(12/02) HOTL Hour 2

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the Law marginallegal advice where I tell you you have
absolutely no case Phil. Hello Phil, welcome to handle on the Law.
Hey Bill, I really appreciate youtaking this call. Sure. So,
I live in a large gated communityin Los Angeles, about ten thousand people.
Right, so, they have generalparking and they have reserve parking.

(00:23):
Now I pay for a reserve parkingspot. Since the pandemic, my job
situation changed. I was doing freelance, I was doing remote work, so
I turned I registered my car asp and O planned non operation check out
my carver. A couple of months, just got back from traveling and in
my mail was a letter from alean company saying that my car was up

(00:46):
for auction in thirty days. Turnsout my landlord had my car to two
months ago, claiming it was abandonedon private property. The reason was it
didn't have current registration and uh sobasically they've been continuing to I'm still paying
for this parking spot, so it'sstill on my rent. Did the landlord

(01:08):
know that you had registered it asnon operational? They did not, okay
in their agreement. Okay, no, but it doesn't matter. The landlord
at this point, all they sawin your parking space was a car that
was not registered. Did they knowit was your car? Had you when

(01:29):
you registered your car? Here ismy license plate? Yes? Of course?
Yeah? Okay, all right,all right, no, no,
go ahead. I'm sorry. Well, because it's important, there was no
notification. That's the other thing.No, I understand now, I get
that, I know, I understandthat. And by the way, there
doesn't have to be notification. Usuallywhen cars are are towed, usually there's

(01:52):
something on the law on you're supposedto understand the law. They don't have
to notify you, although sometimes theydo. They do, and usually the
towyard deifies you and say you wantto bail this thing out, especially if
they can pull the address and theyhave the van and they have a license
plate number. But here's the issue. The landlord knew that it's your car

(02:15):
and that and you're allowed to parkthe car there. It really shouldn't matter
whether it's a registered, non operationalor not. It's not their business.
Your car your parking space. Wow, And the question is is that a
car? Yeah? Do I payfor that space? Yeah? Is there

(02:37):
anything that says it has to beoperational? Not operational There could be,
There could be in the lease inthe fine fine print, no idea.
But assuming there isn't, and I'mguessing there is, and I think you're
right on this one, then they'regonna be liable. You're gonna have to
You're gonna have to bail your carout. There's no question. You've got
to pay all the fees to getyour car out. There is no issue

(02:58):
about that. Otherwise it's gonna losethe car. So should you have to
know? But it's going to takelonger to deal with the legal process than
it's ever going to be to getyour car out of Hawk And then you
turn around immediately ensue the landlord insmall claims court for everything it costs.
So what you do can one anotherquestion? Sure? So now is there

(03:19):
a distinction between general and reserve spots? I mean, do you have a
different legal protection or is it stilldo they own it? Well, no
general response, because anybody, anybodycan park there. Yeah, they can
argue that you've paid for a generalspot in part of you know, your
monthly HOA fees or your dues orwhatever. Yeah, I mean I don't

(03:39):
think they have a better argument ifit's a general spot, but they have
no argument that it's your spot andthat you rented the spot. And does
it matter whether the car is operationalor not? I don't think so.
By the way, how did youleave the car alone and not that it

(04:00):
was gone for two months? SoI was so I'm not using it.
I've worked remotely and I don't useit very often. What does that mean
you work remotely? You don't workat your home. I do. It's
in a building. It's in abuilding across the street. So I oh,
okay, so you've never gone thereto check? All right? I
mean I was just curious, butI think you're fine. Get your car
out of hawk. It's gonna costyou hundreds of dollars. You got to

(04:21):
pay whatever you got to pay.I mean, it'll be a maybe a
thousand or more, maybe a fifteenhundred. But then you just immediately make
twenty five hundred. Yeah, andthen you immediately make that claim and because
you have to say you got topay it because those are the rules of
small claims, and then you turnaround and file the lawsuit. And I
don't see how you could lose onthat one. I really do erin Hello

