You’ll need to examine the agreements you signed originally to know your options. If they’re not self-evident, contact any in-state lawyer

By Karen E. Klein

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Two business partners and I purchased a house in Vermont as a rental business contingency. One of the partners died recently. Can we simply have his name removed from the fact? None of us listed beneficiaries when we purchased the property. —J.B., Corona Queens, N.Y.

The answer to your interrogatory lies in the documents that established your partnership or that governed your hold. Take a look at the paperwork and if you’re still unsure, have an attorney familiar with Vermont law (which governs this transaction) examine the documents and accord. you an answer.

Property in Vermont can be owned in a couple of sundry ways, says Douglas K. Riley, an deputy with Lisman Webster & Leckerling in Burlington. There’s "joint tenancy with right of survivorship" and "tenancy in common."

Under the leading arrangement, "juncture tenancy with right of survivorship," your deceased partner’session interest in the property would automatically have existence surrendered to the remaining partners. But if you purchased the rental property as tenants-in-common, the deceased partner’s interest would revert to his estate and go through probate as component of his will, or have being parceled out to his heirs pursuant to state law if he didn’face to face get a will.

The other chance is that you signed a interest agreement (BusinessWeek SmallBiz, June/July, 2007) whenever you entered into this business venture. "A partnership agreement would control the case allowing that the character is held in the note of the partnership," Riley says. If there was a binding buy-sell arrangement in the partnership agreement, that would govern the transfer of the property interest to the remaining partners.

Your situation underscores the need to memorize written agreements in place when you’re going into business, says Alan E. Weiner, an accountant and attorney with [privcapId=2385146] in Melville, N.Y. "All co-ventures, because of any prototype of business, should have written agreements, entered into when everyone is friendly, to avoid later squabbles and, in the event of a death, problems with the heirs," he says.

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