Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio with Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker Hamer Law Firm and practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina, we have situations that ordinary North Carolinians run into all the time, involving neighbors, parents, children, cars, houses, bills, and family disagreements. It's all coming up next on Judica County. Whitaker and Hamer presents Judika County with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. Welcome into Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts, are the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program.
They also practice law right here in the state of North Carolina, offices conveniently placed in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, down near Charlotte, and Gastonia, and in Morehead City, down on the coast. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. Going to be an opportunity for. You to get on their calendar a complimentary consult in around estate planning, or maybe you're involved with a personal injury case, and you just don't know what to do next.
Grab one of the consults. We'll tell you how to get those as we move through the program. And as we always do, we start off just checking in how the week was. Josh, you're first. the The week was fine, man.
The week was busy. It's been busy. I spent a lot of time this week. You know. Every week, I think I told you this.
Every week, I try to have like some big picture thoughts. You know, like to think about, hey, the business is some things we need to do for the for the future, or you know, this is some stuff the family needs to focus on. I try to have like, I try to make the weekends big picture thoughts. Right? You know, during the week, you got to focus on the work, where the kids got to go, what's going on, and on the weekend, and the weekends have been busy lately.
Right, but I've been trying to focus on how to relax better. Oh, okay. Right, I think we. I think you know, I think we're all kind of Type A folks. Like, you know, very productive.
Got to be productive. We got these meetings during the day. These things have to be done. Kids got practice. Kids got to go to doctor.
Kids got to do this, and I feel like. I I'm imputing this imputing this to you guys, but it's hard to relax. Do you do you feel that way? No, or do you not feel that way? I'm relaxed right now.
Have you heard of Joe? Joe is taking a nap. What did you say? Um, I think your problem is you. You talk about you're doing all this big picture thinking on the weekends.
Have you ever tried just doing small picture thinking? That's during the week. Turn the turn the stakes down. You do it all the time, man. Or, or better yet, just don't think about anything ever.
You know, the kids don't have to go to the doctor. They should. In a perfect world, they'd make it. They don't have to. But you know, I was I was thinking about somebody.
Somebody gave me the anyway.
So I was I was talking to somebody about this, and they they were talking about the art. Of doing nothing, right? That's how they relax. The art of doing nothing, kind of not like not to the point of meditation, right? But just the art, like you, like you were just saying, right?
Just think of thinking nothing, yeah, right, and just sit there and thinking nothing. And I think that's hard for a lot of people to do. But they they they gave me this Italian phrase, and I know I'll butcher it, but dolce far niente. The sweetness of doing nothing, right?
So that's what I've been trying to think about, right? And that's what you said, Joseph. The sweetness, yeah, of just doing nothing, because you you have to relax, right? I mean, your body needs rest, right? Your mind with these big thoughts, Josh.
What did you come up with? What are you trying? What are you implementing? Sitting, right? That's Sitting, you know, I can relax.
You know, like if I'm looking at a lake, right. Normally around lakes, and you know, I think that's why it's relaxing is like lakes and oceans. You know, they they kind of open up, right. When you're at your house, you know, you might have neighbors on each side. You know, it might be too compartmentalized, right.
But when you look at a lake, or you look at an ocean, or you're looking at the mountains and everything kind of expands. I think that does something to your Brain, right? I think that helps your brain relax, shut off, right? Get get lost, you know.
Okay, and so that's nice. All right.
So on that note, Joe, are you implementing anything? Do you do any? You may already do things just to hit the pause button and relax. Do you do anything? No, no.
I just live live my life the same way every day, and uh. My kids are too. My kids are too young. I mean, it's like I'm go go go. My kids vacation young, super young, man.
I don't have old, seasoned children like you guys.
So I'm still chasing these kids around all day, every day. You just go until you you fall asleep. Nah, I'll. I mean, every now and again, you get a break, right? You get a break.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every every so often, and you you cherish it. You long for it.
So you know, I was thinking about this one guy who was, you know, I was having this conversation with, and we're talking about the the sweetness of doing nothing and like relaxing. You know, one day having one day a week, you know, whether it's Sunday or you know, can be during the week for some people, but a day where you're you really don't have anything on the schedule, whether you relax or not, that's different, right? Having nothing to do doesn't mean you're relaxed. True, relaxing is something different. But then then you run into the people who are very Type A, very productive, and they're like, Hey, look, man, I'll relax when I'm dead.
You know, like you got that kind of attitude where you're just going full stop. You should have plenty of time to relax when you're dead, in theory. You know, yeah. I'll sleep when I'm dead, or I'll relax when I'm dead. You know.
Well, you remember when you were in college? You know, it's two a.m. and people are like, "Gosh, aren't you exhausted?" No, I'll sleep when I'm dead. I remember in college. I remember, man.
I remember. You know, I worked in college. I worked a couple of jobs and went to college. You know, but I remember like going to a. I I was at state.
I went to NC State. I remember going to UNC for a part, some kind of party. Yeah, right. We all drove up to UNC for a party. Wolfpack.
Yeah, and then, and then we couldn't find somebody. Took a while to get our group back together, and like we got back into Raleigh like four. I had to be at work at five. Right, so you just you just didn't go to sleep, right? You just went to work, yep, and then you took a nap.