(04:45):
Aaron welcome to handle on the law. Hello. Yes, So I have
a question concerning property taxes. Iwas leasing a space in a commercial strip
center for approximately eighteen years, andI paid my property taxes when they sent
me the invoice. Then, apparentlyback in twenty nineteen, the owner of

(05:11):
the center passed away or died,at which time the center was under reappraisal
by the county. Well, thisyear it finally got reappraised. I guess
the county took their time, andnow the landlord is asking for all the

(05:32):
increased property tax that the county hasnow reassessed, even though I paid what
they asked me to in the past, and they did not give me any
indication that the Okay, you paid, you pay your taxes, you pay.
Okay, you pay your portion ofthe taxes through the landlord. Is

(05:53):
that correct? Correct? Yeah?All right? And your question is yeah,
and so so a lot of moneyand okaywood, all right, I
got so I vacated the property becauseI didn't want to pay this increase property
like my business wasn't doing that good, all right, So okay, got
it. I got it, Igot it, I got it, I

(06:14):
got it to pay it. Thankyou. I got it money, okay,
thank you, just keep on going. Now I have it. So
you've have a situation where they billand they didn't bill you, and now
they want It's like back rent,except you promised to pay the taxes because
that's the lease, and they failedand you owing the taxes. Well,
the reality is you owe the taxes, okay, because that was the promise.

(06:39):
You didn't know you owe the taxes. So now it's the negotiation with
the landlord. Although you're already outof there, right right, huh?
Okay? And did you leave early? Did you? Was there a breach
of the lease? No? No, I was on month and month okay?
Uh? And how much you howmuch are they asking for? Eighty

(07:00):
eight thousand dollars? All right?Well, the first thing you do is
say no, thank you. Youdon't turn around and pay it. Second
of all, you tell the landlordI'll see you in court. They're gonna
file a small claims court case againstyou, and you're gonna argue that that
you simply you weren't told and that'stoo bad. And they're gonna say,
hey, you weren't told, butyou owe the money, okay. Yeah,

(07:25):
And so it's gonna be up inthere. If I'm a small claims
court judge, I'm gonna split itwith you. I'm gonna say you pay
half of that and you make arrangements. Now, a court can go the
other way. They can say,Hey, Aaron, yoe the money and
whatever, YO, just make anarrangement with the with the landlord to pay
it up one hundred dollars a monthor two hundred dollars a month or whatever.

(07:46):
And eight thousand dollars is a chunkof money. So both of you
have a case. I wouldn't payit right, Okay, that's been my
position. Now in small claims court, do businesses understand an individual can sew
up to ten thousand? But Ithought in small claims a business can only
sew up to five thousand? Isthat yeah? I think I think I

(08:09):
think that's the case. I haven'tlook at it, so I think that's
all they can sue for. Soif it's up to five thousand dollars only
that a business can sue, whichI think he's right, Uh, then
that's all they can sue for.And it doesn't matter how how much money
is or is not owed, HiWilliam, Yes, so my mom passed

(08:31):
away over three years ago, andI'm just now getting collection letters for old
medical bills. So the question isdo I ignore it or do I write
them to stay my mom passed andthe state clothes. Yeah, you clearly
don't own the bill. Oh thebill? Was there? Was there a
trust or was there a will?Yeah? There was a trust and all

(08:54):
that's been Who was the trustee?Who is the trustee? I'm the trustee?
Okay? Did you were you awareof those medical bills? No?
Not? Okay? You did youset aside money for those medical bills?
No? Okay? How much money? How much are they charging for those
medical bills? There's a few hundredup to a thousand thousand dollars yeah,

(09:18):
okay, and everything should have beencovered on her Medicare. So okay,
Well that's the issue between Medicare andthe trustee, and that's you. How
much money was in the trust thatyou got a substantial amount? Hundreds of
thousands of dollars minimum? Well?No, maybe one hundred thousand plus?

