Originally Printed: December 15, 2004
Maxine de Villefranche is an attorney and civil general practitioner with 12 years of experience. She operates her law practice from her home office in Alpine Forest, as well her Lancaster satellite office. She will answer legal questions posed to her by the readers, to the best of her abilities. Please forward your questions to maxinedev@msn.com.
Q. My parents are quite elderly. My father is already in a wheelchair from diabetes and arthritis, while my mother suffers from congestive heart failure. They live together on their 20-acre property and the closest neighbor is a couple of miles away. I fear for their health and safety and need to convince them this is not the safest way to live at their age. How can I convince them to change their lifestyle?
A. Do your parents still have all their mental faculties? If so, you need to speak with each one separately and convince each one to sign a Power of Attorney for financial decisions and Power for Attorney for healthcare. One way would be to ask each one: “Should anything happen to the other, how would you take the decisions that need to be taken in the absence of the other?” Listen to the response and if it does not make sense, formulate and make your argument using that response. Sometimes, elderly people can be very obstinate and not realize that their lifestyle can endanger their spouse. Your love for your parents should dictate how you need to approach them and prepare them to accept and sign Powers of Attorney. Such POA can be “springing” in other words are activated only if your parent’s mental ability is lacking according to a physician, or if one or both parents are physically incapacitated and unable to care for the other. POA’s wording can be very flexible.
Q. I purchased a used vehicle from a dealer that had a three-month warranty. The day after I took it off the lot, the brakes failed and I hit the back of another car that was stopped at a red light. I was raining pretty hard that day. I went back to the dealer and complained that my brakes failed and had a car accident. The dealer gave me the runaround and refused to do anything about the brakes, not to mention the $2,500 of damages to the other car. What can I do?
A. There are several issues here. First it was raining the day of the accident. How fast were you going and when did you start applying your brakes? Rain can render the pavement very slick, especially if it was the first rain of the season. Second how do you know that your brakes failed? It is against the law for a dealer to sell an unsafe used vehicle and that includes bad or no brakes. The accident was surely investigated by the police and the police report would certainly give you an idea of who was at fault and caused the accident.
Showing posts with label financial decisions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label financial decisions. Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Legal Eaze #4 Plumbing Code/ Health Care/ Affidavit of Death
Originally Printed: August 4, 2004
Maxine de Villefranche is an attorney and civil general practitioner with 12 years of experience. She moved to Tehachapi in June 2003 and resides in Alpine Forest. She operates her law practice from her home office and also has a satellite office in Lancaster. She will answer legal questions posed to her by the readers, to the best of her abilities.
Q. When I bought a house two years ago, the septic system was pumped, inspected and certified. I decided to sell it and I had to have it re-pumped, re-inspected and re-certified. I hired a different company but was informed that the septic tank was in violation of the Uniform Plumbing Code and its inspector refused to certify it, stating it would have to be moved before certifying it. Of course, I contacted the first company and after spending money for their industrial engineer, his report stated that despite the non-compliance, the structural integrity of the house was not affected. Nevertheless, I had to pay $4,700 to have a new septic tank installed in order to sell the house. Who is at fault?
A. The company that inspected and certified the septic system when you initially bought the house needs to stand behind their inspection and certification. The fact that you needed another pumping after only 18 months of use should have been a clue there was something wrong with the system. You may also look to the predecessor owner of that house for failure to disclose, especially if the system needed to be pumped more often than what is considered normal.
Q. My mother has Alzheimer’s and she can no longer take care of herself and her affairs. What can I do?
A. I hope you, or someone else, have Powers of Attorney for Health Care and Financial Decisions over her. If you do not have such powers, you must file a Petition to become her conservator, that is, you ask the Court’s permission to become the person responsible for making decisions about her health care and about her financial affairs. You cannot represent yourself in such a petition, you must be represented by an attorney.
Q. My father and I owned a house as joint tenants. He died three months ago and I want to sell the house. What must I do?
A. You need to file an Affidavit of Death with the county recorder so that title of the house will be transferred into your name alone. One of the advantages of owning property in joint tenancy is the right of survivorship, i.e. the property will be owned by the survivor. But you need to let the county recorder know that one of the joint tenants died.
Forward your questions by e-mail to maxinedev@msn.com or drop questions at the Tehachapi News, 411 N. Mill St., Tehachapi, or send them by mail to P.O. Box 1840, Tehachapi, CA 93581
Maxine de Villefranche is an attorney and civil general practitioner with 12 years of experience. She moved to Tehachapi in June 2003 and resides in Alpine Forest. She operates her law practice from her home office and also has a satellite office in Lancaster. She will answer legal questions posed to her by the readers, to the best of her abilities.
Q. When I bought a house two years ago, the septic system was pumped, inspected and certified. I decided to sell it and I had to have it re-pumped, re-inspected and re-certified. I hired a different company but was informed that the septic tank was in violation of the Uniform Plumbing Code and its inspector refused to certify it, stating it would have to be moved before certifying it. Of course, I contacted the first company and after spending money for their industrial engineer, his report stated that despite the non-compliance, the structural integrity of the house was not affected. Nevertheless, I had to pay $4,700 to have a new septic tank installed in order to sell the house. Who is at fault?
A. The company that inspected and certified the septic system when you initially bought the house needs to stand behind their inspection and certification. The fact that you needed another pumping after only 18 months of use should have been a clue there was something wrong with the system. You may also look to the predecessor owner of that house for failure to disclose, especially if the system needed to be pumped more often than what is considered normal.
Q. My mother has Alzheimer’s and she can no longer take care of herself and her affairs. What can I do?
A. I hope you, or someone else, have Powers of Attorney for Health Care and Financial Decisions over her. If you do not have such powers, you must file a Petition to become her conservator, that is, you ask the Court’s permission to become the person responsible for making decisions about her health care and about her financial affairs. You cannot represent yourself in such a petition, you must be represented by an attorney.
Q. My father and I owned a house as joint tenants. He died three months ago and I want to sell the house. What must I do?
A. You need to file an Affidavit of Death with the county recorder so that title of the house will be transferred into your name alone. One of the advantages of owning property in joint tenancy is the right of survivorship, i.e. the property will be owned by the survivor. But you need to let the county recorder know that one of the joint tenants died.
Forward your questions by e-mail to maxinedev@msn.com or drop questions at the Tehachapi News, 411 N. Mill St., Tehachapi, or send them by mail to P.O. Box 1840, Tehachapi, CA 93581
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