Yeah, yeah, I would. You die now. You'd literally, yeah, yeah. I'd be out of work for a week. I wouldn't.
It's uh, it's different now, but um. But anyway, that's. I was trying to. We we went to we went to the state game this past weekend. That was kind of all day Saturday.
We had stuff to do Sunday. Then Monday started, and so this weekend I didn't feel like I had any chance to to unwind. And then we got stuff to do this weekend. But anyway, that's kind of what I've been thinking about. How do you really fully Relax when you have, like a lot of us do, right?
Kids, family, work. Yeah, you got a lot of stuff going on, you know. But well, I'll I'll share with you guys.
So what we do, I mean, this is every morning. We, you know, I get up first. I'm got stuff I have to do, but probably around seven a.m. It's front porch. It's watch the sunrise.
Couple sounds romantic, Morgan. That sounds nice. Not a, and I am not doing this by myself. My my wife is with me, so it is romantic. But it's also just, and we have a beautiful piece of property with a pond, and there's a lot of nature.
I think the water helps. What do we do for poor Morgan, Morgan? Why don't me and Joe just start? Me and Joe are just going to start coming over there, yeah. Hanging out.
Thank you. I consider that a standing invitation. Yeah, we call we call it we call it front. Porch sitting, and we just there's not a lot of talk. It's just you take in the sun as it's coming up over the trees, and it's just nature, and it's a great way to kind of kickstart the day.
You talk a little bit about what's coming up for the day, and then you you kind of project towards the week. But it's it's not a it's not a stressful conversation. It's just yeah, you know, you just kind of get the day rolling, and it it helps. And I. I hadn't done that since I met Michelle, and now now we do this every day.
It's a big deal, and you know we kind of joke about the relaxing part of it. But in your jobs, the what you do from you know nine to five Monday through Friday, and probably sometimes on the weekends, and you throw the kids in, you really need to carve out time. To actually kind of take a step back and just take it all in, and because if you don't, you know, you're on the treadmill, and then eventually, twenty years down the road, you're gonna be like, "Where did it all go?" So, yeah, I applaud you, Josh, for you know making the effort to kind of slow it down a little bit.
Well, I haven't figured it out yet, but no, no one has, but you're trying. Good stuff. Hey, listen. We need to take a break, and we'll come back. We've got some questions that we are going to get into situations that ordinary North Carolinians are running into all the time, and you may be running into some of these yourself.
So listen up. We also have an opportunity for you to get on the calendar with Whitaker and Hamer, and it is no cost, no obligation consult in and around estate planning or personal injury. Just call the number nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Come on in and. Talk deep thoughts with Josh and Joe nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand deep legal thoughts.
We'll keep it in that category nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Or visit wh dot lawyer again. More Judica County coming up on the other side. Judeca County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts, managing partners Whitaker Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Offices located Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and Morehead City down on the coast. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, and we are going to get into some questions in and around just situations that or. Ordinary North Carolinians, this could be you. You're running into this all the time.
So the first question category is this, guys. My neighbor keeps parking in front of my house. All right.
So here's the question: We live in a neighborhood with fairly small lots, and our next door neighbor has four. Count them: one, two, three, four vehicles. Even though his driveway only holds two of them, he parks the other two directly in front of. Our house almost every single day.
Sometimes they're there for an entire week without moving. We have guests. We can't park near our house, and it's becoming a real problem. I've asked him to stop doing this, but he stay. He basically says it's a public street, and he can park wherever he wants.
Is he right? Can I have the vehicles towed?
Sounds like that person's having a very different kind of front front porch sitting than you are, Morgan. Yeah, that's front porch watching, staring at his at his neighbor's park there, getting matter and matter.
Well, in that neighborhood, you probably sit in your backyard, right? Yeah, back porch sitting. I got you. You do some back porch sitting in that neighborhood, but yeah, if it's a public street. You know, there's some there's some rules, and there's some you know there's some some things.
But if it's a if it's a public street, you know you don't you don't own that property, and you certainly couldn't have the vehicles towed. I mean, you can call tow trucks, but they're not going to tow someone who's legally parked in a public space. You know, they can't be in your yard, they can't block your driveway, they can't block your mailbox. You know that that kind of stuff. But You know, and that's and that's why a lot of people will, you know, we talk about HOAs a lot, homeowners associations, and people will joke, well, I don't really want an HOA, I want to live somewhere, but but you know, in an HOA with private streets, you know, this kind of thing is regulated, and people can't park in front of your your house.
You can have rules if they're private streets, right? But public streets are for everybody. And so here, there's not going to be a lot, you know. He taught, you know. That's what I always suggest.
This guy did what I usually suggest, like, hey, just go talk to your neighbor. You're still, I know it's not the 1950s, right? But your neighbor's still your neighbor. You know, usually if you go talk to to neighbor, now this neighbor, I guess, maybe doesn't have a lot of options. You know, if they can only park two in their driveway and they got four cars, um.
