Suing a trust that owns a property? anyone have experience?

Question

Do trust offer any protections with liability due to negligence? Can you sue the owner of a trust or trustee for something that happens in a property owned by a trust? Such as a property that is owned by a trust that has a bad psycho family member living there that is harassing the neighbors with death threats and beating on their doors? Police and HOA have been useless in dealing with situation so would like to take matters into my own hands and sue the trust(trustee-parent) for our damages to move and relocate due to not feeling safe in our own apartment because of non stop harassment and threats to kill. I know and have the address and information for the family member who set up the trust

Kris Haskins · Answer

yes, but you'll have to get a court order to locate the beneficiary of that trust.

Caroline Gerardo · Answer

The police doing nothing told you they see this as a civil matter between you and the person who is acting crazy. You can file a suit against the crazy person but you need many text messages from the crazy person. If you have enough text messages to convince a judge or jury then you get a restraining order against the crazy person, the owner of record is not causing you harm so you can't sue the Trust and win. The Trust is not causing you any harm.

The police have to catch the person breaking in doing a major crime, carrying a weapon and actually in the act or most police will do nothing. If they catch the crazy person in a criminal act they get held a day or two and return more agitated as they are not reasonable.

You can pay an attorney $100000 to try but in my opinion you cannot win.

Video tape the person and start sending to the HOA and perhaps a Youtube site where you document them threatening you or mom. Post the name of the trustee. The trustee who is in charge knows the person is off their meds and put them there to be away. Documentation is what you need. Do not engage with the person, do not tell them what you are doing, make your schedule irregular as to when you come and go. Set up cameras on your unit, even fake ones to discourage this person. If you fear for your life, move and be done. We cannot control our neighbors.

David Dey · Answer

If I were you, I might first try contacting the trustee of the family trust to see if you can resolve it amicably.

If that doesn’t work, contact an attorney and have them reach out to the trust or the trust’s attorney.

Look in the clerk of courts official records and search for the trust by name or the trustee’s name.  There might be some records that reveal who the attorney is.

Also check civil records of that county, checking again the name of the trust.  Possibly even checking the name of the occupant.  Chances are there are other issues there that you will find against the occupant.

If he has any kind of criminal or civil record, chances are the attorney who handled his case will have been paid for or may be the attorney of the trust.

If all else fails, then you go for the “full court press.”  (Legal double entendres are the best😁)

If you go through the other two processes first, you will have strengthened your case because you will be able to demonstrate that you tried every possible remedy before taking this drastic step.

hope this helps.

Nancy Miller · Answer

@David Dey Thank you. Good advice. I think it's a family trust? I agree about being better not to sue. Hopefully just the threat of it will be enough to get things moving and force this crazy person's parent to put them in an institution and not let them run wild terrorizing the neighbors. But I don't think I have a choice but to involve a lawyer because I have significant financial losses if I have to move and I'm sick of complaining to the HOA and the police and not getting anywhere.

David Dey · Answer

Trusts themselves are not asset protection vehicle per se.  They are usually more for anonymity and or estate planning.

what kind of trust is it?  Land trust?  Family trust? Etc…

A law suit is as good as its assets.

i would go through the county property appraiser and see what properties are owned by the trust and then make final decisions on whether you want to sue.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that you should always look at a law suit as a last resort.

Getting into a lawsuit is like going into a boxing match, even the winner gets punched…

And you never want it to go to the judges!!

Nancy Miller · Answer

@Caroline Gerardo yes. The police were given the parents name & phone number and also the HOA has contacted the parent multiple times and I sent the crazy's mom (who is paying mortgage and trustee I think?) a text message several months ago that this crazy person had threatened to kill us. We have this person on video saying "I will kill you. You will die" while they beat on our door and came up multiple times within an hour to beat on it. I have text messages where there is also physical threats and accusing crazy gross stuff about how myself and family member are having sex together and how we have no soul and this crazy person has to protect the building from us. This person has called mutual people to tell them what a horrible person I am. And recently went up to my mother while she was standing in front of the building and used their hand as if it was a gun and shooting at her and telling her they were going to kill her. It's really really bad and more than just someone we don't like which I could live with. And police say its the HOA job to remove them and the HOA say it's the police and I'm sick of nothing being done. I will have significant cost to move...thousands and thousands of dollars to move and find comparable place and kind of my last resort is to see if it's possible to get a lawyer and sue.

Caroline Gerardo · Answer

Owner of property may not be responsible for noncriminal actions of the "tenant." Can you prove on paper that the trust who owns the property has failed to act on CRIMINAL acts of the tenant. What state?

Suing a trust that owns a property? anyone have experience?

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