Estate planning for family cottages and cabins
No matter whether you’re planning to pass on a cottage to your children, or you’ve inherited a cabin with your siblings, it’s never too early to take steps to preserve a beloved family property for generations to come. Shared ownership of vacation property—especially when the co-owners are family members—can be fraught with problems. The idyllic dream of a cottage getaway can be shattered when co-owners’ emotions, financial concerns, and opinions on how the property should be used come into play.
Fortunately, a solid plan that dictates how the property will be owned and managed can prevent squabbles over the family cottage. Saving the Family Cottage lays out a roadmap for creating and implementing this plan. It also explains the possible pitfalls of co-owing a family vacation property, and provides time-tested guidance on how to:
- keep the peace among heirs
- prevent a family member from forcing a sale of the property
- keep your vacation home out of the hands of in-laws and creditors, and
- smoothly transition ownership of the property from one generation to the next.
The sixth edition includes an expanded discussion of legal issues that might arise from renting out a family cottage or cabin on a short-term basis. It’s also updated to reflect current tax and legal entity laws.
Table of Content
Part I: Cottages at Risk 1. Trouble in Paradise 2. Avoid the Worst: A Partition Parable 3. Plan for the Best: Cottage Succession Goals 4. How a Plan Helps Save the Family Cottage 5. No Plan? Then 600-Year-Old Law Controls the Cottage 6. Other Animals in the Property Law Zoo 7. Short-Term Solutions Part III: Cottage Plans in Action 8. Choose the Right Legal Entity for Your Cottage 9. Welcome to the Club 10. When and How to Organize the Cottage LLC 11. The Cottage Safety Valve 12. Cottage Democracy 13. Scheduling and Use 14. Renting the Cottage Part IV: Creating a Cottage Legacy 15. Minimizing the Federal Tax Bite 16. The Ultimate Gift: A Cottage Endowment G. Glossary B. Bibliography A. Appendix: Table of Contents for Cottage Limited Liability Company Operating Agreement Index
About the author
Ann O’Connell is a legal editor at Nolo specializing in landlord-tenant and real estate law. Before joining Nolo as an editor, Ann was a freelance writer for Nolo and other publications and law firms. She has passed the bar exams in California, Nevada, and Colorado, where she is both an active attorney and a real estate broker. Ann practiced civil litigation in California and Colorado, and had her own firm in Colorado. At her firm, she focused on real estate, landlord-tenant, and small business cases. Ann earned her B.A. from Boston College and her J.D. from UC Berkeley Law.
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