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Transferring one’s home to family (e.g., one’s children), however, creates the potential hazard that one might get evicted, for various reasons, including a falling-out with the new owner, or problems befalling the new owner (such as creditor actions or divorce). What alternatives are available?
Various options exist. The reader is cautioned, however, that except for the first option below, none are guaranteed to succeed at avoiding estate recovery. Estate recovery is a very controversial area of law, and no one knows what the law will provide at one’s death.
So let’s examine the options.
One option is to sell the property to family with an understanding that they will allow one’s continued occupancy. This could be done by way of an installment sale that would generate monthly income, which is often preferable to taking a reverse mortgage.
So long as the income was spent buying exempt services or resources each month there would be no worries about accumulating disqualifying (excess) resources (cash). A bona fide sale with a sale price based on a qualified appraisal will not result in estate recovery claims against.
Another option is to transfer the residence to a family member while retaining a legal right of occupancy – either a reserved life estate or an unrecorded occupancy agreement.
A life estate is a much more substantial right and has to be contained in the deed of conveyance. California has not pursued recovery against life estates, although it has been threatened.
An occupancy agreement is not recorded (and so is more stealthy), but is a less substantial right. A right of occupancy is akin to an indefinitely long-term lease, but without rent payments. Also, whereas the life estate guarantees the family will get a new basis when the original owner dies, the occupancy agreement is less certain.
The last option discussed here is transferring the home to an irrevocable trust while reserving a lifetime right of occupancy.
The trust, often called an “intentionally defective irrevocable trust” (a.k.a., the ‘IDIT’), provides extra protection and flexibility.
First, the IDIT is not answerable to the creditors of whomever inherits the house, until such time as they actually inherit (when title goes outright into their name).
Second, the IDIT allows for the residence to be sold and the proceeds to be used to buy a replacement residence. That flexibility can be particularly desirable if one considers possibly moving to another home and/or different location.
Third, the IDIT allows one to still be the owner for income tax purposes, real property tax purposes and estate tax purposes (now usually only relevant insofar as the stepped-up basis at death goes).
Selecting the best option involves careful consideration of factors that usually differ very significantly from person to person.
Do not presume which one suits you best until you have discussed this with a qualified advisor.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 1st St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
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In all, break-ins or attempted break-ins were reported at six businesses, starting over the weekend and lasting until Wednesday, according to Lt. Brad Rasmussen of the Lakeport Police Department.
“We believe all of the burglaries and the attempted burglaries are related, based on the evidence and the pattern that we're seeing,” Rasmussen said.
The break-ins started sometime late last Saturday night or early Sunday morning, said Rasmussen. That's when someone forced their way into First Nails in the Bruno's Shop Smart shopping plaza on Lakeport Boulevard.
Rasmussen said the burglars ransacked the business and took cash, the amount of which police are withholding.
Sometime late Sunday or early Monday morning Erma's Hair and Skin Essentials, located in the 800 block of Bevins Street, also was broken into and ransacked. Rasmussen said police are unsure of what's missing from that shop.
The following night, break-ins were attempted at Henny's Shear Delight and the All About Me boutique in the Willow Tree Plaza on 11th Street. In those cases, the suspects didn't get into the businesses, said Rasmussen.
However, overnight Tuesday or early Wednesday, another forced entry at All About Me was successful, with cash stolen, said Rasmussen.
That same night two other burglaries occurred – at Kelsey Creek Coffee Co. in the 900 block of N. Main and Pet Country in the 1100 block of N. Main. Cash was stolen in both cases, Rasmussen said.
Soda machines near Pet Country and the Anchorage Inn also were broken into, said Rasmussen.
“We're increasing our patrols of the business area to look for any suspicious activity,” he said.
Rasmussen said police are looking at potential leads.
“We've got a couple pieces of confirmation that we're following up on” that we think may be related, he said.
Rasmussen urged businesses not to keep cash on premises and to have their locks backed by secondary deadbolts.
It's also important to maintain good lighting at entry points into businesses to help deter potential burglars, he said.
In addition, Rasmussen suggested that business owners consider full alarm systems to add to their security.
Rasmussen said police want to hear from anyone who has seen anything suspicious in the affected business areas. If anyone sees anything as it's occurring, he urged them to call police right away.
