Q: Roots from five trees on my neighbor's property have damaged a wall bordering our house. He refuses to remove the trees or repair the wall. A lawsuit will likely be in my favor so I can repair the wall.
Can he refuse entry on his property to remove the tree roots and the trees? What recourse do I have? -- William D.
A. Unless you have a court order (called an injunction) allowing you to enter your neighbor's property, the neighbor can refuse to allow you to enter his land to cut the tree roots that are damaging the fence.
If you file suit, be sure to ask the judge for an order (injunction) allowing you or your workers to enter the neighbor's property to cut the roots that are damaging the fence.
Q: What is your reasoning for not paying all cash for a property if the buyer has the funds and wants to cut down on monthly expenses? -- Renee DeC.
A.
If you buy a "bad house" or a "bad condo" for 100 percent cash, you are the "stuckee" who might not be able to sell that property except to another all-cash buyer.
However, if you buy for a modest down payment of 20 percent to 25 percent cash, and obtain an 80 percent or 75 percent mortgage, you won't have a large amount of cash tied up in one property.
Of course, if you are independently wealthy and you will never need to see the cash you pay again, be my guest and take the risk of tying up that cash in a bad property.
Q: When I sell my house, can I reinvest in two different properties to avoid the capital-gains tax? Or does it have to be just one property? Candice T.
A. Neither! When you sell your principal residence, if you owned and occupied it at least 24 of the last 60 months before its sale, Internal Revenue Code 121 gives you a tax exemption up to $250,000 (up to $500,000 for a married couple who both meet the occupancy test).
Q: After much research, my husband, who is now 74, decided to get a senior citizen reverse mortgage on our home. Because I was only 60 at the time, I quit-claimed my interest in the house to him because I was too young. We chose the reverse-mortgage line of credit and have withdrawn only as much as our savings would cover if my husband dies.
I know I could get a reverse mortgage, as I am now 62, but our question is whether our house will have to go into probate court when my husband dies because I am no longer on the deed. How can we avoid this? Our home is our biggest asset Sheila P.
A. That's easy. Your husband can transfer title from himself to his revocable living trust, which, presumably, will name you as the successor trustee and the future beneficiary if he dies first.
Reverse-mortgage lenders have no objection to borrowers placing title to their homes into their living trusts after the reverse mortgage is recorded.
By placing the home title into your husband's living trust, probate costs and delays will be avoided if he dies first.
Equally important, if your husband should become incapacitated, such as with Alzheimer's disease or a severe stroke, as the successor trustee you can then manage the living-trust assets, including selling or refinancing the house.
Q: What are umbrella insurance policies? -- Dr. Carl W.
A. An umbrella liability policy is an insurance policy that takes over coverage on large liability losses exceeding the basic insurance coverage.
It is best to have all your property-liability policies with the same insurer so there is no conflict between insurance companies.
To illustrate, suppose you are at fault in a bad automobile accident that injures or kills several people. Your basic auto policy will pay the first $300,000 of liability coverage. Then your umbrella policy will take over and pay any additional liability losses up to $5 million total.
If you think you need more than $5 million, the additional premium for a few more million dollars will be only several hundred dollars (because of the small probability the insurance company will ever have to pay such a large loss).
Q: You recently said a tenant should have renter's insurance to pay for damage to his/her apartment. The individual reader left a dinner on the stove and the fire did about $15,000 damage to her apartment.
It has always been my understanding that renter's insurance simply covers the tenant's personal belongings, such as clothing and furniture. But the owner is responsible for the apartment house or detached rented house. Am I wrong?
-- Beverly B.
A. If a tenant has a renter's insurance policy, it covers loss from theft and fire affecting the tenant's personal property.
But it also provides liability coverage for the tenant's negligence.
For example, if I visit a friend's apartment, trip over a loose rug and am injured, the tenant's rental-insurance policy will pay for my injuries from the tenant's negligence.
The same renter's policy also provides liability coverage if the tenant's negligence causes damage to the landlord's premises, up to the policy limit.
Similar insurance policies are available to condominium owners, who should always carry condo owner's insurance even though the condo homeowners association insures the condo complex's common areas, including the building structure for fire and liability coverage.
Robert J.
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