-it note on it, or tell us tell us you want it." And that's kind of how we've done it. But you really probably need something more in writing.
Well, you know, if your family is agreeable, that's the thing. You know, if your family is agreeable and you and your sibling know what the deal is and and what you've been what you've been told, I mean, that's one thing. You know, when you do your estate plan, most most estate planning attorneys do not want you putting in a you know your will or your trust a huge list of personal. I want the Grandma's china to go to this person, and this ring to go to this person, because you don't want to, you know, you don't want to have to make a change to your estate plan because you sold personal property, or you don't have it anymore, or a lot of people. You know, if somebody falls out of favor, and you don't want them to have grandma's china, so a lot of estate planning attorneys keep personal property very simple in a will or trust.
Just say, "Hey, my personal property to be split upon my heirs," unless there's something really, really special. And then the the will or the trust usually refers to a writing. And and it can be a writing that you can keep, right? That your parents, Morgan, could have a list, yeah. And those post-it notes could probably be construed as a list, right?
I want you to have this, and you to have this, and you ask your executor or your trustee to honor your handwritten list, and that way it can change when things are, you know, if you. Sell to China. It's not there anymore, but I think that's that's been a popular trend in estate planning over the past twenty, thirty years. Is not to deal with, I won't, you know, the ring for my first marriage to go to this daughter-in-law or or what have you, and then just just kind of keep that on your own. Because I can't tell you how many wills I've seen.
Somebody's passed away. The family goes in and finds the last written will, and the person's marked it up, which is no no bueno. But the person's like decided they don't like this in law anymore and crossed it out. And you can't do that kind of things with wills and trust. You can't you can't alter them in that way.
So a lot of times we just refer to a handwritten list, and and that works for most families. You know, some families have the one the one person in the family who. Kind of makes everything difficult. You kind of have to plan around. And if you got that kind of person in the family, you might want to do something a little more binding.
I guess I don't know if that makes sense. The questions keep coming, and again, just dealing with some of these legal questions, you may have something that's in this category. But remember, you need customized advice. We have complimentary consults with estate planning and personal injury. Again, nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand is the number to call.
Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot law. You got time for one more quick one, and here it is: the category. Our house came with someone else's.
Solar panels, and here's the question: We bought a house with solar panels. The list, the listing said, solar equipped, and we assume they came with the property. Two months after closing, a solar company contacted us saying the previous owner had a 20-year solar agreement and still owes almost thirty thousand. They're claiming we either need to assume the agreement or let them remove the panels. Nobody mentioned this at closing.
What do we? Do now, you know, if something like this happens to you after closing, right? If anything happens to you after closing, where someone shows up. And says we have a lien on the property, or this wasn't paid off. You need to get in contact with your your closing attorney, right?
That's what your closing attorney does for you. They do a title search to make sure the seller pays off anything they they have to be paid off. It has to be on the public record, right? There's things you have to do to perfect a lien on on real property, right?
So you go to a closing. Your closing attorney would have you know seen the seller had a mortgage that gets paid off at closing. Delinquent tax bills get paid off at closing. Any kind of judgment, you know, that all gets paid off so that when you get title to the property, you get it free and clear from any of the seller's liens, mortgages, taxes, things like that.
So your the first thing this person should do is go back to their closing attorney and say, "Look, this is what I got," because it might not be legitimate. They might not have a lien on the property. And you know we see this happen where people pools, HVACs, solar panels, like those companies. If you're doing something like that and you're paying over time, you know they're loaning you money to do it. They have to file the paperwork to perfect their lien on the property.
If they don't, they don't. They don't have a lien. And so that's the first thing I would do. You go to your closing attorney. More than likely, you have title insurance in place where you can make a title insurance claim if it's something that got missed.
If it is legitimate, you've you've got protections there. And so, yeah, this this would be an interesting situation because I'd want to know, you know. If they if they filed a lien, if it's something the closing attorney missed, if they just didn't do anything, but but either way, there's you you've got things you can do.
So, this does happen. You know, this is this is one of those things that we've we've seen happen. But yeah, step one is contact your closing attorney and try to figure it out. Opportunity to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer, complimentary consult in and around estate planning, or maybe you're involved with a personal injury case and you need some questions answered. Grab one of the consults by calling nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot lawyer. We've got more at Judica County Radio coming up on the other side. Judeca County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind the program, and they practice law right here in the great state of North Carolina, placing offices for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and down at the Coast Moorhead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on, and we are in the middle of legal questions. There's an opportunity for you to get a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning. A lot of you out there probably have been putting that off, kicking the can down the road. But estate planning is very, very important, and you have an opportunity for a complimentary consult on estate planning.