“We consider it a serous issue and we're trying to do everything we can to prevent any further burglaries in the business district or anywhere else,” he said.
Lakeport Police Department can be reached at 707-263-5491. Emergency calls should go to 911.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
Pivniska Trucking requested a use permit, general plan amendment and rezone to replace a 10-year use permit that Community Development staff said expired in 2000.
Associate Planner Keith Gronendyke said county staff was recommending a partial approval of the application. Community Development Director Rick Coel added that they wanted to give the Pivniskas a year to meet several outstanding conditions with the old use permit.
Marilyn Pivniska, who has run the company with her son, Chris, since her husband Butch's death in June of 2007, told the commission that, “When you read this staff report, it paints us with a very ugly brush, like we are some noncompliant criminal element.”
Pivniska said she's been in the trucking business for 35 years, with 29 of those years being at the current location, 85 and 79 E. State Highway 20.
She said her operation generates more than $2 million in revenue which stays in Lake County. There's not much of a profit margin in trucking, she said, with most of her revenue going to her eight employees and the 10 to 20 owner/operator truckers she hires annually.
“We have been productive citizens in this county and the county should try to work with us” and all small businesses, Pivniska said.
She didn't have an issue with the year to comply, but she was concerned about having to move a portable gravel screening plant from its spot on land that is zoned for rural residential to another area of the property, where it was originally located and where the zoning is correct.
The county also was asking for piles of materials to be moved, and Pivniska asked permission to bring in a portable crusher for about a week to prepare the materials for resale.
Commissioner Cliff Swetnam was particularly concerned that the Pivniskas were operating on an expired use permit first issued in 1990, the conditions of which still weren't fully met nearly 20 years later.
Swetnam read off the eight unfulfilled use permit conditions: requirement to obtain an encroachment permit from Caltrans along the property's Highway 20 frontage, construction of a new encroachment, paving all parking lots and driveways with an all-weather surface, continuously maintaining all parking and access areas in good repair, installing landscaping along the highway frontage, installing fencing around fuel areas to screen them from the highway and no outdoor storage with the exception of one area on the property's southern portion.
He called it “gutsy” for the Pivniskas to request a new permit when they haven't fully complied with the old one.
“Well, I could blame it on my late husband, but I won't do that, I'll take full responsibility,” said Marilyn Pivniska, who noted that some of the delay was because of affordability.
Chris Pivniska said he's trying to clean up the issues left to him. “We would like to comply,” he said, explaining that they need both time and money.
“You've had 19 years,” said Swetnam.
Clearly frustrated, Chris Pivniska replied, “That's neither here nor there.”
He explained that moving a screening plant over close to the business' shop would not be cost effective.
“Would your business being shut down without permits be cost effective?” Swetnam asked.
No, said Pivniska, adding that the report said a lot of “bad things.”
“Tell us what's not true,” said Swetnam.
“Everything's true in it, obviously,” said Pivniska. “There's a lot of good things we do, too.”
Replied Swetnam, “I don't doubt that.”
Commissioner Clelia Baur, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Commissioner Gary Briggs, told the Pivniskas that the county respects the work they're doing and is trying to work with them.
“I think you can come into compliance in a year” while continuing to run the business and stay a part of the community, she said.
Coel said his staff's initial reaction was not to support the rezone, but looking at how the commission recently worked out some issues with Epidendio Construction caused them to reconsider.
Epidendio went before the commission in April and was granted a mitigated negative declaration and permission to continue operating for an indefinite period of time an equipment storage yard located at 11325 and 11180 Highway 29 in Lower Lake, according to commission records.
Coel said that, if the Pivniskas' location wasn't right on the highway and not close to downtown Upper Lake, the standards being applied to it probably wouldn't be as heavy.
He suggested the commission approve the new use permit with the same conditions, and his department would work with the Pivniskas on the issues. “We just want to see it brought up to current standards.”
Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart of the Lake County Air Quality Management District weighed in on the situation, noting there have been complaints about dust from the business in the past, but not in the last year.
There are residents who live close to the operation, he said, and as a result health impacts from emissions need to be considered.
As the Pivniskas come into compliance, Gearhart suggested the dust issues will go away. New laws also are requiring diesel emissions reductions.
