When your parent dies, it may be necessary to get property she might have owned into your name. This is a relatively simple process, but regardless of what your parent's will says, you must change the property title to your name by working with the estate executor and other professionals, like an attorney and your parent's mortgage lender.
Instructions
1. Determine whether there is a mortgage on the property. Under the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, as a child of the deceased, you are exempt from having to pay the mortgage in full, but still will have to continue paying the mortgage payments once you have the title to the property.
2. Figure out who is acting as the executor for you parent's estate.
3. Review your parent's will to see if the property was gifted to you.
4. Talk to the executor, and express your interest in having the title to the property in your name. Even if your parent willed the property to you, the executor must execute the estate according to probate law, which sometimes means the executor is legally obligated to sell the property to handle outstanding debts. Even if the executor must do this, you have the right to buy the property from the estate.
5. Purchase the house from the estate if necessary. This may require applying for financing, and if the property is mortgaged, you should contact the mortgage lender to indicate that you'd like to pay off the loan or take over payments.
6. Obtain, fill out and file a quitclaim deed with the help of the executor and a competent attorney. The quitclaim deed is a document that indicates a person is giving up his right to the property -- in many cases, the executor gives up this right on behalf of the deceased, but if someone else still has a right to the property because they are on the title, such as your surviving parent, he must fill out the form with you. You typically need a record of the death certificate to file a quitclaim deed if your parent was the only one on the title.
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