(09:41):
Okay? All right, Well,okay, here's you know, it's sort
of a you know, what doyou do? What do you don't do?
Are these medical bills from a singleprovider or a number of them,
one or two like gold x gray. Yeah, okay, okay. And
how old are the bills? Whento okay, from today to when the

(10:03):
bills were incurred? How much timepassed over three and a half years?
Okay, well, okay, they'restill within the statute. But you know,
for five hundred or thousand bucks,I mean, are they going to
go forward? The trust has beendistributed, and so they're gonna have to
go after you because you didn't putthe money aside. I mean, it's
just it's they're not going to goforward with it. So here you are

(10:24):
getting the bill, uh, don'teven open it, just literally on the
envelope because you know where it's comingfrom by now, and you simply put
deceased. Okay, you put thatone. You gotta get another bill,
and then you put I literally onthe envelope, I would put do you
understand she's dead? Question mark?You've got to get another one because these

(10:50):
are generated, and then you simplywrite do you understand she's completely dead?
Exclamation point? At this point youmay even get another one. Do you
want understand that she is completely unequivocablydead. So the seas to return to
sender. Yeah, yeah, anddo that a few times. And the

(11:11):
bills are so small that it reallydoesn't matter. They're not going to go
for It's not a fifty thousand dollarsbill. So that's what I do.
And you'll probably I'm sure you'll probablybe okay on that one. Yeah.
Those are always a lot of fun. All right. Before I take a
break, I want to talk toyou about the holidays for a minute.
So you're sitting there on a holidaymeal, and uh, you have bad

(11:31):
breath. So let me tell youabout Zelman's minte Mouth mints. That's assuming
you care, and most of usdo. It's not just a breath,
mind, it goes way beyond that. It is a breath freshen er,
functional breath freshener that you swallow.And man, I'm talking about testing against
garlic and onions and smoker's breath.I mean, this really works. You
pop two or three in your mouth, you suck them into coating, and

(11:54):
then you swallow it for free,fresh clean breath that lasts literally for hours,
or you can just bite right intoit. That's kind of neat too.
Either way, it works, andit doesn't just cover your bad breath.
It cleans your breath in a wayothers don't. It's like nothing you've
ever tried before fights bad breath notonly in your mouth, but also down
in your gut where it really goesto work. I use them all the

(12:16):
time, and I know I'm stillhated, but I have great breath.
This year, I'm using Zelman's mintseven for stocking stuffers. I thought that
was a great idea. They havea money back guarantee, not that you're
ever going to use it, freeshipping if you order three packs or more,
and you're probably gonna order three packsor more. They're that effective.
And I've known the folks behind Zelmansfor over thirty years. They're friends,

(12:39):
and I know the kind of workthey do. So go to Zelman's dot
com ze l Mins zelmans dot comfifteen percent off when you use the code
handle fifteen, and make sure youdo because you get the discount. That's
Zelmans dot com and the code ishandle fifteen. Zellman's dot com. Richard,

(13:03):
Hello Richard, Hello, fellow Billand Jerry's show. Thank you.
My situation. My situation is Iwas playing in a band with a musician.
Fellow musician. He had a rentalplace at office space that he would
rent, so I was I wasplaying with him for about six months.

(13:24):
I decided to quit the band.Uh. During that time, when I
would rehearse, I would give himforty or sixty dollars, you know,
to help him out. But Ididn't have a contract with him or anything
like that. And it was neveran issue that I owed him more money,
and I would just give what Ican give. And then he decided
to quit the band. And thenhe's saying, I owe him seven hundred
dollars and he's got all my equipmentwhich is probably valuable fifteen hundred Oh he

(13:48):
has your equipment? Yeah, Ileft. Well, so I would leave
my equipment in there. No,I understand, I know. And that's
what people do. I get it. They don't. They don't take it
home, you know, especially underthose circumstances. So what he is saying
is you do if you do notpay you, he will keep your equipment.
Correct. Yeah, okay, allright, fair enough, Okay,

(14:11):
how much is equipment worth? Fifteenhundred bucks? Yeah? Okay, So
your question is number one, doyou owe the money and how do you
get the equipment back? Is thatright? Yeah, okay, First of
all, what he is doing iscompletely unenforceable. But he's doing a couple
of things. I don't know ifhe realized that. Number one extortion,

