McAllen Mayor Prayer Luncheon 2012 is on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at the McAllen Convention Center.

The program starts at 11:30 p.m.

Our speaker is Dr. Dan McGee on “The Stress of Life:  Pathway to Another Dimension”

Tickets available at the Law Office of Gregory Turley, a proud sponsor of this community event.

Claudia Galan, UTPA Class of 2013 will be studying at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China this year.  She will be studying from January to December 2012.  Tsinghua is considered the “Harvard of Beijing”.    Claudia, a political science major, intends to be an international attorney in the future.

The Law Office of Gregory Turley is proud to be a sponsor of Claudia in her study abroad this year.

The Law Office of Gregory E. Turley is a sponsor of the McHi boys basketball program this year.  McHi beat Memorial last night 45-42 in a close game.  My sponsored athlete James Kittleman was on the front page of the newspaper today.

During this busy driving season, when you’re on your way to Grandmother’s House, or wherever your final destination may be, you’ll want to stay on the right side of the Law.

If you happen to get a speeding ticket, whether it is local or in a small Texas town, you should know that you have the “Right” to take a Driver’s Safety Course and get the ticket dismissed upon completion of the course.   This right, of course, does not come without a cost in the form of fee to the municipality.

Once that fee is paid, you will have to take the driver safety course within a specified time. You can take the course online.  I recommend www.Idrivesafely.com  but there are other providers.

After you complete the course, you will get a certificate, that you will send to the appropriate court clerk.  You will also have to order a copy of your driving history for $10 and send that to the court as well.  You can order the history here:

Remember you have the “right” to take the course and get the dismissal.  However, if you do not exercise this right, you will have to pay the fine, the case will be reported as a conviction, and your insurance rates will rise and you will have another ticket on your record which if you have too many, can affect your driver license.

Another thing to consider:  you cannot be arrested simply for speeding.  However you CAN be arrested for a host of other things.   So if you are stopped, please be polite and take your medicine.  The police have a hard job and never know what might be the next car.

Better still, there is something right in front of you that shows your speed.  Watch the speedometer and drive safely!  Grandmother would certainly approve.

When entering into a construction contract on a personal residence in Texas, the contractor should know about special rules for Texas homestead construction.

Because homesteads have special creditor protections, the lien rules involved in a residential homestead have extra requirement that an ordinary commercial project does not.

To claim a valid lien claim on a Texas homestead,

1. The contract to make the improvements must be in writing and signed by BOTH Husband AND Wife.

2. The contract should be signed BEFORE work starts

3. The contract must be filed with the County Clerk

4.  The contract must have the following MANDATORY warning in 10 point bold type

“IMPORTANT NOTICE: You and your contractor are responsible for meeting the terms and conditions of this contract. If you sign this contract and you fail to meet the terms and conditions of this contract, you may lose your legal ownership rights in your home. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AND DUTIES UNDER THE LAW.”

(Texas Property Code 41.007)

5. The contractor must give the owner this Disclosure Statement

(Texas Property Code 53.255)

This are just the preliminary steps, in addition to other notice and lien filing requirements.

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly.  And corporations need to have an annual shareholders meeting.   Even for the largest of corporations, the shareholders’ meeting is a very low attendance event.  And for the smallest of corporations, with 1,2 or 3 shareholders, we ask “Why bother?”  Should you have a meeting with your spouse?

Like many legal aspects, the shareholders meeting is designed as an anti-fraud measure.  Since a shareholder is historically a passive investor, he may not know the day to day activities of the officers and employees.  He can ask, but he may not get a quick answer.  So the annual shareholders meeting is that opportunity to express authority by voting on the Board of Directors, who appoint the officers who hire the employees.

When to have this meeting?  Check the corporate bylaws:  it usually says when it should occur.  What if you missed the time?  You can always utilize written consents of the shareholders to take action that would otherwise be done at a meeting

Dave Barry used to say that his phone had the benefit of taking a very low quality photo.  But that was before the iPhone.  Now some banks are offering the ability to deposit a check by taking a photo of it and emailing the photo to the bank.

Some real estate lawyers have warned of the following scam.  After receiving a check at a the closing for the sale of a property, the crooked customer returns the check very shortly thereafter, requesting a wire transfer instead.  The crooked customer has snapped a photo of the check already, and with the wire transfer, could wrongfully take a double payment.

What to do?  Best advice:  Common Sense.  If you give someone a check and they don’t want it, want a different name on it, can’t wait for the check to clear, your antennae should be up!

When you buy a home, you sign a lot of papers at closing.  Even if you read them, you may not understand all the fine print.  You do read and understand the DEED.  The deed transfers title to you as purchaser.

The paper that even more important is the DEED OF TRUST.  This deed of trust grants title from you to a Trustee who has the power to sell the property to satisfy payment of the NOTE, your promise to pay the money borrowed.  This arrangement is generally referred to as the mortgage.

When you make your “mortgage payment”, you are making a payment of principal and interest on the Note, and you make that payment  to a Loan Servicer, which is a company contracted with the holder of the note.

And when you don’t make that mortgage payment, the Loan Servicer has the authority to being the process of FORECLOSURE under the power of sale you granted in the deed of trust.

The loan servicer handling the foreclosure has little to no incentive to “work with you” regarding the past due mortgage.  Under U.S. Bankruptcy law, even a bankruptcy court cannot change the terms of a home mortgage debt.  The amount agreed to be paid monthly is already fixed.  So partial payment will not stave off foreclosure proceedings.

What Should I Do?

If faced with a cash crunch, remember that your home is always the first payment you should make.  Under Texas law, you have homestead protection against other creditors.  For example if you owe money to a credit card company, the credit card company can’t get at your home.  So, given the choice between making a mortgage payment and having a house to live it, or making a credit card payment, and having nothing to show for it, you should make the house payment first every time.

Remember that in the case of a fixed mortgage payment, the payment will remain the same (taxes and escrow may increase).    The interest rate remains the same over the life of the loan.  So unlike some other bills, the home mortgage payment will generally stay the same, allowing for more budgeting ability.

If you do get behind on your home mortgage,and you can’t catch up otherwise, the best course of action is a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, assuming you have the income going forward to catch up on the loan.  If you must borrow from any source, be very wary of any offer to put the home up as collateral.  Otherwise you may wind up with no money and no home.