Just call us nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Name, number, say estate planning, and you'll get one of those complimentary. Consults nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, and if you're in the middle of something with a personal injury case and you've got questions, consult for you as well. Call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot lawyer.
All right, next legal question category: My business partner died, and his wife says she's my new partner. That's the category. Here's the question: My best friend and I started a construction company twelve years ago. We were fifth. 50/50 owners.
Unfortunately, he passed unexpectedly last month. We have an LLC, but never signed a real operating agreement or buy-sell agreement. His will leaves everything to his wife. She says she now owns half the company, his half, and wants to participate and also manage. Is she automatically my new business partner?
You know, we get these. I feel like we get these questions. I feel like we get this this question phrased a different way, like every two or three weeks. Super common. Yeah, and it and it does come up a lot.
You know, a lot of folks are self employed. A lot of people, you know, have have property in an LLC that they they rent out, and they have have partners. And you know, a lot of people are under the impression that all you have to do to form an LLC is file articles at the Secretary of State's office, and that's really only step one. That just gets you the name reserved. The Secretary of State recognizes you exist, but it's the operating agreement.
It's the agreement between the owners that governs how you run and manage the LLC. And one of those things that we'll talk about is is what happens when one of the owner dies. You know, it's a very important part of the LLC. Without an operating agreement, the new wife. The law kind of looks at at being an owner, a member.
That's what we call an owner of an LLC. Being a member of the LLC kind of separates it into two interest. T here is the ownership economic interest, your due profit. You know, you got to chip in if t here is a loss. You know, t here is that part of of it, and then t here is the part of actively managing the the LLC.
And so, she certainly, the wife certainly gets the economic benefit or detriment, right, of the LLC. But usually, without an operating agreement that says the contrary, the wife is not your new business partner, right? The wife is not automatically going to have a vote or make decisions. That operating agreement could have changed all that. Right, maybe the maybe the intent of these two owners was that hey, if something happens to me, I want my spouse to step right into my place, and and be an owner and a member and active, and and maybe that was their intent, but that's not what what happens by default, right?
If there's no operating agreement, so here, you know, if the company makes a profit, the wife certainly is entitled to the fifty percent. Profit, but is not necessarily in there making daily decisions, or you know, hiring, firing people, and that kind of thing. Usually, what happens in this situation is there is a. You know, I mean, in practice, there is some sort of buyout. You know, that's kind of what ends up happening in this situation.
But if there was an operating agreement, it would say, "Hey, there is a buyout, and this is how we calculate the interest, and this is how we." Because you don't want, in this situation, you don't want the surviving spouse to be taken advantage of. Yeah, you wanted to be equitable for everybody, and so that's why, like you said. A good operating agreement. You got a bad operating agreement. You may be in no better position than you were to start.
But a good operating agreement is going to contemplate that. It's going to be fair to the business. It's going to be fair to the surviving spouse, and everybody's going to be as happy as they can be under the circumstances. You know, coming out of law school, you know, as an attorney, you know how important an operating agreement is. You know, they teach you that, like, just like, just kind of like we're doing right now.
But, but you know, we're twenty two, twenty three years into practicing law now, and you've seen, you know, how people get affected when they don't have an operating agreement, and it causes not having an operating agreement is kind of like dying without a will, right, or without a trust. It just it just throws a bigger wrench, and you are just stuck with the statutes, you are stuck with the way the law says you have to do things, and usually that's probably not what the owners would have wanted. I would guess. Yeah, I tell you, it's interesting. the The next question is even.
Kind of, it's a little dark. It's we'll get to this, and it's the hidden room, and you didn't know it was there. Again, Judica County Radio. The house we bought, the category, the house we bought has a secret room, and here's the question: We bought a 1970s house and discovered what looked like a false wall in the basement. Behind it, a finished room with electrical wiring and plumbing that doesn't appear on any of the plans.
Or county records. There's even a bathroom. Our contractor says none of it looks permitted. The seller lived there for about 25 years, but never mentioned it. Is this the seller's problem or ours?
Now that we've already closed, so you found a dungeon. Could could be.
Well, it could be what. You know the panic room, right? Oh, it could be. Panic room could be. Yeah, or it could be a dungeon.
I was gonna say it doesn't have to immediately be evil. It could have. Could very well be a dungeon as well. Joe, Joe went Hollywood on us right there. It's going for the dark, dark.
They said this. I was like, oh, panic room. You ever? There was a. I don't know if it's still around.
I I remember being in downtown Raleigh and going to a bar that was behind a bookcase. Have you ever been there? Speakeasy, speakeasy man. They got one in Clayton now. Yeah, we have one.
