(Names have been changed.)

Single Owner Got Married

Nancy Johnson bought her unit/week by herself, but last weekend she got married. She calls the resort and asks that we change our records. The only thing we can do is add her married name to her account in parenthesis to avoid confusing her mail carrier. Instead of “Johnson, Nancy”, she will now be: “Johnson (Glick), Nancy”. However, Nancy wanted to add her husband to the deed, so she asked us to prepare a Quitclaim Deed so that she could sign the unit/week over from herself alone to herself and her husband together.

 

Married Owner Got Single

George and Tina Zalinsky got a divorce, and the attorneys wrote up in the paperwork that Tina would get the timeshare. Tina paid the maintenance fees on and used the unit/week for the next ten years while George was off with his trophy wife, Candi. When Tina got ready to sell the unit/week, she had to find George and have him sign the Quitclaim Deed that he should have signed ten years before (their divorce decree even said that he was required to execute any necessary paperwork!)

Dan and Tammy Roth got divorced, and Tammy got the timeshare. Like George, Dan didn’t sign any paperwork that could be recorded in the county to transfer the title. Unfortunately, Tammy decided she couldn’t go on vacation without Dan, so she stopped paying the maintenance fees. The Association foreclosed on the unit/week, and since they both still owned it, the foreclosure action was filed against both of them. When Dan and his trophy wife went to buy a new house, the foreclosure was on his credit report, and he ended up having to pay all the back maintenance plus the legal costs to the Association to get his credit cleaned up so they could buy the house.

 

Death of an Owner

Renee Barton bought her unit/week with her friend Julia Knight. When the original deed was prepared, the person in the sales office included the phrase “joint tenants with rights of survivorship”, so when Julia passed away, Renee only had to ask us to record a certified copy of Julia’s death certificate and a cover sheet to get Julia’s name off the title. If that important language had not been included, then Renee would have had to hire a Florida attorney to open a probate to change the title. This would have cost her about $2,000 instead of $60.

Matthew and Miriam Shafer bought the unit/week together while they were married. On the title to the unit/week, after their names, there is a phrase that indicates that they were married (such as: “husband and wife”, “a married couple,” “his wife”, “her husband”, or something along those lines). When Miriam passed away, Matthew only had to have us record a certified copy of her death certificate, along with a cover sheet, in order to remove her name from the deed. However, Matthew decided to add his son, Karl, to the deed, so instead he had us prepare a Quitclaim Deed to record with the certified copy of the death certificate. He had us add the phrase “joint tenants with rights of survivorship” so that when he passes, Karl won’t have to go through probate in Florida to remove his name.

Brian and Tammy Kent bought a unit/week together when they were married, but there was no language included on the deed to indicate that they were married. Unfortunately, the assumption that they were married cannot be made (after all, I still have the same last name as my brother, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that we could buy property together). In this instance, Brian had to ask us to record Tammy’s death certificate with a Continuous Marriage Affidavit (CMA). This is simply a sworn statement that he signed in front of a Notary, saying that he and Tammy were married at the time they bought the property, and they were married continuously until the time she died. Since Tammy didn’t have a will stating that her part of the property was to go to someone else, the it automatically goes to Brian. If Brian had also wanted to add another owner to the title, he could have done it at the same time by adding a Quitclaim Deed to the package.

Please note that although we are NOT attorneys, and we CANNOT give you legal advice, we CAN provide these forms for you, asking only that you reimburse our costs. (Prices can be found here.)

Also please note that if everyone who is listed as an owner on the deed is deceased, then a probate must be opened in the State of Florida in order to change the ownership of the unit/week. If you need a referral for an attorney who can take care of this for you, please contact us.