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Continue Reading Fees for Adverse Possession Claims

My son and his wife, who live in another state, recently asked me what they need to know before they meet with an estate planning attorney. I share with you essentially what I sent to them:
You will each need a Will, which designates your Personal Representative (other states call this an “Executor”), who will gather your assets and direct them to the person you designated as beneficiary, for instance for your life insurance or “POD” (payable on death) or “ITF” (in trust for) accounts. The Personal Representative will distribute the rest of your assets as you designate in your…
Continue Reading Preparing for Estate Planning

Some people either to save money or due to urgent circumstances, decide to write their own Wills. It creates a sad situation when those Wills do not meet the statutory requirements to be enforceable. I recently encountered several such situations, so I felt this important to share.
In Arizona, a Will must be signed by the Testator (the person whose Will it is) or Testatrix (a female Testator) and at least two witnesses, who either witnessed the Testator’s signature or the Testator’s acknowledgement of his signature. A.R.S. §14-2502(A).  Then, to admit such a Will to probate would require testimony of…
Continue Reading Do-It-Yourself Wills

This summer the Arizona Supreme Court overruled the Arizona Court of Appeals decision in Mertola, LLC v. Santos, which impacts the statute of limitations (SOL) for collection of a written debt.Mertola involved collection of a credit card debt. The Court of Appeals held that a creditor must take some “affirmative act to make clear to the debtor it has accelerated the obligation” before the 6-year SOL begins to run. The Arizona Supreme Court, however, relied on the premise that a SOL is designed to protect borrowers from “stale claims and uncertainty.”  The Court held that since the contract contained an…
Continue Reading Update to: Are Defaulting Homeowners Off the Hook (from Spring 2017)

In the recent case of Ruffino v Lokosky, No. 1 CA-CV 17-0353 (July 12, 2018), the Arizona Court of Appeals set aside a default judgment on the grounds that the Defendant, Lokosky, had not been given proper notice of the lawsuit.  Ruffino, the Plaintiff, hired a process server who performed a “skip trace” to find where the defendant was living in order to serve the Defendant.  The search came up with three potential residences. The process server went to the first residence and spoke with the Defendant’s mother, who stated that the Defendant did not live there.  At the second residence,…
Continue Reading Service of Process in the Digital Age

For the most part, age discrimination in real estate matters if prohibited. An exemption in the Fair Housing Act of 1968, however, allows for 55-and-older age restrictions for retirement communities. To qualify for the exemption at least 80% of the homes in the community must be occupied by someone who is 55-years-old or older and the restriction must be put in place at the time of creation of the community and can’t be imposed later.  Various age-restricted retirement communities that were in existence at the time the Fair Housing Act was passed lobbied for the exemption.  Given that many residents…
Continue Reading Older-Age Restrictions Are Permitted

This summer, at meetings in Phoenix and Tucson, the Arizona Department of Housing (“ADOH”) sought public input regarding its proposed Eviction Prevention Program.  The Program is designed to combat the rising number of evictions occurring throughout the State of Arizona.  Last year, in Pima County alone 13, 312 eviction actions were filed and almost 4,000 Writs of Restitution/Eviction were issued to tenants who did not move out after an eviction order was entered against them. ADOH’s presentation emphasizes the breadth of issues caused by these eviction rates by quoting from sociologist Matthew Desmond’s book “Evicted”: “Eviction isn’t just a condition…
Continue Reading Arizona Department of Housing Unveils its Proposed Eviction Prevention Program