Yo!

Any attorney who will not return phone calls does not want your business.

Sushi, I agree, doesn’t want my business. DH is very laid back tho.

Lynn W, it is an empty lot. No house. Only paid about $700 at auction years ago. Just wanted the lot for the amenities. Will give your ideas some thought.

Personally I would get a different lawyer. Not DH tho.

i would be calling twice a day, every day if it was up to me! But then, I can be pushy!

Agree with the above - you buy the trailer. And fire the lawyer.

Nothing takes two months to do. I don't know your husband but I would describe this situation as a result of someone inexperienced with and/or blasé about dealing with service providers, not a result of being laid back. I'm pretty laid back too but I know the importance of acting or speaking up on a timely basis when prior arrangements or expectations aren't met.

Kathy referred to a lot, but didn't mention a house.

Seems to me that changing the ownership of the trailer would be simpler than of the property.

Are there other family-related people whose noses might be out of joint?

Would having multiple owners cause complications?

Were such a change in ownership of property to take place in our area, it would be considered a deemed disposition, with income tax consequences related to the deemed capital gain resulting from the difference in value from the time of original purchase and current evaluation to be payable on the portion of the property being transferred to the new owner.

ole joyful

How did they know the trailer was your son's?

You would use a Quit Claim Deed. Just stipulate that you are transferring a specific amount of ownership that you want to grant, ie 25%, 30% and so on and I would besure to have the signatures notarized.

A quitclaim deed is a legal instrument that is used to transfer interest in real property. The entity transferring its interest is called the grantor, and when the quitclaim deed is properly completed and executed, it transfers any interest the grantor has in the property to a recipient, called the grantee. They do vary from state to state so you would need to be sure you use one for Michigan but this is a sample of what I’m talking about:

ETA: you may also be required to have it recorded which is just a quick trip to the recorders office.

Ed6161, we had to provide the registration and insurance info when we first placed it there 4 years ago.

Lurkish, I will look into the quit claim. Sounds like a possibility.

Yes, overkill. A quitclaim is for real estate. There could be other consequences. Buy the trailer for $10 and be done with it.

Well Elmer, you may not know this but an empty plot of land is still considered real estate (LOL) and it’s the lot that SHE’s asking to change title of not her son’s trailer. Maybe her son doesn’t want to share title of the trailer because there’s still a loan against it or maybe, in the long term, him having part owner ship of the land will be beneficial to them. An empty plot of land in Michigan isn’t going to have the value it would in California. It was bought at auction so it’s probably safe to say that there is no lien against it either.

Kathy, legally, you don’t need an attorney to do a quit claim, but it’s strongly recommended especially if you do not understand Real Estate Law.

I think that buying the trailer and continue letting your son use it is a possible solution. The negative: When you take ownership of the trailer, you also assume any liability associated with it. You are also responsible for upkeep and repair. If someone is hurt by it, or it is in an accident, you are involved. Get good insurance coverage and since your son will be using it most of the time, ask him to help with the cost of ownership.

The positive: Ownership of the lot has not been complicated and it should not require a lawyer to buy the trailer.

The complication part: Someday, your son may wish to sell the trailer, but he no longer owns it. You and he needs to work out an agreement for this event, however, if you paid him fair price for the trailer instead of a token amount, you are the owner and the son no longer has any claim. If the any of the parties involved is unwilling to come to terms with this, then possibly Sonny needs to find another storage location. Finding another storage location is the simple solution.

"Well Elmer, you may not know this.... "

If it's a business related topic or a basic legal one faced by an individual in the normal course of things, chances are I do know about it. More importantly, I know what I don't know. Unless you have similar or superior credentials to mine, I probably know quite a bit more about such matters than you do.

My comment stands - there are two apparent ways to fix the problem and your suggestion seems to pick the more complicated alternative, one with potentially more ramifications. There's a simple fix, that was my suggestion.

Why try so hard to skirt the rules? Tell your son that the days of (extremely) cheap storage are over and that he needs to find another solution.

Or buy the trailer for a nominal amount, change the title while it's in storage, then sell it to him when he's ready to travel with it. Do the same thing next year and every year after. That will eliminate any liability to you when he's using it - it will be in his name.

If you quit claim the property to him, then YOU will likely be unable to use the amenities because you won't be a property owner.

At my condominium we have an RV lot. Only residents (owners) can store things in it. It's an amenity for the residents. People can't store their family's stuff there, or their friend's stuff.

I would agree the HOA's expectations seem completely rational. It was rather cheeky to let your son use the storage. That is wrong on so many levels IMHO. I am guessing the fact that you didn't ever build, don't live there is not something the HOA ever considered would happen either. Which ever you do, you are not ingratiating yourself to these people. The trailer needs to go, that is the only truly proper solution. The letter of the law is not a important as the intent most of the time!!

It's too bad that the HOA doesn't offer amenity memberships so that the development doesn't have 'blank' lots. I worked for a large private development that offered several different kinds of membership opportunities to non residents. And there was a time limit that property owners had before constructed started and finished. No sold lots were allowed to remain vacant for very long.

