I was about to miss a second regular Monday post and did not feel any fire to dig back into the memory bank. As most who read this know, I am a huge sled dog racing fan. This past week the Yukon Quest, the “other” big race, has been going on. It also covers nearly a thousand miles and runs back and forth between Canada and Alaska starting and ending in each on alternate years. This year it started in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and will end in Fairbanks, Alaska with a winner crossing the line later this afternoon. The details are better for my other blog, the gwynnmorganalaksa one so I will not go into that here.
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| Walton Home 1983. Porch in front left below. |
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| As it appeared Aug 2018 |
Instead I’ll share my other reason for being kind of off track lately. Probably no one here knows much of this; if
any of you do, bear with me! My late husband grew up in Bisbee, in a neat old
fashioned house which had been built in 1916 by Harrison Lavender, for whom the
Lavender Pit is named. Mr. Lavender was a Phelps Dodge official. The senior Waltons
bought it in about 1935 when Jim was a small kid. He grew up there and after
his mother and his first wife had passed away, his dad made him half-owner to
simplify inheritance.
When Roy Walton died in 1975 as a
result of an auto accident, Jim let his eldest son live there for awhile to
take care of the place since we were in Colorado at that time. Well, Malcolm
did not keep up his part of the bargain very well. His caretaker duties were
low in his priorities and the place steadily deteriorated. After we finally
returned to Arizona we chose to live out nearer Fort Huachuca where I worked so
the arrangement went on. Jim was very unhappy to see his old home sink lower
and lower but he still could never quite issue an ultimatum. Then in 2003 he
passed away suddenly, probably having forgotten he left the place in limbo.
I finally realized that fact and also
that I was the most logical person to take charge and save it from going to the
state as abandoned property or being sold for tax liens. I started with a title
search last fall, finding the old Walton family home in Bisbee was still in
Jim’s name as he had gained half ownership from his dad a few weeks before our
marriage, exempting it from being community property. A probate type action was
thus required.
I consulted Nathan Williams who had
just started at Cardinal & Stachel when kid brother Alex died and had
helped me with the last stages of settling Alex’s estate. Nathan and his
current partner specialize in estate type matters so he seemed a good choice.
He had a faint memory of Alex and of the work he did for me which was a toe in
the door. He determined we could do a “small estate affidavit” which is kind of
a mini-probate. Of course legal stuff goes slowly but I finally got the copies
of the filed document making me the legal owner in late December.
In the title search I also discovered
there were unpaid property taxes and started to try to catch that up but Nathan
advised me to wait until the ownership was established. Two of the annual blocks,
2016 and 2017 had already been sold by the county. In Arizona, back tax liens
are sold to private investors who over an extended period can eventually get
title but that process is very slow; one must pay for a number of years.
However once this happens, only the legal owner or a properly/officially designated agent
of the owner can ‘redeem’ the property by paying the basic tax owed and
some interest. Alternately one can file
an affidavit attesting that s/he is one or the other.
The amount increased from $1850 in
September to $2500 in January since 2018 was now due and more interest had
accrued. I had to borrow the money to pay this and finally dispatched a
cashier’s check from my bank by certified mail on Jan 18th. A county
employee signed for it on Jan 22, Jan 21 being a holiday. A few days later I
received the check back with an unsigned form note and a copy of a receipt
indicating that one Leslie A Walton (my son-in-law’s second wife) had made the
payment on Jan 23!!!
I found that exceedingly strange, especially in terms of the timing. I believe
someone had surreptitiously notified her or my stepson of the receipt of my
payment and gave her a chance to ‘jump in’ illegally by holding mine a day or
two. Well, I went ballistic and fired off a big packet addressed directly to
the county treasurer. I included six supporting documents as enclosures and
asked how and why my payment as legally documented owner had been returned
while hers, despite her not being the owner or able to present any valid
documentation that she was, had been accepted.
The day after that arrived (per the
green card coming back) I got an email from the deputy treasurer that there had
been an error; my payment was accepted and hers would be refunded.
Meanwhile I had written and sent a certified
letter to my stepson and his wife with a copy to the other brother who also
lives in Bisbee stating that I was now the legal owner and giving the history
of Malcolm having neglected most if not all the conditions his dad had set on
his occupancy of the house shortly after his grandfather had passed away in
1975. The place has never been cared for
well and was slowly falling to ruin and now not even the taxes were kept up. The
original deal was thus null and void.
