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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif">Thanks for the comments so far. I forgot to mention that the deceased partner had a will essentially leaving everything to her surviving partner (client).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:black">Lisa E. Schuchman<br>
206-960-4212<br>
<a href="http://www.lisaschuchman.com/" target="_blank">www.lisaschuchman.com</a><br>
<br>
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. - Marshall McLuhan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:black">NOTE: I do not use encrypted email. Messages sent to or from my office via email are not secure and may not be protected by attorney-client privilege. This email address
is not monitored at all times. If your matter is urgent, please phone my office during regular business hours.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:black">Any tax advice included in this document and its attachments was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties under
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</span><b><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#008100">Please consider the trees before printing this document</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> wsbapt-bounces@lists.wsbarppt.com [mailto:wsbapt-bounces@lists.wsbarppt.com]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Eric Nelsen<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, May 12, 2017 1:06 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt@lists.wsbarppt.com><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [WSBAPT] CIR/RDP/CP<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">I do think there is a problem--CIR law does not provide any inheritance rights. Community-like property accumulated during a CIR is not community property under the inheritance statutes. Instead, the probate
court has to examine all community-like property and make a "fair and equitable division" between the survivor's interest and the decedent's interest--and whatever the decedent's interest might be, is inherited by the decedent's statutory heirs, not the CIR
survivor. The CIR survivor is not an heir under intestacy law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">So, for the survivor to receive the house, it takes a probate action to determine (a) that the house is "community-like" property, and (b) that a "fair and equitable division of all community-like property" as
between the survivor and the decedent's estate dictates that the entirety of the house be allocated to the survivor (and therefore is not an estate asset at all). See Langeland (Drown v. Boone), 177 Wn.App. 315 (2013), and the subsequent appellate case in
that estate that just came down last year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">As an alternative, could you track down decedent's heirs at law and get quit claim deeds in survivor's favor?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Second possibility: Depending on how title of record is held, perhaps could argue that survivor has "color of title", occupies the property, and has paid taxes for 7 years since date of death, to take title under
RCW 7.28.070? That would extinguish any right by decedent's heirs at law to claim an interest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">Eric<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">Eric C. Nelsen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">SAYRE LAW OFFICES, PLLC<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">1417 31st Ave South<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">Seattle WA 98144-3909<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">phone 206-625-0092<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">fax 206-625-9040<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">Please Note that We Have Moved.</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">
</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#1F497D">We have moved our Seattle office to Mount Baker Ridge (a small commercial community just above the I-90 tunnel).
<b>Our new address is 1417 31st Avenue South, Seattle WA 98144. </b>All other contact information remains the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">
<a href="mailto:wsbapt-bounces@lists.wsbarppt.com">wsbapt-bounces@lists.wsbarppt.com</a> [<a href="mailto:wsbapt-bounces@lists.wsbarppt.com">mailto:wsbapt-bounces@lists.wsbarppt.com</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Lisa E Schuchman<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, May 12, 2017 12:23 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [WSBAPT] CIR/RDP/CP<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif">A client lived with her domestic partner starting in the late 1970s. They bought a house together in the 1990s. They registered as domestic partners in 2007, and her partner
died in 2010. My client is now trying to refinance the mortgage on the house. As the request of BECU, I drafted a non-probate affidavit for her. This is their reply:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif">“Per underwriting, in the state of WA, community property laws extend to domestic partners and would allow us to use the lack of probate affidavit, under those community property
protections. HOWEVER, the assumption of community property only exists if the borrowers were married or domestic partners when they took title to the property - which they did not in this instance. So the property is not assumed to be community and we cannot
rely on the affidavit. Therefore we will need probate of the decedents interest.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif">All of the deceased partner’s assets have long been distributed and her bills have long been paid and a probate seems like a waste.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif">I can cite the the quasi-marriage/CIR law to them and see if they are persuaded. Does anyone have any other ideas?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:black">Lisa E. Schuchman<br>
206-960-4212<br>
<a href="http://www.lisaschuchman.com/" target="_blank">www.lisaschuchman.com</a><br>
<br>
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. - Marshall McLuhan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:black">NOTE: I do not use encrypted email. Messages sent to or from my office via email are not secure and may not be protected by attorney-client privilege. This email address
is not monitored at all times. If your matter is urgent, please phone my office during regular business hours.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond",serif;color:black">Any tax advice included in this document and its attachments was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties under
the Internal Revenue Code.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:Webdings;color:green">P</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:green">
</span><b><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#008100">Please consider the trees before printing this document</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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