102: Los Angeles Divorce Fee Waiver Hours Of Acceptance

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In this episode, we are just giving you a little update about the fee waiver process with the superior courts and this is specifically regarding the Los Angeles County Courts.

We recently send a client down to the San Fernando branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court for divorce filing with a fee waiver and the clerk gave them a little note and it says, fee waivers are now only accepted between 8:30 AM and 11:00 AM or 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM Monday through Friday and of course aside from court holidays.

So, Monday through Friday 8:30 AM to 11:00AM or 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM. I’m assuming the reason for this change is for the courts lunch break, that being the judge’s lunch break and the judge’s assistant known as the JA.

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101: Live California Divorce Broadcasts Thursdays At 1pm

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In this episode, we’re talking about how excited we are to introduce our newest website which is Divorce661.tv.

Divorce661.tv is going to be dedicated to our live broadcast.

I’m not sure if you have heard yet but we now have a live broadcast every Thursday at 1PM Pacific where we talk about some issue or aspect of Divorce.

We will be interviewing folks. We will be taking live questions. And we’ve already now recorded several episodes.

But now we have a dedicated channel where you can go right to Divorce661.tv. And you can watch right from the website.

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100: Is Doing Your Own California Divorce A Good Idea

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In this episode, we are talking about, is doing your own divorce case a good idea. This may seem very self-serving. We suggest that you don’t do your divorce.

We’re not saying hire an attorney, we’re saying hire us obviously. We’re saying hire a professional company paralegal service, legal document assistant service which we are to prepare your divorce case for you.

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099: I Started My California Divorce And Never Finished It

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In this episode, we’re talking about for those folks who have started their divorce and never finish.

That’s the service we provide and something we can help you fix. We’re continuing to get lots and lots of folks who started their divorce either months, years, or decades ago. Honestly, I guess the oldest one we did was 18 years ago, they filed and never finished their case.

But, that is the service we provide. We can essentially pick up where you left off and wrap things up for you.

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098: How To Submit Default California Divorce Judgment With Spousal Support

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In this episode, I want to talk to you about something interesting, something that happened this week with a client of ours. This is in regards to a default judgment with spousal support.

We had a client come in several months ago wanted to file for a divorce who’s supposed to be amicable and as things progressed, it turn out to be not so amicable. Not that the other party is contesting anything but they didn’t want to participate in the divorce at all.

The party that we were working with was unemployed and the other party, her spouse was employed so we wanted to get her some spousal support because they had been married for quite some time.

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097: How To Get Your California Divorce Done Right The First Time

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In this episode, we are talking about getting your divorce done right the first time.

And this week we’ve been talking all about pro pers and people representing themselves, those of you deciding, should I file my own case, should I try and do the paperwork and a lot of people will call and say “Tim, I’ve tried to file the paperwork or I started the paperwork, I printed it out.”

So, if you’re considering this, you’re going to go through that process. Some people will simply say, I’m not going to deal with this. I want to get it done right the first time.

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California Divorce – When Is It Time To Contact A Realtor

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California Divorce – When Is It Time To Contact A Realtor

Tim: So one of the things I want to talk about today was the options people have when how to deal with their property when they’re going through Divorce.

What are their options and what are the plus and minuses of each? But the first thing, I want to talk about is consulting with the real estate agent.

That should probably something that is done early on in the process, right? Kind of get this information about a written agreement that’s fine they even know.

That’s great coming to an agreement and coming to the terms on appraisal or even deciding on an agent to use.

Connor: It’s funny a bankruptcy attorney said something really valuable when I was speaking with him and we just came out of this speed foreclosure short sale market.

And I asked him, I said, ‘So when should somebody call you like in your Paralegal Services with Divorce the same answer is going to apply, same with the Real Estate Agent, when should they call you?’

He said, ‘At the very first sleepless night. Whatever it is Divorce, Bankruptcy, issue with the house or the kids, that’s when they should first contact me.’

So at the very beginning whenever you’re just speaking about Divorce that first sleepless night they should be making a few phone calls, talking to the Paralegal to get the Divorce started if in fact that’s what they decide.

And at least sitting down with an agent and getting a game plan together, so, they can explain to you how the process is going to play out.

We’re not there at that initial meeting to sign.

Tim: Yes.

Connor: And a lot of times couples don’t want to be together. That’s another thing that should be asked by a Real Estate Agent because some of them they get together.

And it’s like throwing a chlorine and oil. I mean the thing just goes nuts and boils up and everything else.

Tim: Yes.

Connor: But yes, if that first sleepless is when they should at least one of the parties.

Tim: So early on the process is about where to go?

Connor: And then it’s going to be. And another thing too Tim, is it’s not going to be a fast process because in that particular point they haven’t even decided.