We have one at our office. Yeah, Josh, we've got one at our office. It's secret.
Next time you guys come over to the studios, next time you come over to the studios, I'll show it to you. It's behind a case. The so here we got unpermitted. This is this is kind of a weird question because I'm trying to think about how this room.
Well, I guess the bathroom could be unpermitted, but I'm thinking about how this room when they built the house could have been. I guess it was unfinished. Is that the question? This this was an unfinished space. They built it in the seventies, man.
Things were different back then. I'm I'm trying to figure out how you would have a secret room in your house. This question, the facts of this question, are bothering me. Yeah. Yes.
How would how would you have an unpermitted secret room in your house? Because it's not like you could hide the room from the county.
Well, this was the seventies, man. I think times were different. That's the that's the operative fact, man. I don't think they were looking as close. This question makes me feel uncomfortable.
This the inspector came in and was like, "Hey, is that a secret room?" They're like, "No," and he was like, "All right, are you trying to figure out how to get your own dungeon?" Is that what's happening right now?
Somebody created their own speakeasy before there were speakeasies. Yeah. So if this question said, "Hey, there's an unfinished," there was an unfinished basement. Right, and then basically you finished the unfinished basement and did plumbing and did electrical and you didn't pull your permits. That's one thing.
Yeah, but how could there just be a room in your house that nobody is aware of? It's a good question. Without without, I can't I can't answer this question. I think it's fundamentally flawed. No, man, these are our facts.
We got to do it. We got to help this person who has inherited a dungeon.
Okay.
Well, we can after the break. We'll help out. All right. All right. We'll we'll take a short break, and we may or may not come back to that question.
Judica County Radio. 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. And we have complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning, or maybe you're involved with a personal injury case and you've got some questions. This is no cost, and you're not obligated to become a client.
But they are here to help. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Call that number. Leave your contact information. I'll be back in touch with you, and they'll set up one of those consults.
You can also visit wh dot lawyer. Again, the number nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer. More Judica County coming up. Back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they have offices placed all over our great state for your convenience: Morehead City, Gastonia, Fuquay Varina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina.
I'm Morgan Patrick. It's a pleasure to jump on, hit these legal questions, and you've got some. Questions maybe about estate planning or a personal injury case you're involved with, you can grab a complimentary consult at any time nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot lawyer.
That's wh dot lawyer. All right, so here's a question for you. Do you like cats, guys? Do you like cats? Are you a cat person?
I don't hate cats. I mean, I'm I'm the same. I'm more of a dog person. Cats are fine. No allergies.
I'm good. I'm good. All right. So here's the category. Grandma left her entire house.
To her cat. Here's the question: My grandmother's handwritten will says I leave my house and one hundred thousand dollars to my cat Lucy, so she will always have a home. The rest goes to her grandchildren. Lucy is very much alive, but obviously she can't sign a deed or open a bank account. What happens to the house and the money?
Well. You know, I mean, as you probably assumed, a cat can't legally own a house. Um, did we assume that? Was that an assumption we made? Shocking legal advice that we okay doled out here, but uh, yeah.
So you know, she's got a handwritten will. You know this is not the way to to do it, right? If you want to make sure someone's going to take care of your cat and they've got the money to do it, and you create a pet trust, right? A cat can't own real property and and hold one hundred thousand dollars, but you can create a trust. Maybe maybe your good friend Joe Hamer is the trustee of this trust and and a cat's personal property.
So you have to leave the cat to somebody, right?
So you leave the cat to Joseph, and you put money into a trust in the house in the trust and say, Joe, I want my cat Lucy to live a good life. Yep, here's a here's a hundred. That's fine. Yeah, here's a hundred thousand dollars for vet bills and things like that. And here's here's my house, you know, and and.
So that's what you do, and then but but you got to have a beneficiary that's not the cat, right? Yeah, right.
So so you'd create this pet trust and say, Joe, as long as the cat's alive, I want you to have these, and then everything is to be sold, and and then you know we'll give it to the SPCA, right, at the end after the cat's dead or whatever whatever you want to do. But you know the cat's not loading up its wallet, you know, and it's cat wallet. Yeah, going out on the town like what was the cat cartoon from back Garfield? No, not Garfield. Garfield was a good.
That was a good guess, though, man. What other cat cartoon? He's Cliff. Oh yeah, he's the one that had like a gang, and he went out, and they had all these schemes, yeah. That's that's what this cat's doing.
This cat's just been working this lady, and gotta watch those cats. And now he's got a hundred thousand dollars in the house. Like that's a he's like king of the cats now, right? That's the most successful cat out there. You're calling Lucy a he.
