Cedulie Renee Laumann

Attorney Cedulie Laumann is the managing attorney and founding member of small law firm in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The firm handles real estate, small business, and estate/trust matters.

She enjoys helping clients reach positive solutions to their legal needs. Her firm employs innovative "flat fee" billing arrangements and fee options outside the traditional hourly based approach.

"Legal Answers & Representation Relevant to YOUR needs!"

• General Civil

• Free Consultation
  10 minute no-cost free phone consult. Call 410-216-7000. We can answer many quick questions for free, or browse our website for common answers to deed, trust and other questions. Or schedule a private, in-depth consultation (1hr - 1.5 hrs) with Managing Attorney (10-20 years experience) for a flat $250 consult fee for most matters. 100% of the paid consult fee is applied towards estate planning
• Credit Cards Accepted
  Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express Credit cards are only accepted for attorney fees, not for any government fees, third party fees or taxes.
• Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
  10 min no cost initial consult by phone. Flat fee consultations for up to 1.5 hour attorney meeting. Option of flat fee billing many types of cases, including Estate Planning (Trusts, Wills, etc.), Business Formation (LLCs, etc.) and Real Estate (deeds, contracts, etc.) See our pricing guide on our website for representative fees or call us. While all the firm's clients are given clear understanding of fees up-front, this list is not a promise to represent, some situations may require additional work and no attorney/client relationship is formed unless we meet and both agree.

Maryland

Since 2003

managing attorney

Arden Law Firm, LLC

Current

Adjunct Faculty

St. Joseph's University

Current

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

Honors: Order of the Coif Top 10% of Graduating Class

Maryland State Bar

Member

2003 - Current

Q. Is it possible to quitclaim a parcel to the estate of a deceased person? Her estate remains open after ten years.

April 1, 2024

A: Without knowing any of the context, yes, an estate may receive real property. You'd naturally want to coordinate this with the Personal Representative. 10 years is an unusually long time for an estate to remain open.

While not legal advice, I hope that this helps.

Q. I have joint tenancy with mom on a townhome in Maryland. I want to remove my mom from the title and replace with my wife

April 1, 2024

A: The situation you describe comes up quite frequently (where someone owns property with their mom and/or dad, gets married and wants to hold the property together with their spouse).

There are 3 different state and county-level transfer taxes that come into play with real property transfers. Although another attorney's post correctly stated the GENERAL rules for transfers, it failed to note exceptions that should apply in the situation you posted. Maryland law exempts a parent/child deed from 2 of these transfer & recordation taxes. With respect to the third tax, some counties will impose COUNTY transfer tax on a parent/child deed so whether removing your mom from title would involve transfer taxes depends on the specific MD county. So an attorney would need to know what county the property was in before giving a clear answer on possible transfer taxes.

In the ordinary course one cannot add or remove people from title without getting the lender's consent when there is a mortgage. If the lender won't consent to an assumption it requires a refinance. However, when a parent is giving a home to their child or when a husband adds his wife to title (or vice-versa) a federal law called the Garn St. Germain Act typically avoids any need to refinance. *note that a child giving their parent property is not covered.

Depending on the equity in the property, the parent/child transfer may require filing of a gift tax return.

While not legal advice, I hope this post helps! You're strongly encouraged to reach out to an attorney who regularly handles such deeds to get legal advice specific to your situation. ... Read More

Q. Can I get free legal assistance in selling my fathers inherited house.

March 2, 2024

A: If you desire to handle the probate process by yourself without paying for an attorney to handle the full estate, you may find that a hour or so consultation with an experienced estate practitioner can help provide very helpful framework and tools. The average probate case in Maryland takes 9 months to 1 year to resolve and in some cases can take much longer than that. If the total equity in the house is less than $50,000 and there are no other assets, the estate may qualify as a "Small Estate" which involves considerably less effort than a Regular Estate.

While a skilled consultation will generally have some cost, it may be money well spent

Another attorney posted links to some resources to explore. Please note, however, that generally speaking free legal help is more readily available to low-income individuals facing a dire legal need (such as eviction, debt collection, etc.).

While not legal advice, I hope this general information helps. ... Read More