My Dad Died and His Wife Won't Tell Me Anything About His Property
We often get calls from people whose relative in Las Vegas died and they want to know if they are supposed to inherit anything, but typically the decedent's wife, often a new wife, won't tell them anything. What can a person in that situation do?
Part of the answer is that the Clark County Assessor's office (Las Vegas is in Clark County along with the cities of Henderson, Boulder City, North Las Vegas and Mesquite) offers free, public, online access to who owns all real estate (other than timeshares) in the county. http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/ASSESSor/
By going online you can see if your relative owned real estate and if so you can see if the real estate was titled solely in the relative's name or if it was held jointly by the relative and another person. If the property was held solely in your relative's name, or if it was held by your relative and another person as tenants in common, then a probate proceeding will be necessary to transfer title of that property to another person. However, if the property was held in joint tenancy by your relative and another person, then the other person automatically owns the property if your relative dies first and the other person only has to file your relative's death certificate and an affidavit of the death of a joint tenant to obtain good title to the entire property. (In the large majority of cases if there are two people listed as owners of real estate, the two people hold the property as joint tenants.)
Another way to try and find out if your relative died with a will leaving you anything is that under N.R.S. 136.050, http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-136.html#NRS136Sec050 , if someone has a will of a Nevada resident who died, they are supposed to file the will with the court or give it to the executor named in the will. However, the penalty for not doing so is only that the person who failed to do so might be liable in civil damages to someone suffering a loss by the failure to file the will.
Reed & Mansfield
6655 W. Sahara Ave, Suite B-200
Las Vegas, NV 89146
702-343-0494
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(c) Jonathan Reed 2010