In effect he had lived there rent
free for over forty years and done almost nothing that he had agreed to do.
That all being the case I intended to sell the house before it was totally
beyond repair and restoration. I’ve offered it to them for $45,000 with the
only caveat that they would have to arrange financing as I would not carry a
mortgage due to how my house in Whetstone had been allowed to go into
foreclosure after they had sworn to me it would be caught up and taken care of.
Of course that foreclosure is still
on my credit record having happened in 2014 and is very damaging. The other options I offered were to
voluntarily vacate or face a formal, legal eviction. They had until the first
week of March (45 days) to get back to me or make a counter offer. Nothing has
been done thus far.
About the first of February I put
it up on Zillow, with no serious intention to sell at once but simply to see if
it generated any interest and get an idea of what might be a reasonable price.
I set the price at $65,000 for the purpose of this listing. I’ve had a few nibbles and a ‘finder for
speculators’ outfit in Phoenix even wanted to guarantee me $55,000 and try to
find a buyer for 30 days. I politely declined for now.
So that is where it sets today. I’m
waiting to see what other end run or challenge may come out but feel that my
legal status is pretty secure. Occupying a place does not in and of itself
confer ownership! And if one has the idea of ownership in mind, certain steps
and actions would establish some intent and validity: primarily maintaining the
property and keeping it lien free!!
Jim has been gone for over fifteen
years and as a surviving son, Malcolm could have filed the same sort of claim I
did and probably have gotten it done before I even heard of it –I would not
have challenged it at any rate--since I have been out of the state for two
thirds of that time. He did not do it apparently thinking he could just sit
there in the cabbage patch and it would by some sleight of hand devolve to him.
That is not how things work!
I am sure I am coming across and
will be talked about in Bisbee if not further afield as the epitome of the
wicked, grasping stepmother. Well, TOO DAMN BAD!! I will not make a strong
effort at listing and selling the place until my deadline is very close but I
do not expect them to respond at all to me. When I went to ask why the payments
on the house I had essentially already given to David, making him half owner on
the condition he made the payments, had fallen several months behind, they did
not see fit to explain or actually to act though both solemnly told me they
would.
For some unknown reason I had become
a bad person–or they were embarrassed or unwilling to level with me??—but
neither has communicated with me in any
way since then. Phone calls are not returned and letters are not answered.
I was deeply hurt and angry for awhile and did not reach out but felt they
owned me something, at least a rationale! I had been the best de facto mom to
David that I could and certainly had shared a lot of smaller things of Jim’s to
them after his passing: tools, firearms and many other items of considerable
value. What more did I need to do??
So yes, I am going to move ahead
and put my stepson out on the street. Not literally since his wife has maintained
a separate residence for several years and I am sure he could live there and
his brother is also in Bisbee in either a rental or a house he may have bought
(instead of keeping the home in Whetstone?) and would not leave Malcolm
homeless. Am I greedy? Maybe but due to my credit being trashed, I cannot co-sign
a loan with my brother for the new home we want and need or it will result in a
much higher interest rate, either one limiting what we could qualify for. I need therefore to make a down payment amount
available as my part of this project.
We truly do need to leave New
Mexico for both mental and physical health. We have found this town not to be
comfortable and congenial and are at ages where good medical facilities nearby
are almost a necessity. The hospital and most doctors here are abominable!! And
New Mexico is truly a third world country, operating on a near par with
Honduras and Valenzuela. Corruption is rampant and open and abuses are very
common. So now I march in place a bit and see what happens next. If it were not
my own drama, I could laugh and label it a bad soap opera. Maybe it really is.
And a post script: I had just hit
save on this document yesterday when my phone rang, the alternate backup
tracfone I had used in the Zillow ad. It was Malcolm. He said he could not
raise the $45,000 but was sure he could have $40,000 in 10-14 days. I did not
hesitate to accept. I may be “too easy” but I was not looking forward to a long
drawn out legal hassle to get him out of the property and wanted to be as fair
as I could. I think that will be enough to support Charlie and me in our move
by providing a decent down payment and some help for the actual costs of
moving. I am still not counting my chickens but feel maybe 70/30 certain that this
will come to pass. I am hopeful. So we’ll see. Anyway that goes to show you
just never know what is going to happen!
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