But but yeah, unfortunately, this is just this is you know this this person would probably benefit by living in a in a private community that has private streets and has an HOA and you know but I don't think there's much to do. I mean, I don't think there's much to do as long as they're not blocking. You can't block your driveway, can't block your mailbox, can't prevent you from accessing your home. But otherwise. seems Seems like the neighbor's not really doing anything wrong.
Annoying, for sure, right? But not wrong, not not illegal. It's not illegal to be annoying. It's not. I know what I would.
What I would do is I would wait until those cars moved, and then I would move my cars in front of my own house. Yeah, that's smart. Freeing legal, freeing freeing up my driveway at the same time. Yeah, I I think the. You know, just have trying to have a conversation with the neighbor because guess what?
You're not moving, they're not moving.
So, try to figure out a way to do some front porch sitting, slow it down. Invite maybe invite them over for some front porch sitting. Have a little coffee, have a little coffee, and say, "Look at this view! Aren't your cars beautiful in front of my house?" And maybe he'll he'll move them. All right, so good first question.
Here's the next one, guys. What would you do here? Category: My adult son borrowed my car. Oh, got in an accident.
So here's the question: Twenty-four-year-old son moved back home a few months ago while he looks for work. He occasionally borrows my car, and last weekend he rear-ended someone at a stoplight. The other driver is claiming a neck injury and has already contacted an attorney. My son. My son has their own driver's license, but doesn't have his own car or insurance policy.
The vehicle is titled and insured in my name. Am I automatically responsible for everything just because I own the car?
Well, you know, not not automatically, right? The driver the driver still is primarily liable when when you're in an accident. I will tell you, there's all kinds of legal theories to get to you as an owner, right? I mean, so you can't just lend your car to to anybody, right? If your son here, the son has a license, but let's say the son didn't have a license, right?
Say your son had a suspended license and you knew it, and you let him drive the car and he got an accident.
Well, you you probably you probably are going to be liable, right? You you entrusted your vehicle to someone negligently because they weren't they weren't driving.
Well, there's all kinds of legal theories to get to the owner in this situation, especially if the driver is uninsured. You know, I I would imagine the facts are really important here. Facts that we don't have, but but I would imagine here, as the owner of the car, you're you're probably going to have some liability. But you, you know, you got to be careful. You know, it's your car.
Well, the other, the other part, just being a father, I don't think I'm allowing my son. To drive a car, if he doesn't have insurance, maybe you maybe you should be proactive. Put, I mean, depending on his age.
Well, he's twenty four. I mean, you can put him on your insurance. I think what is it twenty? Is it twenty six when they have to go off twenty five or twenty six? They have to have their own.
I can't remember the the name. It's different for like health insurance and. Driver insurance, but but yeah, you would you could at the very least, if you can't add him to your policy, I would think getting his own policy is probably pretty cheap if he doesn't, you know, own a own a car. But yeah, yeah, don't want to leave. I was I was thinking when you started saying that, I was like, well, you don't want to hang your son out to dry, probably.
No, no, you don't want to do that. But I think you have these conversations before you let him drive your car. It'd been better if he just hadn't got into an accident. That would be the best, right? Of course, in a perfect world.
All right, so two questions down. Let's talk a little bit about the consult, Josh. If you could kind of walk us through it again, it's estate planning, it's personal injury. Who is the ideal candidate to grab one of these consults? Come on in and talk about it again.
No cost, no obligation.
Well, the first thing I would, I would, the first thing I want to say is we we we handle a lot of practice areas here at the firm. We have a lot of different attorneys who spend their time doing a lot of different things, and so here on the radio show, we talk about free consults for estate planning. And wills, trust, power of attorneys, things like that, and we talk about free consults for people who've been in an accident, personal injury cases, car accident, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents. Those consults we do we do for free.
So if you call us, we're going to set you up with one of our attorneys or me and or Joe or you know whatever to to sit down and talk about that for free. You know, get some information. Talk to an attorney. Get their you know experienced opinion. These aren't attorneys straight out of law school.
These are attorneys who've been doing this stuff for a long time. But I will mention. You know we have we we practice several other practice areas. You know we do a lot of civil litigation, a state administration. You know we handle a lot of real estate transactional real estate litigation.
So you can call us for a lot of things. Here on the radio, we talk about the free consults a lot, and that the free consults are estate planning and and personal injury. All right.
Well, there you go. Opportunity to get on the calendar with that complimentary consult. Whitaker and Hamer, estate planning, personal injury; those are the categories. Call the number nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. If you got questions, there.
That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit the website wh dot lawyer again. Wh dot lawyer. When we return on Judica County, we have more legal questions in and around Citrus. Situations that ordinary North Carolinians—that would be you—run into all the time.
Think about it: disputes with neighbors, maybe you've got something going on with your parents, the children, cars, houses, bills, family disagreements. We'll get to some of those questions coming up on the other side. Again, you're listening to Judika County Radio. We're back on Judica County Radio. Josh Whittaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts.
They're the managing partners at Whittaker and Hamer Law Firm. They practice law right here in the state of North Carolina. Offices placed right here in Raleigh, also Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with both Josh and Joe, and we get into these legal.
Questions facing North Carolinians; these happen every single day. We also offer complimentary consults in and around estate planning or a personal injury case you're involved with. You got questions? Again, no cost, no obligation. You can grab one at any time.
Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand gets you in touch with the firm. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit the website; great resource for you. W H dot lawyer. All right, next category, gentlemen.
My sister won't help pay for mom's care.
So here's the question. My mother's eighty-six and still lives in her own home. She needs help with meals, transportation, medications, and also getting to appointments. I'm retired and live nearby, so I've been doing almost everything for the last two years. My sister lives about an hour away and rarely visits.
I've spent thousands of dollars out of my own pocket on mom's expenses. Mom has some savings, but my sister insists we should. Couldn't touch that money because it's our inheritance. Can I legally make my sister contribute, or can I reimburse myself from mom's accounts? That's the question.
Before we get to the question, I mean this situation happens a lot, right? You've got a you've got a surviving parent. Maybe they're here. Looks like there's two sisters, there's two daughters. But this happens a lot where you've got an aging parent, and one of the kids is is close by, and in theory, you know, able available to help.
Some of the other siblings live further away. You know, maybe work. Maybe you don't have as much time as this one sibling, kind of takes on this responsibility, and so this happens a lot. Hopefully, the family comes together. It looks like the person asking our question was trying to get the family organized and say, "Hey, this is what Mom needs." You know, this is what it what it cost.
Here, there is some some facts that would be nice to have. It'd be nice if mom had somebody appointed to be your POA, right?
So it'd be nice if someone was the POA for the mom, and you are one hundred percent going to use the mom's assets to pay for the stuff the mom needs, right? And that's what you should be doing. This daughter who's taking care of the mom and spending thousands of her own money—that's not really the way, you know. Because we're going to get to this reimbursement question, but the goal would be not to put yourself in that situation where you're. Hopefully, you know, I'm going to take care of my parents if that's ever the the need, and and hopefully, you know, but but just basically, you you should use.
The mom's money here to take care of the mom. I just wanted to jump in. It's a perfect time to talk about estate planning. I mean, this is something that, if you are proactive, at least on paper, you are going to have a pathway here. It's you are not asking questions about this.
You are able to, as you mentioned, power of attorney. Again, very important healthcare power of attorney, all those things. Yeah, hopefully it doesn't sound like it, right? We're having to guess, right? It doesn't sound like the mom here, who's eighty six, who lives alone, and maybe it doesn't sound like she's taking care of her estate plan because there's no mention of a power of attorney or, like you said, a healthcare power of attorney, a trust or a will.
But in theory, you know, the mom would have everything set up so that her daughter or daughters. Could could take care of her state, pay her bills.
Now, when the mom runs out of money, that's a that's a whole other question. But here, here you don't want to get in the situation. That's my answer to the question. You don't want to get in the situation. Can you reimburse yourself from your mom's accounts?
Maybe, but you're going to have to have a conversation with everybody and be very transparent. All right, a complimentary consult with Whitaker Hamer. You might be in a situation like this, and you need to talk estate planning. Call the number nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine. One nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit wh dot lawyer.
Got more Chautika County coming up. Back on Judica County Radio, Josh Whittaker, Joe Hamer are your hosts. They're the managing partners at Whittaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina. Exactly where they practice law, and they have placed offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorehead City. The complimentary consults through the course of today's show are in and around a state plan.
Personal injury cases, but they have attorneys that handle all the different areas when it comes to legal.
So, if you've got questions, give the firm a call nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand, or visit the website wh dot lawyer. Great place to kick the tires. Certainly, find out more about Whittaker and Hamer. Good resource for you.
Wh dot lawyer. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to be on with the attorneys. We're getting into some legal questions, and these are questions situations. I should say that every day North Carolinians deal with, and you might be in a similar situation.
Just make sure you're getting something customized as far as a consult when it comes to that legal situation.
So the next category, gentlemen, the used car I bought broke down three days after purchase.
So here's the question: I bought a used SUV from a private seller for thirteen thousand five hundred. He told me it ran great and that he'd never had any major mechanical problems. Three days later, the transmission failed, and the repair shop says it needs about five thousand dollars in work. The mechanic also says there are signs someone recently tried to temporarily cover up the problem. The seller says it's my.
Problem because I bought the vehicle as is. Do I have any legal recourse? Maybe. Yeah, yeah, maybe.
So, you know, when you when you buy a used car, normally it's not always the case, right? But normally, you're you're kind of buying it as is. Without any warranties, you know, if it's new enough, maybe there's a transferable warranty. I know there's some people buy the aftermarket warranties now that are transferable, but but usually when you buy a used car from a dealer, you're not getting any kind of warranty. You're buying this is a private seller.
That that was the the setup.
So this is not a dealer. This is somebody that might be a neighbor, might be a friend. It's a private seller. Yeah, but you're you're talking about the situation, Josh, where there's a they that the the seller has a warranty. That can be transferred.
Yeah, yeah.
So if you if you're buying a car that's new enough, right, there might be there might be a manufacturer warranty that can get transferred.
Some people, I think, Ice T was selling one. Yeah, I value Ice T's opinion. Yeah, me. Who doesn't? I value Ice T's opinion, but lately he's been selling aftermarket used car warranties, which I I don't think are probably the best deal.
