Prescott Arizona Real Estate Legal Life Estates
April 27th, 2007
Prescott Arizona real estate owners also become legal life estate owners when specific situations and legislation exist.
Legal Life Estates (statutory life estates)
Laws create legal life estates, and because each state has different laws on how legal life estates are created we’ll talk about the basics here. In addition, many states use the Uniform Probate Code rather then the three legal life estates listed below.
Curtesy, Dower, Homestead
The titles of legal life estates have an old west sound to them to me, maybe it’s because I
live here in Prescott.
Curtesy - this form of legal life estate pertains to the husband’s life estate in real estate of his deceased wife’s property. This life estate cannot be transferred to another person.
Dower - this form of legal life estate pertains to the wife’s life estate in real estate of her deseased husband’s property. As the prior, this life estate cannot be transferred to another person either.
Can a legal life estate be released? Yes, this can happen if both spouses sign a deed of conveyance. The percentage of real estate that makes up what is considered curtesy or dower varies state-by-state, however its typically one-third to one-half of the real estate.
Homestead - this form of legal life estate refers to the portion of the worth of the property of a homeowner’s primary residence which is protected from certain judgements for
debts. In Prescott AZ, this amount is believed to be $150,000 in 2007.
Do you want to learn about the actual statues? Arizona Homesteads and the Homestead Exemption
The rules that govern property that qualifies for homestead protection and the amount that you
will be protected for varies between the states. Usually, real estate taxes and mortgages are
exempt from the homestead rules. In order to release homestead rights, it’s usually necessary to have the signatures of both spouses on a contract.
Entry Filed under: Prescott Arizona AZ Real Estate Market
Trackback this post