Need help with Manhattan probate.
Hello all,
Can anyone in NY city who is familiar with the probate process please help me?!?!? I have a good friend whose father passed away in 2011. He has been contacted by the property manager of the building where his deceased fathers’ condo or co-op (I don't know which one it is) is and the property manager is offering to purchase the property from him for $70k. I looked the address up in the NY tax record database and based off of that it appears to be worth a lot more. From what the property manager said, there are back maintenance fees and some other fees that need to be paid as well as lawyer fees that have to be paid in order to get the property placed in my friends’ possession before the sale can take place. The property manager referred my friend to a lawyer and said that he would pay the lawyer and all of the fees associated with getting the property available to sell. I told my friend that this sounds like a conflict of interest and that he should try to collect as much information about the property as well as the process before agreeing to sell or even have a lawyer retained on his behalf buy this guy who he doesn’t know. The problem is neither I nor my friend know where exactly where to begin to get this information nor exactly what information we need to know so that he can make an informed decision about what to do with the property. I made a short list of all of the things I could think of that he needs to know and the list is as follows…
Does your father owe the bank or anyone else any $$ for the property.
Is the property a Co-op. or condo?
Who is the owner of the building that the property is in?
What are the city/state taxes on the property,
What are any and all fees associated with the property
Co-op/condo fees...
Maintenance fees...
What are some of the other question that we should get the answers to so that my friend can make the best informed decision. And where should we start to find these answers? Both my friend and I live in Baltimore MD so we would be doing this from afar.
Thanks in advance for any and all insight.
Marco II