Lawer expenses to remove deceased husbands name on rental in Hawaii

[nwtaxlady]

Client is a resident here on the mainland. Has a rental in Hawaii. Her husband passed away 6 yrs ago. Now the property is going thru probate in Hawaii just to get her husbands name off the deed. They had a Will and Trust done up before he passed away. However, Hawaii doesn't recognize it and says they have to go thru probate to get her husbands name off deed. She wasn't even aware her husbands name was on it in the first place.

The Lawyer in Hawaii is milking her for $. Every time she turns around, its another bill from them. Now she is up to $5,900 in attorney fees and it's not even completed yet.

My question is, does the $5,900 add to basis of this rental property? Or take is as investment expense on SCH A 2%?

Thanks

[ATSMAN]

Client is a resident here on the mainland. Has a rental in Hawaii. Her husband passed away 6 yrs ago. Now the property is going thru probate in Hawaii just to get her husbands name off the deed. They had a Will and Trust done up before he passed away. However, Hawaii doesn't recognize it and says they have to go thru probate to get her husbands name off deed. She wasn't even aware her husbands name was on it in the first place.

The Lawyer in Hawaii is milking her for $. Every time she turns around, its another bill from them. Now she is up to $5,900 in attorney fees and it's not even completed yet.

My question is, does the $5,900 add to basis of this rental property? Or take is as investment expense on SCH A 2%?

Thanks

In my opinion it should be added to basis when the rental is sold or you could choose to amortize (research it first). I would not add that to annual expense of the rental.

I had a similar situation with a taxpayer paying legal fees to fix a title defect (title insurance was not correct). The expense was added to basis.