Payee in cell tower lease different than deceased lessor, Who owns lease now?

[Gayle Thompson]

I am the beneficiary of my brother's revocable living trust (Oregon). He died 18 months ago. Until a month ago, his land was titled to the trustee of his Revocable Living Trust, but that land is now titled to me. My brother signed a ground lease with a cell tower company for a portion of that land. The lease was never sold and there is no assignment of the lease to me. The lease states that rent payments be made to a third party, a corporation. My brother owned one-third of the shares in that corporation.

When my brother titled the land to the trustee, did the lease automatically become the property of the trust? Or did the lease need to be specifically assigned to the trustee while my brother was still alive? Do I now own the lease because I own the land?  Does the corporation own the lease because the agreement was to make the payments out to the corporation? What about the money that was paid to the corporation during the time the land was the property of the trust? Does the corporation get to keep the rent money because the tower company was never notified to make payments to the trust (if indeed the lease was held by the trust)? I posed these questions to different lawyers and have received different answers. I am beyond frustrated and don't know where to turn for answers.

[Account Closed]

Quote from @Gayle Thompson:

I am the beneficiary of my brother's revocable living trust (Oregon). He died 18 months ago. Until a month ago, his land was titled to the trustee of his Revocable Living Trust, but that land is now titled to me. My brother signed a ground lease with a cell tower company for a portion of that land. The lease was never sold and there is no assignment of the lease to me. The lease states that rent payments be made to a third party, a corporation. My brother owned one-third of the shares in that corporation.

When my brother titled the land to the trustee, did the lease automatically become the property of the trust? Or did the lease need to be specifically assigned to the trustee while my brother was still alive? Do I now own the lease because I own the land?  Does the corporation own the lease because the agreement was to make the payments out to the corporation? What about the money that was paid to the corporation during the time the land was the property of the trust? Does the corporation get to keep the rent money because the tower company was never notified to make payments to the trust (if indeed the lease was held by the trust)? I posed these questions to different lawyers and have received different answers. I am beyond frustrated and don't know where to turn for answers.

Too many unknowns. Talk to the attorney who put the Trust together. Sounds like you will need to spend some money on legal fees to figure this one out. No one on a public forum can or has the ability to know those answers without diving into the documents.