Today’s businesses don’t seem to care that Social Security numbers, birth dates and other personal information is the key to keeping everything we’ve ever worked for safe and private. Many of us capitulate and will hand over the key to everything we’ve ever done, bought, sold, said or studied our entire life.

A Virginia Land Trust will not solve these problems. What it will do is keep your personal name out of the front line of public record.

When you transfer the title of real estate from your personal name to a Virginia Land Trust, the trust becomes the owner; your name is no longer shown as owner of that property. The property is no longer legally yours under your personal name once transfer has occurred, therefore, in public record the trust shows ownership.

If your name is not shown as the owner, the proper party for a tenant law suit would be the Trust, the owner of the property. That’s not all bad, right?

One of the first actions a tenant plaintiff attorney will do is to access the assets of the property owner. The court house or land records office is the first stop. Your name is not there. Instead they find the name of a Land Trust. That will tell the attorney that this is an owner that knows a thing or two about how things are done.

Often this will lead the plaintiff attorney asking for a upfront retainer from the tenant which he/she may not have. At that point, the whole issue may disappear.

Understand, a Virginia Land Trust is not the end to all for these kind of issues. But it is an essential and important first step.

I will have more about this in upcoming comments.

EL

How many lawsuits are filed each day in America?  Are you next?

Our legal “system” is broken. Attorney’s paycheck stops if they solve their client’s legal problem. It seems to me that is a conflict of interest. What do you think? They have an incentive to keep the case open.

If as a landlord or investor you do everything right and end up with some attorney trying to get you in court, that flaw in our legal system can work for you. Here how…

A properly drawn Virginia Land Trust provides for the sitius of the trust to be the location of the Trustee. If the attorney follows the law, service will be in state the Trustee is located.

That one fact can add cost and time to the process of service, (that is getting the legal papers to the Trustee). If the case logically leads you to the decision to settle then it can end there. Insurance should always be the first line of defense.

If it is unfair frivolous suit you may want to make it difficult to execute service.

Sooner or later the cost and time may lead the plaintiff to give up and stop paying their attorney’s fees. It just goes away.

80% of all cases never go to trail. A Virginia Land Trust can stack the odds in your favor that you will not be in the 20%.

70,000 lawsuits are files everyday in the USA.

Earl