Which which just I could have helped this guy out. Yeah, but um, I wonder if we can get Ice T to make a make a commercial for our for the law firm. That would be pretty. I'll send him an email today. Yeah, let's get let's get with his representation and see if he'll they'll do that.
He just put out a new album. I don't know. I hadn't listened to it. A car warranty themed album. I maybe maybe I got to get on that.
Maybe I'll do that this weekend. Maybe I'll listen. I got a long drive. Maybe I'll listen. It can be how you unwind and relax.
Ice tea. Um. Anyway, so from from a private seller, this is this is of course a private. T here is no warranties still, right?
So that that it still has is t here is probably not good paperwork, right? Usually, when you are buying a car from somebody, no one's whipped up a contract. Nobody, you know, you are getting maybe a title signed. Um, but when you sell something to somebody else, whatever it is, you can't commit fraud. Right, whether you're selling a house and there's a contract, whether you're buying a new car, whether you're buying a used car, you're saying you can't.
You say you can't commit fraud. You can commit fraud. You should not commit, and you can be liable for. Yeah, you can't do it and then get away with it. That's yeah.
So here, just to make that distinction, I don't want to, I don't want to confuse anyone.
So here, right, you've got you've got some you've got some evidence, right? Your mechanic said, "Hey, this problem, somebody I don't know what kind of problem you could try to cover up." You know they don't they don't go into that much detail in the question, but but here you got evidence that this person knew they sold you, you know, and that's and that's fraud, and fraud opens up a lot of stuff, right? Of course, you want your purchase price back. If you got a car that that isn't going to run, you just you just want to get your money back. Give them the car, right?
So you want your purchase price back thirteen thousand five hundred bucks. But when frauds involved, you start getting into punitive damages, right? Damages that are just meant to punish. the The person who committed fraud, you can get some attorneys' fees back. Fraud is a very powerful civil claim.
I know people get confused too. You know, there's there's criminal fraud, right? That that that is one thing. But here we're talking about you know a civil transaction. This is this is civil fraud.
This isn't you know criminal charges. This is suing somebody because they pulled a fast one on you, right? Um. But anyway, fraud, misrepresentation—that's kind of what happened here. And there's things you can do.
You know, you can you can apply pressure. Hopefully, this person would make it right. Once an attorney got—that's the hope, right? Once an attorney gets involved, we're like, hey, man, we got this mechanic. He's gonna he's gonna testify that that you know he can see where you tried to cover this up.
There's no way you wouldn't have known about it. You sold us a you know anyway. But yeah, there's definitely something you can do there.
Well, and and two, and this is just from past experience. When buying a used vehicle, most of us have a mechanic that we like and we trust, and we take our cars to. You know, and they'll do. Car checks for you.
So, if you're going to buy a car and you're doing a private seller situation like this scenario, you know, ask the seller, "Hey, is it okay if I drop the car by my mechanic?" And let them take a look, and if they say no, then walk away. Run on it, but yeah, but allow allow a mechanic to take a look at it. I've done this several times, especially when my my son was looking for a car, and I was going to help him out, and he was so gung ho to get a car, he was going to rush into it, and I said, "Well, let let me take it to a mechanic." And the first three cars he selected had all been in wrecks, had all been in a situation where. You know, the it says the Carfax is clean, but the mechanic takes one look and he can see the damage from underneath. And so, we were able to avoid getting into a lemon situation, a situation where the car was probably going to be a problem before we got there.
So, again, I'm not an attorney, but my you know. The way I go about things is if I'm going to buy something used like that, and it's a huge purchase, mechanic's going to take a look at it first. All right, so we've got time for one more question in this segment, guys, and here it is: Category. My landlord is selling the house that I'm renting. All right, so here we go.
My wife and I have rented the same house for almost four years. We recently signed a new one-year lease that runs through next July. Last week, the landlord told Us, he's going to sell the property, and that the new buyer wants to move in immediately after closing on it. We've always paid our rent on time and haven't violated the lease. Can the new owner make us leave just because they want to live there?
The, you know, me and Joe say this a lot when we run into these landlord. Tenant questions, right? That's a that's a landlord tenant question, and and we really need the lease. We really need to see what the lease. Yeah, the lease is going to control, but but that being said, generally, you know, just speaking in generalities, a lease doesn't go away just because you sell a house.
You know, that's not going to terminate a lease agreement. If it if it did, man, you. It'd be chaos, right?
So, yeah, there's there's facts that we don't have. You know, is the you know the does the typically a buyer is going to have notice that the house is rented because if he goes to look, you know, if he or she goes to look at the house, someone's going to be there. Right there, there could be a situation where someone buys a house sight unseen. The seller doesn't disclose there's a tenant there. There's no agreement between the buyer and and the tenant.
I mean, there's some there's some situations that could happen where the buyer of real property maybe doesn't have to honor a lease. But I like what Joe said. Normally, a sale's not going to terminate the the the lease. And so, normally, something like that, you you just All the parties just kind of get together, have attorneys, work it out, come to some sort of. Agreement.
