Involuntary Alienation

Requirements for a valid will

(1) The testator must have legal capacity to make a will - legal age and sound mind. (2)The testator must understand the nature and extent of the property owned and (3) further understand the described property will go to those named in the will. (4) The drawing of a will must be a voluntary act and be free of undo influence. (5)The will must be signed by two witnesses. In Alabama the will must be a written document.

When a person dies, ownership of real estate passes to...

1. The co-owner by virtue of a joint tenancy with right of survivorship or a tenancy by the entirety; 2. The party or parties named in a valid will; (must probate) or 3. The statutory heirs determined by the state's law of descent and distribution

Adverse Possession

A person takes possession & use of a property belonging to another. Possession must be open, notorious, hostile & uninterrupted for a certain period of time, and adverse.

Involuntary Alienation

A transfer of title to real property without the owner's consent . Usually carried out by opperation of law - condemnation, foreclosure of a mortgage loan, or sale to satisfy delinquent tax or mortgage lien.

4 types of involuntary alienation

Escheat, condemnations by states power of eminent domain, foreclosure, adverse possession

devise

Is the specific gift of real or personal property through a will.

Probate

Legal process by which a court determines who will inherit a deceased person's property and what the assets of the estate are. The court must allocate and distribute the assets of the deceased . The debts of the deceased must be satisfied before any property is distributed to heirs.

Escheat

The state takes property upon an owners death if there is no will & no heirs exist.

Descent and distribution

the method of determining heirs and settling an estate when someone died intestate