Son has a large loan on this trailer, a 5th wheel. Do not want to buy his trailer.

To add him to our lot would be the easiest.

Yes, I can see why the POA (property owners assoc.) would do this. We do have a pontoon trailer that we can store over there, but haven’t as yet.

We bought this lot at auction 25 years ago. We very seldom use any of the amenities, but we pay our dues and taxes every year. This subdivision is all wooded large lots and maybe only 30% of it has buildings on it. It was started in the late 50’s or early 60’s. It has never “taken off”. Many of the lots go up for sale because of back taxes and nonpayment of assoc. dues.

We have 4 kids, can’t see any of them wanting this lot. It is not lake front. Our home is on a lake, but not in the sub. Last we used the beach in the POA was 3 years ago. We have our own beach. Plus Lake Huron is close.

Son looked into other storage. It would cost him $60 per month. Here $64 for the season!

We are not allowed to put anything on our lot, unless we build.

Sephia and Arcy, thank you for your comments. You are right, it should be for members only. I’m sure that the reason this has come up is that there is a shortage of space. But we have a pontoon trailer, a pontoon boat and 2 fishing boats that we don’t store there. Maybe we need to use that spot for some of those.

Thanks everyone for talking this thru with me. Helps me think all sides of a situation! KathyG in MI

If you check the HOA rules, you may find that it must be a resident, not just someone added to a deed, to use this amenity.

If you check the HOA rules, you may find that it must be a resident, not just someone added to a deed, to use this amenity.

She said it is a vacant lot, with no plans to build.

Rhizo...I agree. I have lived in two different HOAs and parking a trailer would never be allowed to be parked on a lot! One of the perks of a HOA is keeping this very kind of a thing from happening. Home construction must be in the process within 6 months of purchasing....and a home can never be rented or occupied by anyone other than the person who holds the title of the land.

Maybe there is a reason the Attorney does not want to mess with this matter.

Thanks, Kathy, for the further details. Good luck finding a resolution to your dilemma. I wish, for your sake, that your husband weren't so laid back about your lazy attorney, lol! I hope that you don't use that guy for really important stuff, yikes.

The attorney knows nothing of this matter. DH is using him for a different issue.

We have discussed what to do and I think we are going to tell son to park trailer at our house. We have 2 canoes, a kayak, a 14’ fishing boat, a 17 foot bass boat, a jet ski and a pontoon boat and trailer, what difference would a camper make! All our “toys” are stored indoors, the camper will be outdoors. The only thing we liked about the POA storage is that they have security that keeps an eye on things.

Thanks again to one and all for your thoughts and suggestions.

Rhizo,, first time using him and I would say last time too!

Elmer, lets be clear, my response was not a suggestion, it was a response to the specific question Kathy was asking. There is a difference.

If someone asked you the best way to cook a chicken with a book of matches, you wouldn't suggest it would be better to use their oven or an outdoor grill/BBQ instead?

Sounds like you have found an easy fix. Take some of your stuff over to other storage and put his fifth wheel inside at your place, if its high enough? I have two large polebarns and in one is stored a friend's sons travel trailer. The hay guy stopped and asked if he could store some hay equipment in exchange for bulldozing down the Russian olive bushes that are taking over around both polebarns. I said "deal!" :)

give me a break. That’s the most far reaching excuse for one of your contradicting, passive agressive responses yet. Get a life would ya?

I have a life, thanks. And no excuse is needed for what I said, I offered an easier approach (that turns out to be perhaps not suitable in these circumstances). Included in my life is the habit of not insulting others just because they may disagree with me, clearly not something you practice. Try it sometime. You're a repeat offender, you've done this before.

Marylmi, there is no way his camper would fit in one of our garages! I’m lucky my van gets in one of them!

Russian olives! Those are terrible! The county we lived in downstate was selling them in their spring tree sale years ago. After a few years I started pulling them out, they just take over! I think they are now considered an invasive plant.

Kathy, Yes they are very invasive. Worst possible thing to happen when they brought them into the state. If I hadn't made the deal with the hay guy I would have storage for your son. My polebarns set empty for 7 years!

That is sweet of you to think of him. But you get a better deal from the hay guy. It’s nice he can pull out those olives.

Put your name on the travel trailer...

Heard from the lawyer yesterday. He recommends not putting sons name on the piece of property. That is fine, son will park it in our yard.

Kathy, I will jump in with a suggestion. I would suggest that your DS get renters insurance on it, since it is stored on your property. Or at least check on it. Even if he has to pay you $1/month rent to qualify for renters insurance. It probably would be cheaper than storage fees, and then if there should be vandalism or a fire, he would be covered. Make sure you won't be responsible for damages that might occur on your property. At least check into it. It would be something to check on even if renting a storage unit for anything. I by no means have any legal training, just thinking.

Thanks Tami. I will definitely bring this up with him.