Lucy's not a he. Lucy's a she. Yeah, I'm sorry.
Next category here on Judica County legal question. Here it is: the buyer moved into the house before closing, and then the closing fell apart.
So here's the question: We agreed to sell our house, and the buyer's apartment lease expired ten days before closing. Against our agent's advice, there's a clue. We let him move into the house early because his lender said everything looked good. Then his financing was denied. He hasn't closed.
He's been living there for six weeks, and now he says he'll leave when he finds somewhere else to live. Can we just remove his belongings? This is the reverse of our earlier question that asked about a seller renting back from from their buyers before their house is built.
So this is just the reverse of that question. But that's the downside, right? You let your You have the situation where you got a closing, and and the buyer needs to move in before closing, and that's, you know, you kind of take you got to take those as they come, and that's not usually advisable.
Sometimes it can't be avoided, right? If you're, anyway. But yeah, you you would have a lease in this situation, right? This this asking again, can you just remove his belongings? No, that's never the answer.
If you have a tenant, because that's what you have now, you let the buyer move in before closing. Hopefully, you have a some sort of short term lease. Um. You can't. That's not how you remove a tenant.
The only way you can really remove a tenant, a residential tenant in North Carolina, is by going through the eviction process. And that's why you want a lease.
So, yeah, this is this is this is just the reverse of that earlier question. We are in the middle of legal questions, and we are getting ready to wrap up the program. We want to remind you that there are complimentary consults available with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning and personal injury. Just call the number nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or you can visit the website wh dot lawyer. All right, here's another one.
The category: the executor found dad's cryptocurrency password, but not. The cryptocurrency.
So here's the question: My father was really into crypto. After he passed, we found a notebook containing what looks like passwords and a 12-word recovery phrase. His tax returns show he bought roughly $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency several years ago, but nobody knows what exchange or wallet he used. His will just says everything goes equally to his kids. How does an executor Even find and transfer something like this.
So, this is the you know, this is the good part about cryptocurrency, and the bad part. The good part is, you know, it's it's kind of, I mean, for lack of a better word, it's kind of off the books, right? You are not usually holding it in such a matter where it's it's easy to find. And so, this is really important. If you if you have substantial assets in in in in cryptocurrency, you need to make sure your family knows how to access it.
Because nobody's going to go looking. You know the way the way crypto's set up. Nobody's going to go looking for you, right? No one's gonna. You.
It's just. It's like the baseball collection that was in the storage unit earlier. If people don't know it, you own it, sure. But if people don't know you own it and you die, they may not find it. They may not track it down.
It may just sit out there.
So, crypto is is kind of a personal prop. It's personal property, and it's kind of a challenge because it's usually, you know, if it's in Coinbase or some other, you know, and you you just leave your logins. But you got to leave that information where someone will find it and know what to do with it. If you care, if you don't care, if it makes it to the next generation, then it doesn't matter. It's their problem.
You're just leaving them a Scooby-Doo mystery. I was going to say a little bit of a little bit of a mess. That's a gift in and of itself, man. That's right. Your very own Scooby Doo mystery.
Your treasure hunt. Yeah. Good luck. One billion dollars in Bitcoin, but you got to figure out how to get it. All right.
So, final category. We'll hit this real quick, guys. A stranger claims he owns half of my mother's house. Here's the question: My mother passed, and we thought our house was paid off and entirely hers. When we started getting ready to sell, a man we'd never met contacted us, producing a deed from 22 years previous.
That appears to give him 50% interest in the property. My mother apparently dated him years ago. The deed is recorded at the courthouse. He's never lived there or paid taxes, but now he wants half the sale proceeds. Does an old recorded deed really beat 22 years of my mom treating the house as her own?
Fast and furious, go! Yes, yeah, yeah. There you go. Don't fast and furious enough for you? Yeah.
Don't give deeds. Don't give deeds to people, right? I mean, deeds a very powerful document, and so if she, this is a valid deed, and and she signed it, and it was recorded within. I'm assuming it was a gift deed. If it was recorded within two years, it's on record.
This guy owns half the.
Now, what's he entitled to? Did he help pay the mortgage? You know, he didn't pay any taxes. Maybe he's not entitled to fifty percent because the the mom paid the carrying cost of the real property, maintained the real property, so it's arguable he he maybe is entitled in less than fifty percent. But that deed ain't going nowhere.
Nope. If it's valid. All right, there you go. Another edition of Judica County is in the books. We want to remind you, complimentary consult available in and around estate planning or personal injury.
Just call the firm nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit wh dot lawyer. Again, another edition of Judica County in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan. We'll see on the radio next week.
Judeca 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 mw h law.
lawyer.
