"My Wife's Ex Tried to Evict Me"

Vidovich Law consistently reminds ours clients to maintain an updated estate plan. However, clients must also remember to comply with any orders in a divorce decree before creating or updating the estate plan.

Recently, Vidovich Law handled an estate in Franklin County involving the death of a client’s spouse. This was a second marriage for the spouse who had been legally divorced for approximately five years when she died unexpectedly. Although the spouse was remarried, she did not have an updated estate plan and had not complied with a divorce decree requiring her to re-finance the home and remove her ex-husband from all financial documents and deeds. At the time of her death, the home (where the spouse and our client currently resided) was still jointly held by the spouse and her ex-husband.

After the death of the spouse, the ex-husband drafted, signed, and filed a Survivorship Affidavit to transfer the home into his own name. The ex-husband submitted a fraudulent affidavit, but was still able to transfer the home and file an eviction action against our client.  

Although Vidovich Law was able to fully correct these actions, the spouse’s failure to follow the orders in the divorce decree and to update her estate plan caused her current husband to deal with unnecessary legal actions and her estate to incur further court time and legal fees.

This case is certainly a reminder that it is absolutely necessary to comply with the orders of a divorce decree and to prepare an updated estate plan after any divorce action. Following these steps may help your family and friends avoid unwanted legal action and unnecessary stress after your death.

About the Author

Kate O. Vidovich is an attorney located in Columbus, Ohio practicing in the areas of estate administration, probate law, adoption and surrogacy, probate and trust litigation, estate planning, wills and trusts, guardianships, and real estate law.