have legal ? about deed

sorry to lay this out here, but I am lost as to where to even start. I know I need a lawyer, right now that's impossible, so maybe if someone knows or has been through this, it can steer me in the right direction for now.
Mom put all her land in my name. 5 acres is mine. 4 tracts, one is mine, other 3 are for my brothers. My well is on another tract. Our water lines run through still another tract. No way to have well dug on this tract, there might be water, but it would be low, the next neighbor up the hill just ran dry, the well is much lower than our land. Now mom decides she can't trust me (early to mid stages of Alzheimers/dementia, plus one sister egging her on) Now she wants to sell hers (the 2 with water).
Can I put the 3 tracts in my brothers names and retain water rights? can I do this without a lawyer? will land have to be resurveyed to break up the one quit claim deed?
Just putting this out here in case someone has been through something like this.

I think I'd ask a lawyer. I think if she changed things now, it could be contested if she has been diagnosed with A. And also, I think you need a lawyer to change it yourself- a "quit claim" deed. I once had someone write me a "Lien" for a very valuable item, however, it was not on the proper Legal form and was not recorded, so therefore it was useless. This was even written by an old atty, but he never recordedit a the courthouse!!

no diagnosis, and she's under drs care for other things. The land was signed over and recorded early this year. I guess my main question was/is can I do anything to my quit claim deed that lists all four tracts without a lawyer. Even if I was to give up the water rights (which I'm not inclined to do no matter what)

Is all the land now in your name? If so, and it's been recorded at the courthouse, then you have control of it. You said you have one tract and your brothers have the other three tracts, but are they all in your name? If so, are they set up so you have sole ownership now or are they set up so your Mom retains ownership as long as she's alive, then they transfer to you and your brothers? Have the deeds been recorded at the courthouse? Where does your sister fit in? Are these tracts broken down into individual tracts now, or are they recorded as an undivided interest? If they are all together as one parcel on the latest deed, with an undivided interest, they will need to be resurveyed and broken down into individual tracts. If this is one parcel, with undivided interest, you all own a portion of the entire parcel at this point.

Aw tiG, there are so many variables that are involved here. I'm not a lawyer either, I just work with this sort of thing. I really think you need to consult an attorney. Better to do it now while your Mom is still alive rather than trying to do it later.

I don't know if I helped or hindered. If I were you, I'd consult some attorneys. The first hour of consultation is usually free. Call several attorneys and ask if they offer a free consultation and go see all of them that do, and see what you find out. Then you will have a better idea of how you stand in this. Consulting several attorneys and using their free consultation may give you lots of the information you are seeking. Each attorney may offer information that the others didn't.

Good luck, and I hope I didn't confuse you too much.
Joan

Hi Joan,
thanks so much. first, there are 4 tracts of land, all with their own descriptions and stuff. All are on the one quit claim. Everything is in my name, recorded, turned over, done deal. I am to put brothers tracts in their name. before death, after death, doesn't matter. Sister just huge thorn in my side :)
I will call around today and see if I can get a consultation. Never dealing with lawyers, I really didn't realize I could do this.

You need a real estate attorney. Do you know a real estate person that you can trust. Be careful and dot all the eyes, it's not finished until all the paper work is done. My husband has had some experience with this and knows what you are talking about. Each state has different laws, how many acres are involved. My husband had a brokers license for Calif. but that isn't worth dust in other states. Good luck, hang in there and don't make any changes until you feel confident on what you are doing. Norma

thanks Norma!! don't know a soul in the business, and it's looking like this will wind up being expensive for me!! :(

Good luck Tig, I have no advice to offer you, just encouragemnt and support. Hang in there, and find a real estate lawyer.

i have had a few friends with there wells on another property if a remember right they had a "right of way" type of thing so the people that owned the property that the well was on could not shut them out

TiG, you have received great advice in the posts above and I have to concur - you need a real estate lawyer. What is in your favor is that the property has already been signed over to you and your sister cannot change that. If you cannot find a real estate lawyer for a free consultation, consider asking the you used to close on a house, prepare a will, or etc. They can give you a basic idea of what you can do to preserve the water rights, probably won't charge you a dime, and will recommend a lawyer that can help you. Something else you may want to consider is to have your brothers help pay the legal/survey fees since they are going to benefit by this too. Just my thoughts.

thanks Carol and all, still sitting on this, just too much on my plate right now. as long as they aren't yelling I'm going to just sit.

tiG, I've gone through much of this legal stuff and I think I can answer your questions. I think you're right to just sit ~ I agree with Carol that you're in a good position and I don't think they can make you get up if you don't want to.

