is stepmom lying? need help.

[needthefacts]

What is the name of your state? Alabama

My dad died in Feb 2003. He had no will. I am one of three children from his previous marriage, and he has one child with his wife, which is a minor (15 yrs old). My stepmom is the executor administrator. She put his estate in probate in March of 2003. She also bonded (or whatever that is) He had two houses. One in Alabama($75,000), where he lived most of the time, the other in Mississippi ($130,000). He also had two vehicles, a suburban($7000) and trooper($500) and $20,000 in bank account. All these are listed in the probate. She is currently living in the house in Alabama. The two vehicles are sitting in my grandmother's backyard. They have been sitting there for two years with no one driving them. I understand she is in full control. She tries to avoid all conversations pertaining to the situation, and seems to be giving us the run around. I have a few questions.
1) I asked her if I could buy one of the vehicles from her. She said she had to get $7000. The court wouldn't let her sell it for less. -- The probate court told me she gave them the numbers. Plus the vehicle probably needs a lot of work. As long as all the benefiecieries are in agreement, can't she sell it at any price? And would I have to pay my share?
2) Now she has bought a single wide trailor for her sister and put it behind the Alabama house. From my understanding, it is in my stepmom's name. Can she do this? And now if something happened to her, what are her sister's rights?
3) Does she have access to the $20,000 bank account? Could she have used that to buy the trailor?
4) The summer before my dad died, I told him if something happened to him, she would not let us have anything, so he told me that the MS house was only in his name and by Mississippi law, that house would be divided out equally, meaning my stepmom would only get a childs portion. Now I've been told that that is wrong. I was told by one lawyer that that law had changed, and I was told by another that Alabama laws would override it. How will this property be divided?
5) From what I've been told, the MS house is in very bad condition. What should we do about that? Can we make her sell?

I probably could ask a million more, but I think I have probably already over done it. Sorry so detailed, but I wanted to make sure I got the best answers. Thank you for your help.

 

[divgradcurl]

This is usually seniorjudge's job, but since I'm here:

"If any part of an Alabama decedent's estate is not effectively disposed of by will, the intestate share will be distributed in the following order and manner:

1. Surviving spouse. A surviving spouse is generally first in line to get any assets from the intestate estate. However, the amount a surviving spouse is entitled to depends on these scenarios:

If there is no surviving issue or parent of the decedent, the surviving spouse is entitled to the entire intestate estate.
If there is no surviving issue, but the decedent is survived by a parent or parents, the surviving spouse gets the first $100,000 in value, plus one-half of the balance of the intestate estate.
If there are surviving issue that are also all issue of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse gets the first $50,000 in value, plus one-half of the balance of the intestate estate.
If there are surviving issue one or more of whom are not issue of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse gets one-half of the intestate estate.
If the estate is located in two or more states, the share shall not exceed in the aggregate the allowable amounts under Alabama's laws.
2. Heirs other than surviving spouse. Any part of the intestate estate not passing to the surviving spouse as indicated above, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, passes as follows:

To the issue of the decedent. If they are all of the same degree of kinship to the decedent they take equally, but if of unequal degree, then those of more remote degree take by representation.
If there is no surviving issue, to decedent's parent or parents equally.
If there is no surviving issue or parent, to the issue of the parents or either of them by representation.
If there is no surviving issue, parent or issue of a parent, but the decedent is survived by one or more grandparents or issue of grandparents, half of the estate passes to the paternal grandparents if both survive, or to the surviving paternal grandparent, or to the issue of the paternal grandparents if both are deceased, the issue taking equally if they are all of the same degree of kinship to the decedent, but if of unequal degree those of more remote degree take by representation; and the other half passes to the maternal relatives in the same manner. But if there be no surviving grandparent or issue of grandparent on either the paternal or the maternal side, the entire estate passes to the relatives on the other side in the same manner as the other half.
If representation is called for as indicated above, the estate is divided into as many shares as there are surviving heirs in the nearest degree of kinship and deceased persons in the same degree who left issue who survive the decedent, each surviving heir in the nearest degree receiving one share and the share of each deceased person in the same degree being divided among the issue of such deceased heir in the same manner.

3. State of Alabama. If there is no taker under any of the above provisions, the intestate estate passes to the state of Alabama.

Alabama Intestate Succession Law Fun Facts

Relatives of the half blood inherit the same share they would inherit if they were of the whole blood.
Relatives of the decedent conceived before his death but born thereafter inherit as if they had been born in the lifetime of the decedent.
Any person who fails to survive the decedent by five days is deemed to have predeceased the decedent for purposes of intestate succession (which means that the person generally doesn't get a share of the decedent's estate). If the time of death of the decedent or of the person who would otherwise be an heir, or the times of death of both, cannot be determined, and it cannot be established that the person who would otherwise be an heir has survived the decedent by five days, it is deemed that the person failed to survive for the required period. (This situation comes up more often than you may think.) However, these rules don't apply if the end result is that the state of Alabama gets the intestate estate.
Alabama's intestate succession laws, as well as other laws dealing with wills and decedents' estates, can be found in Title 43 of the Code of Alabama. "

 

[itsacatsworld]

Talk to a lawyer in your state. No lawyer here can possibly know the laws of all the jurisdictions of the UNITED STATES.

 

[divgradcurl]

So basically, it appears that stepmom (the "surviving spouse") will get one-half of the total estate ("If there are surviving issue one or more of whom are not issue of the surviving spouse, the surviving spouse gets one-half of the intestate estate."). Basically, you don't divide it up by "stuff" -- the total estate should be added up (everything together, including the house in MS), and then stepmom gets 1/2, and the other half is divided equally amongst your siblings and half-siblings.

So, what this means is basically stepmom owns half of the AL house, half of the MS house, half of each of the cars, etc. If people don't want to sell everything, then everyone can figure out how to value everything and divide it up accordingly.

Do you have an attorney working for you? If you don't, maybe you should.

 

[needthefacts]

Thanks for the help!

Thank you. That did clear up a few things. And the fun facts were interesting. I did go to see two different lawyers about this, but they both said that we couldn't do anything. One also told me that all the court fees and any other expense would come off of the siblings from the first marraige (that's us) first. That makes no since to me, since we are all equally his children. The lawyer said that since he lived with that family, that he chose them over us. Hello! That went through me like a sword. All those years it took to realize that wasn't true and then he said that. Therapy bill, please. They told me that she never had to sell anything. She could keep it in probate forever. I guess she would rather see everything waste away than to let us have anything. She never even offered us any of his personal stuff. I could write a book. One thing I'm still wondering, can she put a trailor on the property, and if so, what would happen if something happened to her? (She told her daughter (my half sister) she was dying? I don't know. I think she's crazy.) Anyway, thank you.

 

[lwpat]

1. Go down to the probate court and get a copy of the file. Talk to the clerk that is handling the estate and she can explain the law but cannot give legal advice.

2. Get an attorney. Obviously you picked out a jerk the first time. The three of you should go in together since you will be responsible for the fees. Ask around for some references or try the find an attorney link on this site. The probate court usually has a list of attorneys

2. Get it settled now. If something happens to her it will take forever to straighten it out.

 

[Dandy Don]

She will eventually have to file an accounting with the probate court but it's obvious she is stalling so she won't have to tell anybody anything, so you need your own attorney to find out whether you will be receiving your share of this estate from her.

The comment about dying is a plea for sympathy which may or may not be true, but so what? She still needs to account for her handling of the estate.

If it is possible for you to attend one or more of the probate hearings, then you or your attorney need to do so if you can't find out information otherwise.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[needthefacts]

thanks, again!

Thanks for all the information and advice. You guys are great.