Posted by John Merchant on March 17, 2010 at 20:40:13:
In Reply to: estate has some abandoned property posted by lukeNC on March 15, 2010 at 14:21:15:
Let me add a little dash of legal reality here:
In most/all ? states whenever there are no surviving heirs or heirship is contested and/or there's a possiblity of NO legal heirs...or property is orphaned w/o a new home, the State comes into the picture and its the job of that state's AG to come into the suit and try to grab the estate property for that state.
So please, before you spend any significant amount of time or money on one like this, find and read your state's ESCHEAT laws to see if your state's AG is likely to show up with his hundreds of assistant AGs and state picking up the bills and be ready to fight you to the death.
How could you know an escheat situation is in the offing?
Well, either by the Title Co refusing to insure your title and telling you that the AG must be "noticed" or, if you're in a probate court, by the judge pointing out that the state must be served and joined in, before the Court is going to be willing to issue any final Judgment.