Nasty Sister

[Dave L]

What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

My mother died leaving her real property intestate. I was a joint owner with her the primary on her bank account. I have lived with her for 18 years prior to her death. There are 5 children left. I and 1 other were supposed to het the real property with the remainder of her acount to be split amongst the other three. It was drafted up this way but never signed by my mother as she died prematurely. Now with the probate process it will be divied up 5 ways. 1 of them is signing over their 5th to me.

1 sister wants me to pay rent. I said no. Now she wants me to pay carrying costs such as property tax, insurance, utilities in order for her to consent me to be administrator. Of course I am looking like the greedy one too by saying no. But I took care of my mother for 18 years and she would not have been able to stay here if I hadn't.

My question is that if 4 or 3 out of 5 agree for me to be administrator can she prevent me by not signing me rights? I pay utilities but why pay taxes if this is being split 5 ways? Right now it is held up in this administrator thing. My lawyer said we can take it to probate anyway, I am kind of worried about doing that as it is assigning me without surety. Will it be swayd my way or hers as she has lots of financial backing and a free lawyer friend.

Can she force me out? Can she make me pay rent?

 

[pojo2]

Unfortunately your mothers wishes were never legally recorded. So now you are living in a home that all own equally and I do not see why they could not ask you to keep up the expenses or even pay rent since you are living in the home that they have a legal interest in.

Sure you may have lived there free of charge for all these years but now the owner of the property has changed regardless of how it got to this place in time.

If someone does not start the probate process this will not be resolved quickly without further legal costs on all involved.

 

[divgradcurl]

Listen to pojo2 -- get probate started.

Can she force me out?

Yes, and no. Once probate is done, and the house is transferred into everyone's names, then any one of the owners could force a sale of the house via a partition action. In a partition action, the court will likely sell the house so that each owner can get their money share of the property. But that won't happen immediately, it's a long process.

If no partition action is taken, and the house is not sold, then no, she cannot force you out -- you are an owner of the house, you can't be evicted. She has no more ownership rights than you.

Can she make me pay rent?

That depends on the state law and the exact circumstances. While she cannot evict you, because she also has the same rights to occupancy as you do, she is entitled to live in the house, or rent out her share of the house, and if she is kept from doing either, she may be entitled to a pro-rate share of the fair market rent for the house. That's only fair, but different states handle things differently, so you might want to talk to an attorney about this, if it ever comes to it.

But look at it this way -- if she's a co-owner of the house, and you are living in the house, why shouldn't she be entitled to some rent, or at least for you to pay the ongoing expenses (taxes, maintenance, etc.)? She's giving up her right to occupy the house, or to rent the house to someone else, she should be compensated for that.

You can't look back and use the time you spent living with and taking care of your mom as a reason not to pay anything now. If your sister's don't see value in that, well, a court's not going to either.