Property ownership question

[jwalker1400]

What is the name of your state? Oklahoma

In 1972 my mother, father, aunt and uncle bought a 4 acre piece of property with a gas station/general store, another small building used as a bait shop at the time, and a small house. My father and mother put $5000 down on the property and $1000 to stock the store. My aunt and uncle put up the same amounts with a bank loan in all 4 names for the rest.

Their plan was for Dad and Mom to run the business for a year while my aunt and uncle sold their business and property in Texas. They were then going to move here and all four would run the business. As far as I know, other than the bank loan, there were no written agreements concerning the running of the business.

For whatever reason, they never moved up here. Dad ran the business with the help of Mom, myself and my 2 brothers. He was paid $100 a week salary and we lived in the house behind the store. He paid off the mortgage on the property from the store profits in 1982. He ran the business until his death in 1986. My mother took over with us brothers helping out for another 2 years until she could retire and get social security.

She then moved to a house owned by a family trust in the next county. I continued to live in the house for several years and we rented the 2 buildings to supplement Moms social security.

My aunt and uncle both died shortly after Dad died so their ownership passed to their 3 children (my cousins) one of which has since died. My mom is now getting on in years so I'm uncertain as what to do on several points.

Both buildings and the house are in poor shape. The land alone is where the real value lies. We still get $100 a month from the smaller building and just lost the renter on the larger building which was getting $350 a month. The house is empty and in too poor shape to rent out.

We'd like to repair and re-rent the buildings but don't want to put too much money in it, as we aren't full owners and at such a low rent it would take a while to recover the cost. My 2cousins have never expressed any interest in the property and have told Mom that whatever she wants to do with it, sell it, rent it, whatever... is fine with them.

We aren't close, seems like we only see each other at an occasional funeral, so I'm not sure how they feel about the situation. I was told by another cousin that sees them more often that it didn't matter what the property was sold for because they would never see any of the money anyway due to tax liens or judgments against their estate. I don't know if this is true or not.

We had listed the property for sell about 15 years ago for $300,000 and got only 1 offer for 175,000. We've never had it appraised.

So I guess some of my questions are:

Are they truly 50% owners of the property, even though the oral agreement for my aunt and uncle to help run the business and pay off the property did not happen? And if they are owners and have judgments against them, why haven't the lien holders tried to get it?

If my mother should die, my one surviving brother and I would inherit it. Would we have to pay death taxes on any portion? And if we could not afford to pay, would we be forced to sell the property? And would our dead brother's daughter have 1/3 ownership and tax liability, or just my brother and I?

We've been told by a couple of real estate agent friends of ours that the property could be worth as much as $500,000 or more since the area has grown a lot over the years. Is there any "lower limit" that we could offer our cousins to buy them out. If we had full ownership it would be much easier to decide what to do as far as selling or developing the property.

Even though we're not close, the last thing we want is a family squabble over this but I feel like given my mother’s age, and the increasing value of land in this area, we need to at least know where we stand legally, and what our options and responsibilities might be.

I know I will need to talk with a local attorney about the finer details, but I would appreciate any advice about this situation or anything else I should know or questions I need answered before I contact my cousins and feel them out about possibly buying them out.

Thanks,
JackWhat is the name of your state?

[divgradcurl]

Are they truly 50% owners of the property, even though the oral agreement for my aunt and uncle to help run the business and pay off the property did not happen?

Based on what you have written, yes. Oral agreements are NOT enforceable when you are talking about real property.

And if they are owners and have judgments against them, why haven't the lien holders tried to get it?

Maybe the judgment creditors haven't tried yet. If the deed up-to-date, that is, after folks have passed on, were estates probated and the title changed to include the heirs as owners? If not, that might be a reason why judgment creditors have not come after the property yet.

We've been told by a couple of real estate agent friends of ours that the property could be worth as much as $500,000 or more since the area has grown a lot over the years. Is there any "lower limit" that we could offer our cousins to buy them out. If we had full ownership it would be much easier to decide what to do as far as selling or developing the property.

No. You can offer them anything you want, even $0, to buy their interest. On the other hand, there is no "upper limit" to what they can ask for their half either. They are not required to sell their interest if they don't want to, or if you do not offer enough.

It's not clear, are you an owner, or do you just expect to be an owner when you mom passes?