We are in the middle of just talking about legal questions, situations that ordinary North Carolinians run into all the time, and allowing the attorneys to answer these questions. We'll have more coming up on the other side. We do have complimentary consults with Whittaker and Hamer in and around estate planning and also personal injury cases. Again, nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand the number to call. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand.
You can also visit wh dot lawyer. Judica County coming up. Judica County Radio. We are back. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your hosts, managing partners Whitaker Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program, and they practice law right here in North Carolina, offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Varina, down near Charlotte and Gastonia, and over the coast, Morehead City.
I am Morgan Patrick. We get into these. Situations we talk about legal situations facing North Carolinians. That's the focus of today's program. We also have complimentary consults in and around estate planning and personal injury cases available for you at Whitaker and Hamer.
And if you are in that scenario, maybe you're thinking estate planning, haven't taken that step first. This is no cost or obligation. If you're in a personal injury case, you've got questions, don't know how to proceed. You can also grab one of the consults. Nine one nine seven seven two seven.
Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also go to the website, which is a resource for you. W H dot lawyer get signed up there as well. All right, so our next. Legal category is my dad gave my brother fifty thousand dollars, and now my father's passed away.
So here's the question: My father passed away recently and left his estate equally to his three children. About two years before he passed away, he gave my brother fifty thousand dollars to help buy a house. Dad told me at the time that it was supposed to come out of my brother's inheritance or his part of it, but he never put anything in. My brother says it was a gift, and that he's still entitled to a full one-third share. Can the executor deduct the fifty k?
That's the question. We get this question a lot of different ways, you know. And the quick answer is no; you can't automatically do that as executor. That's the you know you've got to determine whether this was a a gift. Was this an advance on inheritance?
You know, was anything written down? Was there a promissory note? Do we know what it was for? Is there any way to measure the intent of the of the father? He's not he's not around, but it's it's important.
You know, fifty thousand dollars is a good chunk of change. You know, for some people, as they get to the end of life, that's that's a lot of money. For some people, it's not a lot of money, and that kind of just depends for this family. If that's a lot of money. Hopefully the father would have mentioned it to the other siblings.
Hopefully, put something in writing, a promissory note would be great, right? Because that would mean it was a loan, right? Even if there was no immediate payback terms, things like that.
So if you're if you're in this position and you're trying to help one of your kids, right? That happens, right? One of your kids loses a job, you know, needs some help, and and you and you help them. If in your mind that's part of their inheritance, you need to. Documented in some way, which we're generally people just aren't very good at that kind of thing, right?
So here, nothing's automatically going to happen. If the brother insists it was a gift, everybody's going to have to sit down and figure this out. You know, and it may end up being a hearing in front of a clerk or a judge if that's enough money to make that worthwhile. But it's it's a you know it's not easy it's not an easy situation to to get through without got to do some fact finding yeah yeah what was it used for you know and again hopefully the father at least mentioned it to somebody else you know I'm doing this this is why I'm doing it well in this scenario he did tell the one sibling that it was going to be taken out of that. Yeah, that's true.
Inheritance, but it was not it was not in writing.
So the other sibling is disputing that.
So it's this scenario potentially going to get nasty. Yeah, and and and a lot of times there's there's a compromise, right? You know, a lot of times like the you know let's let's treat half of it as inheritance and half of it, you know. But you know, it's it's it's it's difficult. You know, the the father here put him in kind of a weird spot.
You know, the father probably didn't know. Um, anyway, neither here nor there. It's a tough spot to be in. T here is not an easy answer. These are one of those things where people usually get together, like I said, and and kind of a split the baby, you know, type of thing to get everybody on down the road.
Yeah, estate planning. Another good prompt for that, and certainly if you're out there and you've got questions about estate planning, you can grab a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or visit wh dot lawyer. All right, next category. My neighbor's dog bit my child, but it never had bitten anyone before. That's the category.
Here's the question: My eight year old daughter was riding her bicycle down. Our street. When a neighbor's dog ran out of an open garage and bit her leg, she needed stitches and may have some scarring. The neighbor says the dog has never bitten anyone before and that it was an accident. His insurance company is investigating, but hasn't offered anything.
Does North Carolina have a one-bite rule, meaning the owner gets a free pass the first time? When's the last time you think you rode a bike, a bicycle, like a real, for real bicycle? Probably last time I got bit by a dog. Yeah, it's been a long time, man. The beach.
We ride. We ride. We ride at the beach when we go in the summers. But yeah, it's been a while since you know doing the the regular. But yeah, I had a I had a trek hybrid bike during during COVID.
Did a lot of riding.
Okay, well, I was expecting that, Morgan.
So you've rode one very recently. Yeah, I mean, yeah, absolutely. How about you, Joseph? Long time, man. Long, long.
I was about to say. I was sitting here thinking. I was like, if you, if you bet me a hundred bucks, right? If I could drive, if I could ride a bicycle for like a mile, you could do that. You think I could do that?
I mean, I'm not talking about endurance. I'm just talking about. Getting back on a bicycle and balancing, and yeah, you you will be sore in areas you haven't been sore before in a while.
So you could do that, man. I got faith in you. I know you could do that. I'd put a hundred on that right now. And I would trust that you dig deep, find a way.
