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Forced buy out of family estate

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cottagewar

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Wisconsin. Our family has a lake home that has been in our family for over 40 years and has been passed down through the generations. My Uncle and my father were co-owners at the time of my fathers death. My fathers 1/2 went to his 4 daughters (my 3 sisters & I ) when he died. My Uncle owned the other half and paid for 1/2 of the expenses and the 4 daughters were to pay the other 1/2. We all took turns going there for vacations. etc. Here's the problem: One of my sisters has never paid anything to maintain the property, taxes. insurance etc nor has she ever gone there to work on the upkeep of the place. She is single, and has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, several treatment stays and a few DUI issues. In the 14 years since we took over the 1/2 expenses and work there, she has chosen not to go there and not to pay. The rest of us have been paying my her share of the bills for 14 years. We did not ask her to pay expenses such as utilites etc for obvious reasons but did ask her to help with taxes and insurance which she did not do. She inherited over 100,000 when my uncle passed away (we all inherited a large sum similar to that) in addition to the property. Nevertheless, she refused to pay towards the place. We told her that she could take her name off the deed and not owe anymore for the place if she sold her share to us for a dollar. Now, for the 2 years following my uncles death and acquiring full ownwership between the 4 sisters. she still has not paid anything. She has spent her inheritance and lost her job due to cocaine and alcohol abuse and now needs money. She is saying she is going to FORCE the 3 of us to buy her out. She says she knows we can afford it because she knows we inherited money. The place is worth around 1/2 million. She has never paid a dime toward the upkeep and the rest of us have worked very hard to maintain it. Can she force us to give her $125,000 or force us to sell our family property? Personally, my husband is very ill and the money I have left from my inheritance is in the bank and we are using the interest to supplement out income. He is in his 60's and is disabled and has cancer as well. It would be an extreme financila hardship to pay my sister the money she wants. Thanks for any advice you can give. I would hate to lose our family cottage. It is a place we all love dearly. I would also resent giving my sister the money I have left from my inheritance after she sqaundered her own.
 


tranquility

Senior Member
She is saying she is going to FORCE the 3 of us to buy her out.
It's called a partition lawsuit. They are expensive and take a lot of time. Part of the lawsuit will look at the contributions of each of the owners to the property and will appropriately compensate the owners for any money due them. The remedy in a partition suit is the sale of the property with the results being distributed between the owners according to their percentage ownership and accounting for any reimbursements required for other items.

Sister can force the sale eventually, but I don't think it will work out as well for her as she suspects. Also, it will take years for the suit to be heard.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
Since your gonna have to do it anyway I suggest the 3 of you either do one hell of a long conferance call or sit down face to face with ALL your records or reciepts and come up with a total that you are owed by her for her share of the actual bills related to owning this property. If you provided your own labor when you painted the trim 5 yrs ago dont excpect to get any thing for the labor BUT the paint and supplies you bought and things like that add up when its regular maint items. Once you come up with a number of what her missing contributions are worth , Also try to come up with a number of the houses market value and tell her in a certified letter what they added up to and what the houses market value is and to pay off her share this is your offer to buy her out , A real estate atty can advise you during the whole thing. Of course what you offer her is going to be with her share deducted. If she bites and goes for it, JUMP on it before she changes her mind. ( of course your real estate atty can include a rough estimate of what she can expect to pay out in legal fees to try to force a partition suit too ) BEST wishes to you and if you care to please post your results here, IT really does help others to see how things like this work out when or if they ever have the same problem.
 

cottagewar

Junior Member
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my post. Your advice was very helpful and we are currently gathering up 14 years of receipts and records. Might take a while but will definately keep you posted.
 

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