(14:31):
Yeah, just straight out extortion now, and that's illegal. Now if you
call the police, are going toleave it alone because they're going to say
you had a relationship and a businessrelationship, but it's just good for the
threat. The second one is thestraight out lawsuit in small claims court for
conversion. That is, he's justkeeping your equipment. Conversion means you're taking

(14:54):
equipment from he's taking your equipment fromhere. However, it's not a theft.
What it is is he already hadyour equipment and won't return it.
He has converted your equipment to himselfeffectively. So those your two causes of
action. Extortion which is gonna gono place, conversion, which you're gonna

(15:16):
win, and he's going to arguethe seven hundred dollars that it's arbitrary because
you're gonna tell your story saying yeah, I gave him forty I gave him
sixty bucks. We didn't have anywritten agreement. You're gonna be fine,
You're gonna be fine. Okay.That yeah, that's easy. By the
way, was the band any good? That means no? Okay, So

(15:39):
you like had no chance. Soyou're a terrible musician, is what you're
admitting here on the show. Okay, excellent, well done. I appreciate
the honesty. John, Hello,John, you're up. Welcome. They
handle your local union electrician here callingfor some more marginal legal advice. Which
local, John, Which local?Local forty? Okay? My dad local

(16:03):
eleven for forty. Oh that's LosAngeles. I'm a motion picture which is
out of Hollywood? That work?Yeah, my dad was a straight out
electrician, you know, just runof the mill local eleven. Okay,
so let's move on. Yeah,I got you. Hey, So my
grandfather passed away and left two sizeableI believe it's a five to nine.

(16:26):
Yeah for college education. Yep,yep, yeah, for two hundred dollars
for each of my daughters that thefive to nine was put. But my
aunt was put in charge of that. I have no ability to delegate any
of that money, so she isnot allowing that money. So if I
get tutors or anything, I haveto spend the money to submit it and

(16:49):
then she has to approve it ornot to prove it, and she's not
been approving expenses. Now they haven'tgone to college yet. And my thing
is, my one daughters shows realinterest in my trades. She may become
an electrician and not go to collegeat all. And I spoke to Miyanigo,
it'd be nice if you know,we could use that as a down
payment for a house or condo forher should she choose to go into a

(17:11):
trade. Yeah, I can't dothat. Yeah, I can't do that.
Not Yeah, And she's right.So but if, for example,
if say she they go to acollege that she doesn't approve it, that
doesn't matter. You feel they cansue. I think they can sue for
that money. But they have tobe a team when they go to college
or anything. No, they justmean secondary secondary education. Now, anything

(17:36):
attached to secondary education at the pointyou're in secondary education, tutors, work
expenses, room board, uh FEMEand board. What about what about vehicles
transportation? I don't know about that. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't think it goes that far. I think it has to be
directly attached to the college. AndI don't know what I mean, now

(18:02):
we're getting into nuances of where,yeah, where the five twenty nine goes.
And you can look that one upfive to twenty nine plan and just
go requirements or go in what peopleget for. I wouldn't even know the
word, but you can throw asearch word in there. But if she
denies based on a certain college choice, no, she can't do I don't
think she can do that. Idon't think she can do that. I

(18:25):
think at eighteen and they're in secondaryeducation, they can go ahead and sue
her for it. That's what it'smy understanding. She can liquidate the five
two nines if she wants and paythe penalty and take that money if she
were. No, she can't dothat. No, No, If she
will for the benefit of the kidsdepends on you know, that's an interesting

(18:45):
question because I have a twenty fiveto twenty nine plan for my kids,
and one is probably not going togo to college, but I set it
up. And the other one isis she's going in a technical way for
her computer business or her computer degree. And I've just paid, I've just

(19:10):
paid for the tuition. That's Ihaven't taken it out of five twenty nine.
I can really that because my daddid that with me. I had
a five two nine from the samegrandfather. He liquidated it, paid the
penalties, took the money. Ididn't sue my own day. Yeah,
but he never know. Yeah,but he put the money in. And
there again, I don't know thenew one. Oh nofa. No,