Do you remember? Do you remember maybe an early bicycle you had? From your from your childhood, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't remember what it was, but I remember my brother nasty spills on that thing. Yeah, I would rather be bitten by a dog than were you.
Were you a ramp? Were you a ramp guy? Both you guys were you ramps? Did you jump at all? Really ramps, man.
But we had a gravel drive. That's what we we'd ride on. Yeah, that can get away from you. And if you take a spill on the gravel drive, it's like taking a cheese grater to your body.
So. My my brother was a my brother was a BMX kid. He would race bikes, right?
So I would I didn't, and but I had a bike. And brother sounds way cooler than you, man. We gotta yeah. And I had my bike, and I went on one of the tracks that had jumps, and I I fell, I busted. But I remember my bicycle for an unknown reason had huge spikes on the pedals.
I don't know if you ever had one of those. I don't know for dogs, keep them away, man. Yeah, it's a bad scenario. Yeah, it's for traction. It had huge spikes on the pedal, and it would just anytime I busted on that bike, man, I would have just like gnarly scars and and a lot of blood, a lot of blood.
But bikes were cool. I just I haven't ridden a bike. We got I got a four wheeler along the way, and so I stopped riding a bike. I don't know that I've ridden a bike. Four wheelers much safer, much safer for children.
That's what I heard. I think so. I think so. Anyway, this person was riding a bike. She got bit by a dog.
And this question asks about a North Carolina one bite rule, meaning the owner gets a free. No, that sounds weird. Yeah, I don't know. Answer your question. No, I mean the one bite rule.
No, okay, you get a free one. You get a free bite. Yeah, I think I think this question.
Somebody's confused. I think this question is talking about when is a dog considered a dangerous dog? Right, every dog is question. Yeah, that's a different. And if you have that, they treat that dog biting someone has.
You know, it's yeah. If you have a If you have a the nicest, most docile sixteen year old dog who's never bitten anybody and it lays into a kid, you're going to be liable for that. Once a dog is bitten somebody, then there's some questions about can you keep the dog? What what happens next for liability purposes? But your anything your dog does, you're gonna you're gonna be held liable for it, or your snake.
Or your chin? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, wait, wait! Where did the snake come from? You remember the guy had all the poisonous snakes, and one of them got out.
You remember that? That happened. That was like pre-COVID. I do, I do recall. Yeah, but snakes.
I love it. All right, so we're going to take a short break. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand complimentary consult. A state planning, maybe a personal injury case. Whitaker and Hamer will take a look, have that conversation with you.
Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand. Again, nine one nine. Nine seven seven two seven thousand. You can also visit the website, get signed up there as well. Plus, it's a resource for you.
Wh dot lawyer. That's wh dot lawyer. More Judica County coming up. We're back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, attorneys right here in North Carolina, and they manage Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. The power behind this program.
Offices for Whitaker and Hamer have been placed across our great state for your convenience. Down at the coast, Morehead City, over near Charlotte, in Gastonia, we also have. Peweequaria, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to be on with Josh and Joe and hit these legal questions.
And these are questions that North Carolinians are facing. Pretty, pretty ordinary questions. They happen every single day, and North Carolinians run into these all the time.
So we're hitting them. And again, these are scenarios.
Next category, gentlemen. My contractor damaged the neighbor's property.
So here's the question: We hired a company to remove several trees from our backyard. While taking one down, the crew dropped a large limb onto our neighbor's fence and storage shed, causing about twelve thousand in damage. The contractor says his insurance should handle it, but our neighbor is threatening to sue us because we're the ones who hired. The contractor. We didn't tell the crew how to cut the trees.
Are we responsible for the contractor's mistake? Maybe, maybe not. Yeah, that's a good. Yeah, that's a good legal question. Put us on a loop saying that to every one of these questions, and we can go start relaxing for the weekend.
That's right. This is when we create our robots, where our heads are just on an iPad and they going into our consults. I said they're just going to have that's one of their catchphrases. Maybe, maybe not. Yeah, who knows?
The I tell you what, I tell I tell you what'll happen. Right, you know.
So hopefully you you handle a qualified contractor who's licensed if they need to be licensed and insured if they need to be insured and and yes if that's true this contractor's insurance will probably take care of it right but the neighbors have to go through that process right the neighbors can be angry at you that's fine but if the contractor is going to make them whole in a reasonable amount of time you don't have any Liability, right? If your contractor's insurance denies the claim, your contractor doesn't make it right, your contractor surprise never had insurance, or the insurance is lapsed, you can still be held liable. What the neighbors are going to do if they don't get their twelve thousand dollars? They're going to go hire an attorney, and that attorney is going to sue you and your contractor because we don't care where the twelve thousand dollars comes from. I don't care if the contractor pays it.
I don't care if you pay it. I just want my twelve thousand dollars. I'm the damaged party. I don't care how it happened, whether it was you or your agent or your contractor. But you're probably going to get sued.
But in a perfect world, if the contractor has insurance, and the insurance covers this kind of thing, this neighbor is going to be me made whole. Maybe this neighbor hates you for the rest of their life because this accident happened. I hope not. Yeah, you know. But the attorney is going to sue everybody, and then let you guys figure out who's paying the twelve thousand dollars.
