Lynnwood Law Blog

People who live in Washington State and who experience challenges with their neighbors often wonder what type of recourse they may have or how they can protect themselves. In an ideal world, neighbors would be able to cooperate and resolve their differences amicably and in person. Unfortunately, that does not always happen and legal action is taken. The reasons that lead to this can vary dramatically.

In the central part of the state, a conflict between two neighbors in Selah in Yakima County has recently been reviewed by a Court of Appeals. The dispute goes back several years according to the Yakima Herald. It involves a woman who gives music lessons to students out of her home and her neighbor. Seven years ago, the woman's husband was forced to retire early due to poor health. At that time, she chose to increase the number of lessons she provided to earn additional income for her family.

When your last living parent passes away and your family goes over the estate plan, you feel shocked to find out that you got nothing at all. Your siblings did. So did extended family members, like your nieces, nephews and cousins. But you got completely disinherited and cut out of the will.

Some people know this is coming before it happens. Many others, like you, find themselves shocked and surprised. The first question you may ask is how this could have happened? A few common reasons include:

• You have more money and assets than everyone else in your family. Your parent did not leave you anything simply because they knew that you, unlike the rest of your family, did not need anything. They wanted to help people as much as possible with the assets that they had.
• You and your parent became estranged over the years. You stopped speaking and writing. You never got together for family events. Maybe one single event triggered this, like an argument about your lifestyle. Maybe it just happened slowly as your lives drifted apart.
• Your parent meant to update the estate plan and never got a chance to do so. They passed away before they got around to it. This is an issue, for example, with parents and children who have a falling out and then reconcile. If the parent cut you out of the will after the falling out and forgot to add you back in, you still get nothing.
• Someone else used their influence to change the will. Maybe you were never around that much, so your siblings talked to your parent and got them to take away your inheritance.
• Maybe someone else created a new will and tricked your parent into signing. Was your parent dealing with dementia or other degenerative brain diseases? Perhaps someone decided to take advantage of that to get them to a sign a new will, even though your parent had no idea what they were signing at the time.

Whether you own your own home or rent your home in Washington State, you most likely want to enjoy the area in which you live. Everyone has different standards for how they live and what they consider acceptable or desirable but there are some actions or behaviors that most people universally would agree can be frustrating to live next to or near.

According to Forbes, one thing that often spurs disputes between neighbors is an encroachment on one person's property. One example of this is if a neighbor builds a new fence but it is positioned too far over the property line onto the adjacent neighbor's property. Another example can be a tree that grows so big as to extend over the next-door neighbor's yard. This can be a particular nuisance if the tree drops cones, needles, fruits or other matter than causes a mess in the neighbor's yard.

During the estate planning process, you may wonder whether your survivors will have to endure probate after you are gone. At Riach Gese Jacobs, we understand your concern about a lengthy legal proceeding that may prevent your heirs from receiving their bequests in a timely fashion or even give rise to litigation. Fortunately, the state of Washington has taken steps to simplify the process, meaning that probate may not be necessary to the administration of your estate. 

However, to take advantage of the simplified process, you have to meet certain conditions. Perhaps most significant, your estate cannot contain any real property, which includes a residence, commercial building or vacant lot. Additionally, the total value of your estate must be less than $100,000.