Queens Estate Litigation

Queens is the easternmost borough in New York City, and is located on Long Island. It is home to attractions such as CitiField, where the New York Mets play, and Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which hosts the US Open tennis tournament every year. In 2010, the population of Queens was about 2,230,722 people, making it the second-largest of the five boroughs. The average size of a household in Queens is 2.81. Out of 782,664 households, around 31.5% have kids under age 18 living there. Around 25.6% of these households are made up of individuals. People in any of these family situations may find themselves involved in disputes related to the passing of a relative. Individuals usually make a trust or will in order to make sure property is distributed according to their wishes upon death or another event. However, the distribution of property upon death can become a heated source of controversy. Loved ones might believe that the decedent’s will or trust was made under suspicious circumstances, or believe that instrument isn’t valid. If you have questions about a family member’s will or trust, seasoned Queens estate litigation experienced attorney Jules Haas can advise you regarding your legal rights.

Written instruments that are executed in order to distribute property under particular circumstances include trusts and wills. Formalities should be followed when making and executing these instruments. Among other things, the person making the instrument and trying to dispose of property in a particular way must be competent to execute the instrument. Other conditions should also be met. If a decedent’s loved ones disagree with the decedent or believe the instrument was improperly made or executed, they have an opportunity to contest the will or trust. Estate litigation often involves will contests or trust contests. It can also include a challenge to a trustee’s accountings or a challenge to probate administration.

There are many different reasons to contest a trust or will, and a skilled estate litigation lawyer in Queens can help you determine whether you have a valid legal basis to bring such a challenge. Some common reasons include failures in execution, lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence, fraud, and incompetence. The circumstances will dictate under what basis a will or trust contest can be brought. For example, if your grandfather had Parkinson’s later in life and disinherited you, while naming his caregiver the sole beneficiary of the will, it is possible the caregiver manipulated him and used undue influence to achieve that result. You might use undue influence as the reason for a will contest.

You can only bring a will contest if you have a pecuniary interest in the decedent’s estate. Usually, if you are getting less under a will than you would have if the person died intestate, you will be able to bring a will contest.

Sometimes distant relatives of the decedent claim an inheritance upon his or her death. Kinship asset discovery is the process used to determine whether the claimant is next of kin and should therefore inherit. During kinship discovery, the survivor will need to prove, using testimony and certified records, she had a blood relationship to the decedent and nobody else is a closer blood relative. In New York, next of kin are called distributes. She will also need to establish whether or not there are other blood relatives with the same degree of biological closeness to the decedent. A Queens estate litigation attorney can assist you with proceedings of this nature.

Sometimes the most heated disputes after someone dies are related to real estate. These disputes can take various forms. The decedent may have only left real estate behind upon his death, or real estate may be the most valuable asset in the whole estate. An administrator or executor can start proceedings in landlord-tenant courts in order to require tenants to vacate. However, it may be more appropriate to institute an ejectment or turnover action in the Surrogate’s Court to get a family member or estate beneficiary to vacate the property after the property owner dies.

Another common type of real estate dispute that arises after a property owner’s death is a partition action of property owned by the decedent and another person. A partition can be obtained to physically divide property such that both the decedent’s estate and the other person have a portion that he holds as sole owner. However, a partition by sale is more common, and in this type of partition, the property is sold at auction and the co-owners split the sales proceeds.

Estate litigation in Queens may be linked to a contentious family battle. Estate litigation demands an experienced attorney’s attention. That attorney will need to be compassionate with regard to the family members’ needs and also have an outstanding grasp of the law. Jules Haas is a knowledgeable lawyer who has handled matters related to wills, trusts, and other estate issues for over thirty-five years. If you need to commence a turnover proceeding or bring a will contest, you can consult Jules Haas at (212) 355-2575 or contact us through our online form. Our firm offers a free review of cases, as well as reasonable fee structures.