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Monday, August 24, 2015

Yay, I nabbed second place in Mensa Canada Literary Contest 2015

Recently I entered the Mensa Canada Literary Contest 2015 and I am pleased and proud to announce that I won second place! I have no idea whether it will be published, but it was fun to write. It's my first piece of fiction, since as you readers know, I usually write non-fiction. Check out my official bragging rights in the photo.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Lynne,

    I have a question regarding Joint Tenancy. My wife and I jointly own a recreational condo with another couple (Alberta). The title is all of our names "As joint Tenants as to an Undivided Half Interest". They want to sell, we have offered to buy them out, but they do not like the offer and state they are going to list it and sell it to 3rd party. Can they legally do that? It is Joint Tenancy. What options do they have?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They can only sell what they own. They can't force you to sell what you own. Sure, they can list it, and see who wants to buy half a house.

      Just to be clear, the owners of this title are not all joint owners with each other. This is a tenancy in common, since the title refers to an undivided half interest. One half interest belongs to you and your wife, who are joint with each other, and the other half interest belongs to the friends, who are joint with each other. If you died, your wife would still own half the property, but the two friends wouldn't own anything more than the half they already own. I know this is confusing but I hope it helps.

      Lynne

      Delete
  2. Congratulations on the award! Maybe a second career after estate planning gets old?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks :) It's a concurrent, rather than a consecutive career, really.

      Lynne

      Delete
  3. I am not Lynne but I will add my 2 cents. I do not believe they can do that without your consent, as you are joint owners. Once again the perils of Joint Tenancy. More work for the Lawyers and who knows, Court?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joint tenancy is, generally speaking, entered into much too lightly. People forget that although it's easy to get into the legal arrangement, it's really hard to get out, especially if people are no longer in 100% agreement. Which they never are.

      Lynne

      Delete
  4. Hi Lynne, I have a question: under Ontario estate law can my mother in law's will be challenged ? when she changed her will at 95 and leaves her the income producing building to her cleaning lady and her boyfriend and leaves nothing to her one and only daughter. The cleaning lady now has power of attorney over her health and finance. Mother in law turns 100 in Sept. We have approached a lawyer a couple of years ago and said there was nothing we could do until her passing. please adice thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The lawyer you talked to is correct in that a will can't be challenged while a person is alive. However, the POA is another matter. To me, there is some urgency there because there is unlikely to be anything left by the time your mother in law passes away. It is very concerning when an elderly person cuts out a family member and leaves everything to a paid helper. I don't know anything about your mother in law's relationship with her daughter, but my alarm bells are ringing.

      Instead of thinking of challenging the will, think about challenging the POA. You may need to do some investigating, such as trying to find out whether the cleaning lady has transferred assets to herself (start with a title search on the building, and find out what you can at the bank). If anything is missing or has been transferred to the cleaning lady, that's your way to challenge the document. Also, be prepared for you or your wife to take over, since the court will be more likely to remove one POA if there is someone to take his/her place. This isn't easy stuff, but you're on the right track.

      Lynne

      Delete

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