Sale of one's property by nephew with power of attorney

» bindweed - Sale of one's property by nephew with power of attorney!

Hello Jennie

I am a garden editor with the suite and I am trying to help someone preserve a piece of land. I have given her some suggestions and I would appreciate your comments on this issue. In my forum I posted:

A Seattle Loss -- Are there any suggestions out there! I have been helping someone regarding a sale and planned subdivision of a beautiful property in Seattle. Any ideas how to fight this would be appreciated! I have deleted references to the actual parties.

I am also concerned that in the fight, this person might get into a legal problem herself. How could this letter be re-worded, to be more litigation safe. Sadly these quiet deals seem to be rather common ... and I too, am very upset at how this was handled.

Herb

"I am emailing you regarding a neighbor of mine named "D". She is 89 years old, born in 1911, trained as a botanist at the University of Washington. She had a stroke about a year ago or more and had to go to a nursing care facility. She turned her property, 3 city lots plus over to her nephew to manage. He also has power of attorney. We found out this past Friday the property has been sold to a local developer, "".

The property was never advertised or listed, and the sale was an inside sale with "". D. grew and saved "native" plants for years and the property for her was a designated bird sanctuary. She wanted it to remain intact (it has one house on it.) and safeguard the native plants and bird sanctuary aspects. She advised her nephew those were her wishes but the property was sold to a developer and no attempt has been made to honor her wishes.

Some neighbors and myself have witnessed what has gone on and we disagree with how things are being handled. We do not understand how the nephew can accept the first offer that has come in particularly because the realty office never advertised the property. I spoke to the realtor, "" on Saturday and she claims it is a
"done deal." I also contacted "" and the nephew to at least get permission to remove the native plants to save them before being bull dozed.

I have been advised by friends who are native plant specialists to consider contacting the media and plant amnesty, as well as the center for Urban Horticulture because of the issues of the native plants, the fact it borders a green belt, that feeds into "" Creek. Could you please call me regarding this to see if at the very least...we could advertise the wishes of the Aunt and see if we could save the bird sanctuary?

Secondly see if we could find a party that might buy it intact? We question the fact the realty office did not seem to follow ethical procedures regarding advertising the property. The fact the nephew accepted the first offer without consulting his Aunt seems unethical too. We hope to save the plants, at the very least... or at least find a buyer/developer sensitive to the environmental issues.

I went to see D. on Saturday night and she was not even aware the property had been sold. She was very upset. She is a part of living Seattle history, a naturalist and "nativist" from way back. She intended for her property to be a living "green belt." No effort has been made to find a buyer who could do that. The price seems very low. I am sure if we had time we could find a person who could afford to purchase it and follow her wishes.

Homes in this neighborhood on 5000 square feet are going upwards of $325k. The house is 3000 square feet and needs work, but my word you are getting almost an acre of land with it! It is located "". Please help!"

Herbert Senft
Visit the friendly Pacific Northwest

-- posted by bindweed

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion

» Lawhawk - Generally, you must have standing if you want to take legal acti

Generally, you must have standing if you want to take legal action. I'm not sure if that is present here. Your friend would be wise to speak with a real estate attorney in the area who might have an environmental background. Do your homework and see whether the property can be classified as wetlands or other protected land designation.

You might also want to have your friend contact local environmental groups to see if they would be interested in protecting this property.

Hope this helps.

-- posted by Lawhawk

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion

» bindweed - Michael, thank you!

Much the same thoughts have been flowing back to this person as well. Surprisingly the 80% comments were of, how dare you try to squelch free speech. Then one very pertinent comment came in ... dealing with the cost of keeping a disabled person in a decent facility!

I responded thus:

MMM -- first off I totally agree with you. In all of these issues we simply do not have all of the facts. All I know that some of these 'basic' medical care facilities cost over 3,000 dollars a month and more. Did he get the best deal? Was he doing it for his Aunt -- or to cover his Microsoft losses :-) We simply are not privy to these pertinent facts ... and it would take a private investigator to delve into this. That could get to be a real ugly and litigational scene. It is best that the Aunt seek to remove her Power of Attorney and go from there.

Until Nui gets more information my original advise stands -- do not post relevant information such as names on the internet or in forums. Even postings (via some forum exchanges)can be searched out and intercepted! (that is why I am leaving the subject matter as it is), I know because I have caught a few of those -- to the people's surprise!

I have been contacting X and believe she is now proceeding more carefully. My last post was: (because there is a message for all of you dealing with such fights)

I am glad you are making headway -- things like this are triggered by feelings of the heart and soul. They should however, never be pursued in this fashioned!!! When I get angry, I get very quiet and do a lot of research before I attack. When I do, I do so from a position of strength and cold logic. What I suggested about names, had nothing to do with paranoia. I am not that kind of person ... and that labeling sort of pissed me off in the forum. I am however always careful and above all a strategist! Be it in chess or in poker, you never reveal your cards. Even your comments that the property was underpriced is not at issue here.

You or your group will probably have to deal with the developer. (Dorothy's case with her nephew is a litigational one, and might take YEARS! before it is even heard. By then her health or competency will probably deteriorate -- sorry to be so blunt, but the nephew probably got away with it.)

As regards the developer, you do not want him to know that YOU think the property is underpriced. All you want, is to be a dark cold shadow stalking his every move. Check the ordinances, check the transcripts of the deal at the County Auditors. Are their hidden owners? Are their behind the scenes cash deals to reduce property tax liabilities? Suggest that Dorothy change the Power of Attorney immediately!!! She cannot very well challenge her nephew when she has put him in charge of her affairs. (His malfeasance, if so, is of course still open to debate.)

As for the property -- or any such environmental/planning/development challenge, develop a group that consists of an attorney, a plantsperson, a ferret, a researcher, a good public speaker, an in-your-face arbiter --or a heavy. In our own group we also had a geologist, expert in soils and aquifer/soil issues (but he sucked when it came to speaking -- always lost it emotionally, so did our wildlife biologist -- his anger, her shyness), a person with a degree in chemical engineering etc. Some of us were better at certain things than others. Hesh (the attorney) and I drafted the 22 page appeal. I was also the computer hacker, searching things out! The 'dentist' (a locally well liked person) was our spokesperson, he was a great speaker and photogenic as well. In the end -- our victory depended much about our being able to submerge ourselves and let others take over -- the appropriate job. He, Hesh and I did most of the speaking. Sometimes you have to create such groups in order to be effective.

Nowhere, no how did we let the City or the developer have any inkling of our plans ... nor of the alliances we were making. When State officials actually appeared at our local City Council hearing the die was cast. The unanimous (and under the table agreement) to this development became a unanimous vote to deny it.

One never lets the other party know what you are thinking or doing. In our case we had two powerful adversaries -- the City (two attorneys) and the developer (one attorney). I cannot but begin to imagine the legal bill we ran up against both! However, had we made mistakes, we too could have been sued ... so we were damn careful in every bit of wording.

Herbert Senft
Visit the friendly Pacific Northwest

<img src="http://www.fritech.com/skyline/images/happygardener.gif">

-- posted by bindweed

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion

» penpusher - The Web

Herbert,
Yes, I totally agree with you that the Web is not a safe place to discuss cases. The privacy and security issues have been causing some headache to everybody.

As Michael mentioned previously, it is advisable to contact real estate lawyer(s) and environmental expert(s) to get professional advice and support. Doing our homework is indeed the most important thing to win cases.

Thank you,

-- posted by penpusher

Permalink Print Discussion Email Discussion