You know that's that's what we do as attorneys. Anybody who could possibly be liable, is going to get sued. We are in the middle of legal scenarios that happen every day in the state of North Carolina. People are facing these situations, and we're seeing what our attorneys, Josh and Joe with Whittaker and Hamer, managing partners at the firm, and also practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, see how they would handle it.
So, here's another one for you. Here's the category: the bank says I owe my deceased husband's credit card debt.
So, here's the question: My husband passed away four months ago. We were married for thirty. 32 years, and he had two credit cards in his name only with balances totaling about $19,000. Collection companies have been calling me and saying that because we were married, I'm responsible for paying those bills. I'm on Social Security and I can't afford to pay them.
Am I personally liable just because I was his wife? In the answer, here is a hey. The answer is no, no. Right there you go. Yeah, this is a definitive.
I can tell you one hundred percent. You are not personally liable just because you are his wife. This is you know if if you and your husband had separate credit cards and you didn't, you know, it wasn't joint. You weren't an authorized user. You don't have anything to do with this credit card.
Then you are not personally liable, and you don't. You don't have to personally pay it. I have a lot of people come meet with me about a state administration, and they were like, "Hey, my mom died. I went and paid this, and I paid this, and I paid that." I was like, "Well, you didn't have to, right?" You know. But anyway, that's neither here nor there.
So when you know when someone passes away, their personal debts are their debts. You know, me and my wife have our our own credit cards. If I drop dead tomorrow, she's not liable for certain things.
Now we have joint stuff, and if I drop dead tomorrow and it's a joint asset or it's a joint debt or we both signed off, then she's still going to be liable. Yeah, but stuff like this, no, you're not automatically liable.
Now, what's going to happen? Is you're going to open up an estate, you have to list the assets of the estate. Credit card company is going to file a claim in the estate, and you got to deal with that claim in regards to the estate assets.
So are you personally liable? No. It may still hurt though if you know there's some assets that are in the estate that that have to get sold or dealt with to to satisfy this this claim. But estate administration, in particular. It's tricky.
It's tricky. It's tricky to figure out. Hey, this is an estate asset. This is not a estate asset. This is a debt of the estate.
This is not. And I think most normal people who don't spend their day talking about law and talking about estate planning and estate, it doesn't always make sense. And I think you know, if someone passes away and they have assets and they have debts, it's worth your time. I hope you come talk to us, right? But even if you don't talk to us, it's worth your time to talk to an attorney and kind of lay everything out and kind of get a lay of the land.
and And some people want to try to, you know, administer an estate on their own.
Some people just turn it over to us and say, "Hey, you guys do it." And but that's a tricky area where you could you don't want to pay anything you don't have to pay, right? You don't want to take on a debt that you don't really have to take. And the the debt collectors aren't going to be honest with you. The debt collectors aren't going to be like, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was just in your your husband's name." They're going to try to make this little old lady on Social Security, who doesn't have a lot of money, pay this nineteen thousand dollars debt unless she talks to an attorney and figures out, "Hey, you don't have to." So that's important. Final category.
We'll hit it real quick, guys. Neighbor built a fence that blocks my view of the road. That's the category. Here's the question: We live on a corner lot, and our neighbor recently installed a six-foot privacy fence right up to the edge of his property.
Now, when I back out of my driveway, I can't see vehicles coming down the road until my car is practically in the street. I complained, but he says the fence is entirely on his. Property and the HOA approved it. If it's creating a safety hazard, is there anything I can do in this scenario? Yeah, probably.
You know, just because in HOA, you know, HOAs usually want to approve. A lot of HOAs have architectural review committees where they approve new buildings, sheds.
Some of them are really picky. What kind of bushes you can plant? How high your grass can be.
Some of them are less picky. But most HOAs, if you're going to build a fence, want to approve a fence. A lot of times, privacy fences in the front yard. Those don't fly in a lot of HOAs, but let's say this HOA did approve it. That doesn't.
That's not like a blessing that it met every type of city ordinance, county ordinance, things like that.
So an HOA approving this fence isn't like a the Pope giving you a blessing. It's not. You know, it's it's just the HOA didn't have a problem with it. But there's a lot of other things you can do. You know.
I would, if I was this person, I would go down to the county or the city, whoever has authority over that property, and kind of say, "Hey, this is a nuisance." Isn't quite the right word, but it's it's dangerous. Yeah, could be a hazard. Yeah, and and there's probably something that can be done here again, depending on the facts, depending on where they live. But I think they've got some some recourse. All right, our final question in the books.
You've been listening to Judika County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, are your hosts, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Complementary consults available through the course of today's show on estate planning or a personal injury case you're facing. You got questions and you don't know how to proceed. You can certainly grab a consult in estate planning.
We talked about a couple scenarios today already. Very important to have a plan in. Place not just for you but your family as you move forward. Nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand the number to call. That's nine one nine seven seven two seven thousand or visit the website wh dot lawyer.
Get signed up there. Another edition of Judica County is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick. 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 inquiries.
To Joshua Whittaker at jmw at mw h law. lawyer.