“Until they actually have clearance on that property, we can't issue any permits for that operation,” he said.
If their permit eventually is granted, the operation may qualify for state Carl Moyer funding to update some equipment.
When Marilyn Pivniska asked if the temporary crusher would be allowed, Coel said they've issued permits in the past for temporary crushing and that they could tie in the permission with the initial one-year period for coming into compliance.
Swetnam said it's not the first time someone has come before the commission with violations, but he said 19 years was the longest-running violation he'd seen.
“You must come into compliance or I'm probably going to be supporting shutting your business down,” said Swetnam, explaining that “we're spinning our wheels” if they don't make permit holders follow the rules.
Fellow commissioners also offered their support for granting another year for compliance, and Coel asked that they amend the documents to add permission to use the portable crusher.
Swetnam made the motions to approve the mitigated negative declaration and use permit with the one-year compliance requirement. The commission approved the motions 4-0.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
During the Thanksgiving week, Nov. 22 through 26, KPFZ, 88.1 FM will air an original radio version of “Driving Miss Daisy.”
This version will have the same cast as the play that ran to thunderous applause and standing ovations every night during its 2003 production in Lower Lake. Actors reported that the audience “had tears in their eyes.”
The play’s producer, Ginger Ingersoll, said that the Lake County production “was different from the movie. It was a fresh, new interpretation.”
Producing the radio version of this play was not easy. Although the actors performed the play in two hours, it took another six months for Andy Weiss, producer of the radio version, to turn that performance into a play that would make sense on the radio.
To begin with, people had to generate sound effects giving clues to the radio listener about actions on stage: doors closing, footsteps, trash being taken out and background party noises. Musical clues and transitions then had to be added, and the whole project had to be edited into a cohesive whole.
“Driving Miss Daisy,” written by Alfred Uhry, was first produced on Broadway in 1987 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama in 1988.
As the screenwriter for the play, Uhry received an Academy Award in 1989 for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The play takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, where Uhry grew up, and it covers a 25-year period between 1948 and 1973.
Through the story of a developing friendship between the Jewish woman Daisy Werthan and her African-American driver, Hoke Colburn, Uhry hints at some of the wounds all Americans were experiencing during that period – and offers hope for healing.
“Driving Miss Daisy” will air as a one-hour play, followed by an hour of interviews and commentary, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22; 9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23; 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24; and at two times on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 26 – 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.
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Plans appear on target to have the new south county-based clinic opened by late 2010 – possibly even in time for next Veterans Day.
Late last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced plans to open 31 new clinics in 16 states, with Lake County's proposed clinic among those planned new facilities, as Lake County News has reported.
Lake County is home to a large per-capita veterans population. Jim Brown, Lake County's veteran services officer, said Tuesday there are about 8,000 veterans – out of a total county population of about 65,000 – who make their home here.
Brown previously estimated that between 2,500 and 4,500 local veterans use the VA health care system.
Veterans currently needing those services must travel out of county to Ukiah, Santa Rosa and San Francisco for more major health care issues, Brown said Tuesday.
The new clinic will offer general health care, with some procedures still requiring travel to Santa Rosa or San Francisco, Brown said.
He estimated the new clinic's patients will be almost exclusively from Lake County.
Brown has lobbied for the clinic since 1996. He credited Congressman Mike Thompson, himself a Vietnam veteran, for getting involved in the effort to land the facility.
By 2002 the VA said they were going to locate a clinic in Lake County, and in 2006 the first approvals were made in Washington, DC, Brown said.
“The more they looked at it, the more they saw we really had the veteran population” – and the need, Brown said.
The project currently has no total dollar figure that's been publicly released, said Brown.
A technical evaluation team is working on the clinic project and a site selection process still is under way, with Brown noting that the three possible sites in Clearlake also haven't been made public.
“My prediction right now is we could easily be in a building at some point next year,” Brown said.
If it's a build to suit situation, the clinic could be open by late 2010 or even early 2011, he said.
There's also a chance that a Veterans Service Office staffer could be located at the clinic in a part-time capacity in an effort to get veterans the services they need, Brown said.
As soon as the site selection is made, Brown said he expected the work on the clinic will progress quickly.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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