What is a Quit Claim Deed and How Does It Work - YouTube

Speaker 1: 00:00 David Soble, and I'm a Michigan real estate and finance attorney.

And I was in receipt of this inquiry from Susan L who's from Walled Lake Michigan.

And she says that back in 2005, she and her mother purchased a small home in Wolverine

Lake.

they lived in the home together until this year when Susan purchased her home, her own

home.

Recently, when Susan was going through some documents, she found that the deed to the

home in Wolverine Lake had Susan's name on it only it didn't contain her mother's name

on the deed.

So she now wants to prepare a quick claim deed, putting the home entirely back in her

mother's name.

So what she did is she gave me a call and she inquired whether or not she could have

a quick claim deed.

So first of all, a quick claim deed is a legal instrument that attorneys use to transfer

interest in real property.

Speaker 1: 00:50 So when the quick claim deed is properly completed and it's executed, that

means it's endorsed, it transfers any interest that a grantor, that's the person who's giving

the property it transfers any interest the grantor has in that property to the recipient

and that recipient's called a grantee.

But unlike many other deeds, and there are quite a few out there, it does not guarantee

that the grantor even owns the property before they conveyed their interest.

So just because you have a deed doesn't mean that that person who gave it to you actually

owns the property.

Second, legal forms such as quick claim deeds are very easily obtainable on the internet.

You can go online and just download one.

But just because you can access and fill out a legal form on your own does not mean you

actually should.

So doing so without knowing the impact of the deed can have serious legal and financial

consequences.

Speaker 1: 01:42 So in Susan's case she wants to deed this property over to her mother.

It's a free and clear home, as she said, and she wants to give it back to her mother who

seems to be you know, an older senior in her seventies, late seventies.

It seems like it's the right thing to do and that's great, but as a real estate and elder

care attorney, I'm going to tell you, that transferring an asset into Susan's mother's

name could actually affect Susan's mother's eligibility for Medicare benefits in the future.

And if Susan's mom needs a nursing home care at a later date, the government actually looks

to the seniors assets.

They look at money, cars, they look at homes and they look at those assets as a possible

resource that could have been otherwise used to pay for nursing home care.

Speaker 1: 02:29 So the first thing that Susan should be doing is not conveying that property

back into her mother's name entirely.

In fact, most seniors are actually trying to get assets out of their name and not have

assets placed in their name so late in the game.

And they do that so the government does not have the access to a free and clear home,

and use it against them when it comes to benefits.

So Susan, placing the property in your mother's name is actually not a good idea, especially

at your mom's age.

And there are actually other ways that you can protect your mother's ownership interest

in the property.

But signing a quit claim deed at this juncture is really not one of them because actually

it could not only can cost your mother a lot of money, but it could cost your family thousands

of dollars at a later date.

Speaker 1: 03:12 So you see these, these documents actually have consequences.

And you have to remember, only an attorney can give you the legal advice when it comes

to these far reaching legal consequences of your actions.

Going online, downloading a document it's easy, but it's not always advised.

So Susan, I hope you found that my answer was very helpful.

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Elder care law is a big area right now and there's a lot of interesting topics underneath

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if you need any further information.

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And also, you can reach out to me at [email protected].

Thanks again for watching and have a great day.