(19:30):
I understand that. No, Iget that I'm going in that direction.
Is it determinative who put the moneyand I put the money in my daughter's
five twenty nine plan. Uh.The only reason I'm not taking it out
is because, uh, it becomesordinary income to me plus a ten percent
penalty. So let's say I'm ina forty percent tax bracket, I take

(19:52):
it out. I am now onthe fifty percent tax bracket. But that's
only for the money that is earned, not for the money that was put
in by me. Principle, yeah, the principal, Yeah, the principle
that was put in is not taxed. Only the income on it is taxed.
And by the way, I don'tknow. I don't think so.

(20:12):
I don't think so because she becauseit's not her money, she didn't put
it in. I do not thinkthat's the case. But again, I
don't know, I know, Ican take the money out, but I'm
going to be paying a fortune forit because I pay and my kids aren't
going to use it. So whatI'm going to do is I'm transferring it
into my grandchildren, assuming they havegrandkids. They're going to get the five

(20:33):
twenty nine plan. Now, Iput that money in when they were born
and they're twenty eight, and Ifunded it with a reasonable chunk of money,
So today it's worth well, prettysimilar to what you have, maybe
four hundred, four hundred and fiftythousand dollars between the two to get their
doctorate and still have some leftover.Well not for two hundred grand you can't.

(20:57):
But here's the point. They're goingto have kids at some time.
So let's say in the next threeyears they're going to have children, and
the five to twenty nine plan isgoing to be can be taken out eighteen
years after the kid. My grandkidsare born. So you know, even
at five percent five percent return,there is going to be a pile of

(21:19):
money there to pay for my grandkids, who probably will end up work fast
food. It can go to cantransfer and perpetuity to grandkids. Great,
yeah, yeah, on the lineyeah, I think that at least grandkids.
I know that. Yeah, that'syeah, well okay we can go

(21:40):
on and I on that one.But yeah, yeah, five twenty nine
plans. I'm a big fan ofthem because, I mean, can you
imagine today is fifty thousand dollars ayear or at least in public school at
cal State University here where I live, and I went to cal State Northridge,
consider the Harvard of the West,and I what I The tuition now

(22:00):
is six thousand and sixty five hundreddollars a year, assuming you live at
home and room and board. Ifyou live at home and it's a commuter
school, six thousand dollars plus booksetcentter, it's gonna be eight thousand dollars
a year. And if someone's sittingon two hundred thousand dollars, there's what
you left over. But it hasto be for higher education. It has
to be for secondary education, allright, Jan has been waiting for a

(22:22):
while. Hello Jan, Good morningBell. How are you today? Yeah,
I'm good. The reason I heldoff is because I thought you were
going to die before the end ofthe show, because I know it's about
social security, but you didn't,so you're still all high. I'm seventy
one years old, a lofe timeand life in me yet, so I
need your help. Do you knowhow old you actually sound? Jan for

(22:44):
seventy one year old? Hello,yeah, well, let's just move on.
Go ahead. In twenty fourteen,I called the Social Security Office asking
about potential benefits as a survivor.Since my first husband half the way when
he was thirty years old and Iwas very young. I have had marriages
since then, and that may comeup in this conversation. But oh,

(23:08):
oh, it certainly will if you'vebeen married since then. Yep, okay,
so going. I was told atthat time you had to be married
ten years in order to get survivorbenefits, and I said, well,
that takes care of that. Ihave been I was only married to him

(23:30):
for nine years, so I won'tqualify, and I left it alone.
My company offered a buyout, Itook it, and I decided to use
the money I got in the buyoutand some savings to live on until I
could collect Social Security at the greatestamount at age seventy, the conservative thing
to do. When I applied atage seventy, I found out I was

(23:51):
in fact entitled to survivor benefits,and they went back six months. I
got twenty four grand, which wasa very nice surprise, but not enough
to live on for a long time. And realized that if I had filed
when I retired at age sixty six, I would have probably gotten close to
one hundred and forty thousand dollars.Okay, So I've been living with this

(24:14):
agony. And they said, well, if you don't like the decision,
you can appeal, which I did, But hang on, hang on,
who first told you that it's theten year mark? This was the representative
in two thy fourteen when I wasoffered a buyo from my company okay,
which I'm sorry, which which representedrepresentative of whom? Which organization? So

(24:37):
just Social Security administration? Oh?A Social Security person there at the desk
when you went in and talked aboutit, told you you were not eligible
because you had not been married forten years. And now you find out
that you are eligible, correct?I okay, understand, I understand you.

