What is the name of your state? california
my mother is executor of the estate for her late husband's estate. which consists of just the house which is paid for. the will states the house to be sold and devided between my mother and 6 of his kids and grand kids. the house has been on the market of almost a year and because the market is real bad right now there have been no offers. no the probate attorny says she must imediatly sell at way below market, if thats even possible, or he will just put the 6 kids names on the title and put a lean on the property for his fee. what rights does my mother have against this probate lawyer?
Did your parents acquire the house during their marriage? Or was it just in your father's (stepfather's?) name?
I'm not positive about the state laws, but if your mother and her husband were "joint tenants with rights of survivorship", then the house does not go into probate. If they both owned it as joint tenants, and it seems it is possible since you wrote that the attorney will add 6 names to the title (deed) instead of 7, (which implies that your mother's name is already there), then it would seem to me that the late husband cannot leave the house to anyone and it just becomes the property of your mother, thus reducing the value of the late husband's estate to...ummm....zero.
If the house was acquired during their marriage and they both paid for it, (and they were not joint tenants with rights of survivorship), I'm not positive, but I think that the house would be community property and only half of the value of the house is included in the estate. Given that it would only be $137,000 total, then the attorney can only charge something like $7000 according to state law. If that is the case, then all 7 of you should just kick in and pay the attorney to get him/her off your backs.
Now, if the late husband owned the house free and clear all by himself and your mother was not on the deed, then the house would be considered separate property and the entire value would be included in the estate. If this is the case, what was the appraised value of the house at the time of death? If it was $275,000 or whatever you listed, (which I cannot see right now since I'm typing
) then I'm pretty sure that you can request a new appraisal. If you cannot sell the house at "FMV" then it's likely not the FMV. If you get the house appraised at the date of death for a lot less (which is hard to do since the date of death was a while ago), then the estate value goes down and the attorney makes less money.
Regardless of what you do, it's wise to at least consult a different attorney regarding this matter. When my mother passed away, I hired the first guy I could find and ended up needing to fire him and sue him. Do not think for even a second that all attorneys are good at their jobs. Like with any profession, some people perform better than others, and some are just outright bad, (or crooks). If you think something smells fishy, check into it. And with law...the sooner the better. Good luck to you.