Tim: Right!

Connor: And I would say probably 70% or 80% of that point aren’t even going to go with it, at least within the next year.

And there’s going to be periods of working that out and going to this sort of this honeymoon stage.

Tim: No!

Connor: Now we’re back in the same crap that we were before and he promised to change or she promised and so on.

Tim: Yes!

California Divorce – Should You Sell Your Home During Divorce

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California Divorce – Should You Sell Your Home During Divorce

Tim: Well, I’m glad you came out because part of what we do is making sure that the people that come to us have the information and resources available.

We bring up things that they probably don’t even know or something they need to think about. So if you do want to file for Divorce you don’t need to do that.

But they haven’t thought about all the other things that are involved with this.

So selling their home or potential for needing Mediation are all leading to Bankruptcy and all these things can kind of intertwined with.

It’s just depends on what’s going on. I’m so glad to have you as resource for folks who they can call and I can say, ‘Call Conner. Let’s talk about your options.’

You need to find out your appraisal informations and there are lots of stuff that has to go into this in getting the agreements and all that.

So that’s it. I want to talk about the three options. I came up with three, I put three options and then I added a fourth.

So four options–

Connor: Excuse me.

Tim: They can either sell, right? They can refinance.

Connor: Okay.

Tim: They can keep their existing mortgage.

Connor: Right.

Tim: Right? One can kind of stay there and pay the existing mortgage and there’s reasons why they may want to do that.

Well, they can sell it at the later date. So maybe we can talk about each of these options. I kind of do the slide for each one.

So selling your home during Divorce.

Connor: Important with that process is everybody again with each one of these potential outcomes that you’ve described here.

First part, of course, we need mutual agreement by all parties. If the parties can’t get together then we can talk to the party separately or maybe over the telephone together.

But everybody needs to hear what’s going to happen—

Tim: Right.

Connor: …on what the process is going to work. So as far as selling it only takes one signature from one of the parties to start the process.

However, to finish it both parties have to be in agreement. Both parties have to sign everything.

Tim: That’s assuming they’re both on the loan and on title?

Connor: Correct.

Tim: Correct?

Connor: Correct.

Tim: Now what if only one is on title?

Connor: It’s still going to come down to the loan.

Tim: So the loan depends on? So both can be in title if only one’s in the loan that you can sell it with one signature?

Connor: No, you still need both.

Tim: You still need both, either way on top of that —

Connor: We’re going to look on title. That’s going to be the first thing. And I have to correct myself.

I apologize. However, title lender that is going to go contract. Those are the signatures we need.

Tim: Okay, so it’s title, not the loan?

Connor: I apologize, that’s correct.

Tim: Okay.

Connor: Now the other thing and this is interesting whenever you’re in Escrow or you start that process what I show on title could be different than what’s actually there.

And the only way to verify that is pulling something called preliminary title which is what Escrow does.

Tim: Okay.

Connor: They typically don’t do that until you’re a little bit deep into the process because it costs money.

Tim: Right.

Connor: And they want to kind of make sure. But if things change that addendums have to be drawn up establishing the other people that have to be a part of the contract and then they have to be spoken to as well.

Tim: Okay, sometimes selling the home and making that decision is their only option. They can’t refinance.

Maybe they don’t qualify. And that we’ll talk about those in the other slides.

Hopefully, there’s equity. And we had cases where there’s equity. We have cases where there’s no equity.

And they just have to short sale that and they fall into that other options of maybe just having them stay in the home.

It just sometimes it’s not up to their mutual agreement. It’s based upon their circumstances financially or otherwise.

 

 

 

California Divorce – Can Parties Agree To Keep House And Sell Later

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California Divorce – Can Parties Agree To Keep House And Sell Later

Connor: The same thing with a quick claim deed.

Tim: Yes, it’s going along.

Connor: Yes, other people and that’s another thing too. Some people are misadvising their clients or in Real Estate and say, well, you can pull the spouse off with the quick claim deed.

Tim: Yes.

Connor: But that doesn’t fix it with the loan.

Tim: No!

Connor: So the cleanest break you would ever had, would be just get rid of it, sell it.

Tim: Or refinance it completely out.

Connor: Absolutely! If one of the party is capable and one of them wants to stay in the house, absolutely!

Tim: I have to say, we’ve had a lot of clients just of financial reasons, quick claim off the house and just take the risk of being on the loan.

And just because they don’t want to short sale and ruin their credit and the mortgage were still a lot less than—you know what I mean?

Connor: Sure.

Tim: That they can make that mortgage payment, the other spouse staying in there. And so the credit and they could stay in there.

But I’m telling you the risk is that if they default, you need to come up with some way of making sure that, that payment would be made either they send you a copy of checks being cashed or some way of verifying just trust your ex to do the right thing.

