In 2013, I sold my mother’s house on her behalf (she was alive, but not ambulatory; I had her POA). I kept all of the paperwork I got from the title company, mostly just because. Mom died in November, and the estate lawyer recently closed my file. In the course of shredding her old legal paperwork (her will, etc.), I came across the packet from the title company. Is there any reason I should hang onto it – like, maybe a recommended timeframe for keeping house-sale-related documentation?
7 years would be a good minimum.
Throwing it out now shouldn’t even cross your mind, honestly. You’re still well within the time frame for people to come after your for whatever one reason or another and you need to be able to prove that you sold on such a such a date and they can pound sand.
Personally, I’d just file it away in a fire safe and forget about it.
House sales have a way of coming back to haunt you years later for stupid reasons.
Not a bad idea; thanks!
But just out of curiosity, could anyone actually come after me? It was never my property, all I did was sign the paperwork on my mom’s behalf. But now she’s gone, and there’s no estate (I worked with an estate lawyer, but there was never an estate). Anyone who has a problem with her is SOL, as far as I understand it. What kind of thing could someone try to get me to do/give them?
Yes buyers and/or sellers of anything can go after anyone involved in the transaction for any reason - and have done so in the past. Typical of lawsuits, they sue everyone remotely involved - some people/businesses will settle out of court for a small amount* just so the matter is dropped.
*smaller than what it would cost to hire a lawyer. Note you can sue them back and get your lawyers fees paid for.
I keep ALL paperwork and receipts for 10 years. I just stick everything in a box labeled for that year. Like 2013, another box 2014, etc. Seal them up at the end of the year and place the boxes in a stack. The boxes are 10 x 12, so 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper fit in there nicely. And the stack of those boxes fits easily in a closet.
Sometimes I need a receipt or paperwork for something. Then I have it.
My parent’s house had been held in a trust, and just over a year and a half after it was sold, I got a “Your tax return doesn’t match the information we have on file.” letter from the IRS. The issue was that the settlement company had notified the IRS that I had personally received the funds, instead of the trust. (I was a co-trustee, but the funds didn’t go directly to me).
Luckily I still had all the paperwork to show that not only had I not directly received the funds, but I had also paid the necessary capital gains on my share of the ultimate inheritance, so six weeks after submitting that information I got a “Your Form 1040 inquiry is closed: Amount due: $0.00” letter.
:eek: :eek:
I wouldn’t shred any will until well after anyone mentioned in it is dead, especially if it mentions particular items.
Who knows. The fence that your mom put up falls and lands on the neighbor’s kid. Neighbor hires an ambulance chaser that sues the fence company, you, the title company, your current insurance company, your mom’s old insurance company, the current owners, the people that did the home inspection(s) and anyone else associated with it in the hopes that someone will see "whatever, here’s a few grand leave me out of it.
With this you can not only say ‘not my house, not my problem’ but also ‘never was my house, I just brokered the sale, have fun suing my mom’.
I’m in real estate. It would never cross my mind to throw deed and transaction paperwork out even if I have sold the property. Some title issues with real estate don’t crop up until years and years after the fact. Documentation is important.
What’s the statute of limitations on fiduciary abuse of a dependent adult in your jurisdiction? (In mine, it’s five years.)
That would be a criminal accusation that you misused your power-of-attorney to benefit yourself at the expense of your mother and/or her creditors or other potential heirs. For example, if somebody wants to contend that you sold her house at a below-market price to friends of yours, thus depriving her of her rightful money, what documentation do you have available to defend yourself?
Thanks, everyone! The folder from the title company is 11 x 17 and doesn’t fit neatly into any file cabinet/system, but I’ve been holding onto it for three years already and I can just keep holding onto it for at least seven more. 
I’m keeping a digital copy, just not the original. Only two people were named, my brother and me, and no items were mentioned at all (the only instructions were for us to split any assets). She’d updated her will three years prior to her death, when she knew she’d be selling the house and moving into assisted living; she’d also already named my brother and me as beneficiaries/POD/TOD on all of her accounts, so the will never actually came into play. We never even established an estate. It was all blessedly simple and straightforward. This is one document I’m not worried about keeping.
She was never my dependent, or incapacitated.
I am only speaking from personal experience.
In 1998, I sold some property in another state. In 2010, that state filed a legal action against me for non-payment of real estate taxes of some kind. Since I had kept all the transaction documents, I was able to prove that I did not owe anything, and the state dropped the suit and sent me a letter.
I think they were able to make the original claim since they said there was no statute of limitations for this particular situation. If I had not kept the docs, I would have had to come up with a few thousand dollars.
However, my advice is to ask an attorney before discarding yours.
Is a digital copy legally admissible?
So, “This is one document I’m not worried about keeping” meant nothing to you?
I appreciated the advice you were trying to give, but you can stop talking/asking about the will. I’ve got this.
Put it under the files. That is, if this a file cabinet where you have all the hanging folders, this folder will be on the bottom of the drawer and all the folders will just go over the top of it.
Otherwise, just fold the whole thing in half, or just fold the papers in half and put them in something normal. You just have to keep them, they don’t have to be in perfect condition, as long as you can still read them.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. An estate is simply the property that the deceased left behind.
As to your original question, this article has good information. One key point is:
It also says:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/18/AR2011031805291.html
It doesn’t matter whether she was YOUR dependent for income tax or other purposes; what matters is whether she relied upon you to exercise legal powers on her behalf. You said she was not ambulatory, she gave you power-of-attorney to act for her, and you signed documents on her behalf. In my state, that by itself would be compelling evidence that she was dependent upon you for financial paperwork, separate and independent of her legal capacity or lack thereof. The existence of the POA alone means you owe a fiduciary responsibility to her. Any abuse of your fiduciary power opens you up to criminal prosecution.
That means anybody (your brother, another relative, a creditor who didn’t get paid and is now SOL, somebody at the assisted living facility, a neighbor, a banker or real estate broker, etc., etc., etc.) can file a complaint with the authorities alleging you took advantage of your position to enrich yourself to her detriment. Even if it is an unfounded complaint, do you have sufficient documentation to defend yourself and justify the actions you took as fiduciary?
And Quartz is trying to tell you that you SHOULD be worried about keeping a copy of the will, if only to avert a later challenge. You say it didn’t mention anybody besides you and your brother; will you be able to prove that fact by a legally-admissible copy if somebody challenges you? Let’s say that your nasty cousin pops up next year and declares that oh yes, Aunty Nomer promised me that it was in her will that I was supposed to get $X, and my evil cousin Misnomer failed to probate the will, thus cheating me out of all that money. What’s your defense?
FYI, I’m done with this thread. My question was answered, I’m keeping the paperwork, and I’m not interested in any discussion about my mother’s will or estate. So, thanks to everyone who addressed the original question! 