You said, "There are 4 tracts of land, all with their own descriptions and stuff. All are on the one quit claim. Everything is in my name, recorded, turned over, done deal." What does it say on the title, top of the front page? Warranty deed? Then no one can do anything to you except bring you to court if they have the money to hire a lawyer. BUT that does not mean they will actually get anything from you ~ anyone can sue anyone else for anything. Can they win? That's really up to the judge, but from what you've said so far, I don't think so in this case. The land is in your name ~ done deal truly, I think. Case in point: When my mother's former gold digging husband coerced her into signing over some of her land, he got to keep it DESPITE the fact that he didn't do a durn thing to earn it and immediately after she signed the deed, he turned from Jekyll into Hyde ~ started drinking heavily and beating the tar out of us. Didn't matter ~ she signed a warranty deed to him and that meant it was done, over, finito, his according to the divorce courts. Warranty deeds are iron clad no matter the extenuating circumstances EXCEPT mental incapacitation. That might factor into this for you ~ if you truly think your mom was in her right mind when she signed it over to you earlier this year, try to get proof just in case. If you can't, I still wouldn't worry too much ~ it's the sister who would have to prove that your mother wasn't in her right mind and that'd be kind of hard without a diagnosis.

"Can I put the 3 tracts in my brothers names and retain water rights?" Certainly! You just gotta' word the deed right. When you sell a piece of property or transfer title to it, what you are actually selling/transferring is not just the dirt but also a bundle of rights to it ~ the right to occupy the property, the rights to the minerals under it, the right to the airspace above it, the water rights and some others I can't think of now. You can sell all, any one, only some or parts of some of those rights to anyone who is willing to buy. In this case, your brothers won't have a choice ~ they will get what you give them since you're holding all the cards and a deed with your name on it. You can share the rights to the water, too ~ just word it that way in the deed that they can have water, but you get it, too, from any well drilled on the place.

"Can I do this without a lawyer?" Yes, but it's not a good idea. You probably won't have to hire a lawyer per se, but you should go to a title company, tell them what you want and they will have their lawyer draw up a deed to that effect. Here, deed preparation and recording runs about $150 per deed at a title company. Not bad! Now that's not including title searches or title insurance ~ just writing the deed, getting it signed and recording it for you, but that sounds like all you really want or need right now. Ask around for a good title company ~ some of them aren't so good.

"Will land have to be resurveyed to break up the one quit claim deed?" I don't think so. You said there are 4 tracts of land all with their own legal descriptions (field notes from a surveyor, right?). The title company can prepare four deeds using those field notes. I'd definitely get your brothers to ante up for their deeds. Actually, they might only need to prepare the three for your brothers ~ the chain of title at the courthouse will show that your deed lists yours "save and except" your brothers' tracts after their deeds are recorded. It wouldn't cost you a thing, then! But it's always nice to have a clean and updated deed, so I'd pop for the new deed listing only your tract as soon as you could.

I just went through a similar thing concerning water rights. Big Sis, Mom and I just sold 35 acres to the local ISD so they can build a badly needed school out here. I wrote the contract so they only got partial water rights ~ the right to draw only enough water from under the property to use on the property, no assigning water rights to any third party, no selling water to any third party, no giving any water away to anyone else and this would "run with the title" (i.e., it would be there forever and ever). I did this because they had made noises about wanting to set up a "city water system" that would suck a LOT out of the aquifer, then they'd sell the water to others. Nope, not at the expense of my creek a half-mile downhill. I didn't need to hire a lawyer, I just asked the title company who was doing the title search and drawing up the deed to include that stipulation in the deed ~ their lawyer did the legalese, I just had to explain what I wanted to him in plain clear English, then look it over and get out the legal dictionary to make sure it was what I wanted. *grin* Title companies can't give you legal advice, but they have lawyers working for them who can.

I'm sorry this is so long. It's simple, really, but there's a lot to it. If you have any more questions, feel free to drop me a line if you want, tiG! Of course, I live in Texas, so the laws are different, but the basics are pretty much the same.