(24:57):
All right, So you're out onehundred forty thousand dollars had you applied
for it timely? Correct? Correct? Okay, So they've denied you,
all right, I understand. Sothey've denied you based on the fact you
haven't applied. Right, Okay,there's a caveat that says if you get

(25:18):
misinformation from the Social Security Administration,And this was actually included in my answer
for the notice of reconsideration. Thereis a provision for when an individual question,
well, I understand it. No, no, I completely understand.
By the way, was that advicegiven to you in writing or was it
really you? You went there andsomebody who you certainly don't know who it

(25:42):
was, you don't remember, saidthat you're not eligible. Now this is
just a question to prove you provethat it was the case. You got
it. You don't prove it.You're right. Luck here here in life,
rub I didn't where you were,right. I didn't even go into
the office. I just made aphone call. And then when they were

(26:06):
when I when I put in thereconsideration, the woman called me this summer
and said, well, what daydid you call and what was the person's
name? And I, of coursesaid that was twenty fourteen. I have
that. And she said, well, then you have no proof. You're
done. That's correct, And Isaid, but what if I could what
if I could prove it was certainthrough a certain period of time. So

(26:26):
I got the letter from my employerwhen they offered this, so I know.
I called between Wait a minute,you're wait. Your employer has nothing
to do with your Social Security?How can you how can you employer your
social security? I had to narrowthe dates of when I made No.
I understand, but you don't evenknow who you talk to. No,

(26:51):
I don't I know when. Butthey record our you know when. Oh,
they're not going to keep a recording. First of all, they're not
going to keep a recording for tenyears. Uh. And I don't even
know that Social Security in fact doeskeep a recording. They may or may
not. But you have no proofat all that you requested that. That's
the problem. I get different answers, and I asked them about do they

(27:12):
have recordings? They say? Oneperson told me they only keep recordings of
phone calls if fraud is involved.Well, how do they know it's fraud?
Wait? Wait, that doesn't makeany sense. How do they know
it's fraud unless they know it's fraud. No, But I think the point
is it's going to be a questionof proof. It's going to be a
question of you've got to prove itand based on you talk to somebody and

(27:34):
they told you and I can geta timeline within a few weeks, within
a few days, and you don'tknow who it is. Ain't going to
work. Unfortunately, that is notgoing to work. Now, before I
lock out, let me tell youa little bit about your pain. If
you're in chronic pain, I meanyou hurt and you hurt all the time,

(27:55):
or you have let's say, sustainedtrauma and for me live that way,
but I know people that do andilitating it can be debilitating. So
if you live in chronic pain,or you know someone who does, especially
a loved one, let me suggestyou listen to The Pain Game podcast.
It's a show about living in livingwith chronic pain and trauma. It's funny,

(28:15):
it's sad, it teaches, it'llinspire have to prave sometimes. And
it's not about whining either. It'sabout shifting your mindset when life and you
hurt. Lindsay Soprano, the show'shost, shares her story of living in
and with chronic pain and trauma,and she has lots of it. Twenty
four to seven her guests have eitherlived with or dealt with his pain and

(28:37):
trauma experts in the field, tolawyers, to stay at home moms.
I know, Lindsay, and Iknow how valuable this podcast is. It's
real, it's raw. Every episodeends with a message of hope. That's
so important and you'll understand the showreally is about giving pain purpose. Listen
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever youlisten to podcasts. The Pain Podcast,

(29:00):
that's the Pain Game podcast. Thisis Handle on the Law