Connor: Some people I have to look at my own situation. At this point, I would trust my wife of 23 years probably.

Tim: Most likely!

Connor: Yes, most likely to do that. And again, there’s a lot relationships. I know you see it too.

Tim: Yes.

Connor: I mean the spouses are so friendly, it’s almost weird. It’s like they’re both about to give released it from prison.

And they’re willing to do whatever it takes. And there’s no argument at all. But I think that’s the smaller part of the people that get Divorced.

Tim: Yes. Alright, let’s talk about keeping the existing mortgage and letting in your spouse stay. We kind of attest on this a little bit.

We actually attest on it a lot. If the spouse stays in the house, it was not refinancing just staying on that same mortgage, there’s that risk involved.

Connor: And the other things too, let’s say there’s only one party that’s on the loan maybe the other spouse could consider writing up a lease agreement for them.

Actually doing it official, but it’s a sticky situation.

Tim: I don’t know. Make sure we understand that.

Connor: Well, let’s say one of –

Tim: Oh, the one who’s on the loan!

Connor: Absolutely!

Tim: Makes lease to the other.

Connor: They could write up an official agreement stating this is what the monthly amounts going to be. This is when it’s due. This is your part of the obligation with the up keeping the house.

You’re not to sub that rooms, whatever that maybe to try to supplement income because now instead of one eviction, if that’s the way it happens to go and see that’s your enforcement mechanism in contract –

Tim: Got you!

Connor: Instead of one, now all of a sudden if they’re renting rooms out to five or six different people, that’s a $50,000 bill all day long to get all these folks out.

Tim: Yes, we’ve seen that happened once. Now we don’t get those types of crazy cases in our office but we’ve had people to do that.

It is funny when you’re just talking, you remind of a certain scenarios when we had someone, both on the home, both on the—you drop your mic?

Connor: Yes.

Tim: Both on the home and both on the loan and title and one spouse had moved out. The other one stopped paying the mortgage.

And so it was in default. Then they filed bankruptcy, so, we could delay it even further.

And all the while, renting out all the rooms and sections of the living room, he had like six people paying them 500-600 bucks a month.

So he’s making 3,000 or 4,000 a month.

Connor: Wow!

Tim: A month and not paying mortgage.

Connor: What a nightmare!

Tim: Until the last we heard in two years he’d been doing this. So it’s just crazy.

And all the while we get the spouse versus team who got the judgment to sell the house. And now he’s squatting and he won’t move out.

So we got those types of issues as well. So alright, let’s see what else we got here.

Oh, I want to talk about evaluation.

Should You Change Insurance Companies After Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Should You Change Insurance Companies After Divorce

Tim: It’s a good time for a new quote anyways.

Jon: Right!

Tim: Now were you saying earlier that we should move change companies? How do you describe it?

Jon: Which you might consider.

It depends on how well you know your Insurance Agent or Broker or the Insurance Company that you are with because a lot of times what will happen is, since your house hold together that when it gets split apart, not everything within the insurance companies is always going to be picked up correctly.

So as a result, you still may have some of your personal stuff going to your ex-spouse. I had dealt with this with Divorce couples where they are very adamant.

I don’t want anything about me going to him…

Tim: Right.

Jon: … or anything about me going to her. And so one thing to consider is that if you’re going to that process is maybe taking it to a different carrier or maybe just to a different Broker if you want to stay with the same carrier just to eliminate the chances of that information being found.

One thing that you’re going to run into is when you split up the house like that or split up the cars, you may find your rates changing a little; examination bit.

And the reason is most companies give discounts when you have multiple cars with them while when you split it out and become two separate accounts then what happens is that discount falls off.

So it’s another reason to look for quotes at that time or look for the coverage just because all these things are happening at once.

It’s just a perfect time to take a look.

Tim: So the company has made about staying with the same changing carriers but staying with the same Broker?

They can do that through one of these companies like I had before. But with you, they can keep you as the Broker changed carriers?

Did I understand that correctly?

Jon: Yes, I don’t want to mislead anybody.

Tim: Yes.

Jon: You, if you’re with a company and I don’t want to mention names a state farm farmers, you all state, that the big companies out there.

All those companies allow you to change your agent if you want to change your agent that helps split apart your household.

Tim: Okay.

Jon: As a Broker, you can do the same thing. What a Broker will allow you to do those maybe see about changing that company all together…

Tim; Got you.

Jon: …if there’s a better deal for you. Some companies are better if you have kids on the policy.

When of you’re single without the kids on the policy, there maybe a better option for you as a single individual than there was with a family as kids.

So those are the sort of things that the Broker can bring to the table.

Tim: Got you! Well, that’s very good.