In mid 2020 I paid attorney, court, and recording fees to facilitate a change in title on rental properties. It was to change title from the name of a deceased person (who had 100% ownership interest) to the decedent's beneficiaries. By that time, the deceased owner had already been dead for a number of years, during which the beneficiaries assumed "ownership" in all aspects of that term EXCEPT for being on title (which only occurred in mid 2020). That is to say, the beneficiaries began receiving income, paying expenses, and managing the rentals even before title was officially changed. They calculated their basis as the FMV at the date of death of the decedent and started doing their own Sched E's.
(Looking back, I realize it may have been more proper for the beneficiaries to let everything related to the rentals flow through the decedent's estate, and to file a fiduciary return, etc., until title was officially changed.)
Do these types of expenses ordinarily get added to the cost basis for "acquiring" the property (and thus depreciated accordingly over 27.5 years)? Is there any easy way to deduct these expenses now? It's about $2k of expenses.