And I really don't mind helping you at all! The following is just a list of my "qualifications" ~ LOL! I am well experienced in this type of thing. (I'll try to condense 8 years and a file cabinet full of paperwork into one paragraph!) ~ grew up on 550 acre family ranch, three siblings and Mom. Father died 22 years ago when I was nine, naive Mom didn't know how to take care of things and the wolves set in. Gold digging (now former) husband got some land, helped her take out a bunch of loans on the rest. Estate taxes didn't get paid, so IRS seized the place 15 years later and auctioned it off. It took me one straight year to straighten that all out, get everyone paid and get the place back. I still can't believe I did it ~ God is real, or I wouldn't be sitting here today. And with my sanity intact, to boot! It's a miracle. Anyway, in the years since then, I've been dealing with family arguments over the land, helping heavily with siblings' and Mom's property sales as it was still unpartitioned and I wanted in on writing contracts so I didn't get screwed, chasing cows to keep ag exemption on property taxes for everyone, figuring out partitions... Siblings would conveniently be absent when cattle/fence work needed doing, lawyers needed meeting, THEIR buyers wanted to see THEIR property, tax forms needed filling out, etc., etc., ETC.! I ended up with a great real estate law education and wonderful ranch management skills. ;-) In a couple months it will all be over and I will have a Warranty Deed to about 135 acres in my name only! I can't wait! I'm gonna' frame that deed and hang it over the mantel with a spotlight on it. I'd have that sucker bronzed if the writing would still show up! LOLOLOLOL!!!

wow!!!!! thank you sooooooo much for all the time you just gave me, it means a lot! I have a Quit Claim deed, which I'm assuming is the same thing? I hope so, because things here are heavy again and I just don't have the energy, heart or soul to do anything about land right now! Let them walk in my shoes!!!
I am so sorry you have had so much to deal with, but sounds like you came out the winner, look how confident you are! I may take you up on that offer of emailing you, when other things around here calmed down a bit.
((((((((Wingnut))))))))

Oh, tiG! Bless your heart, I sure know what you're going through right now! Pardon the euphemism, but family stuff like this SUCKS, doesn't it!

And you're so welcome! I don't mind a bit ~ e-mail me, please! Lawyers are so expensive and if I can help save you some $$ and you still have the title company's lawyer "backup" at the end to make sure I didn't tell you anything wrong, I'd love that! And please don't be sorry about my "education". LOL! I'm not necessarily glad it all happened, but if that's what I had to go through to be the person I am today, knowing what I know now and having the peace that knowledge brings, I'd do it again!! I'm so glad God stood back and let me go through all that. I know He was still there, of course, keeping an eye on me and nudging the right people into my path so they could help me along the way. And I love repaying Him by helping others, so I would love it if you would let me do that again.

Yep, I'll bet your quit-claim deed is a warranty deed. Warranty, when used in legalese, means "To give assurance of the existence of a fact; as, of the quality of goods sold or the validity of a title." So a warranty deed is a deed that assures the validity of the title of the land. It's a common type of deed used here in Texas. A quit claim deed is a warranty deed where someone signs over their property and all interests in it without convenant ~ i.e., without making any changes to the deed they hold or keeping any portion of the land or the bundle of rights, saying in effect, "I quit claiming to own this property anymore. You can have ALL of it that I own and under the same conditions I received it." So a quit claim deed is usually a warranty deed, but a warranty deed isn't always a quit claim deed. There, clear as mud? LOL!

When you get the time and energy to look at the deed, let me know what it says, especially at the top of the front page. If you can scan it and e-mail it to me, it'd make it easier.

Whatever you do, just remember that you WILL be okay after it's all over. And your family, I'm sure, doesn't really know how it feels to be in your shoes ~ like you said, let them walk a mile in them. Last fall, I gave Big Sis a taste by letting her take over some of the ranch duties. She couldn't do it ~ we ended up losing the ag exemption, but we'll get it back after a long drawn out application process and an extra $10,000 in taxes (Ouch!!!). She now knows just how hard this job is and it's made us closer as sisters ~ and she said she'll pay the extra taxes as she knows she should have told me she couldn't handle it.

Annnnnyyyway, it may not be pleasant right now, or even for a while after, but eventually it will be better and then YOU will have that confidence and peace that comes with knowing about these things. :-) (((((tiG)))))