South Carolina:
I am the sole shut-out in being appointed as a personal representative of my mother's estate, in spite of doing many things for her in her final years. She was influenced by an "evil sister" to make changes to her will to exclude me from all inheritance, then changed her will back again to include me in the will, and added additional gifts solely to me to make up for having kept some distributions from me in the past. The only problem is that she did not appoint me, as she did my three siblings, to be personal representatives of her estate.
We are left with a sizeable estate numbering in the millions of dollars. The largest contention we have is a rental home that has been losing $20,000.00 every year for years. It was kept for sentimental reasons. Our family uses it as a vacation home, in addition to renting it out as a vacation home to others. In order to keep and maintain this home, each child (we're all adults) is going to have to ante up $5000.00 every year for maintenance, upkeep, and HOA fees. I would like to spend two weeks a year in this home as a vacation. Two of the three personal representatives are telling me that I must pay rent to stay in this vacation home, in spite of the fact that I'm already paying $5000.00 a year to keep the home in the family. If I don't pay rent in addition to the $5000.00, I must take a chance on someone renting the home out from under me. How may I secure the rental (other than paying rent) so that the other siblings cannot rent the home when I plan to be there for my family vacation?
I thought about letting them buy me out, but my share of the equity in the home is probably around $1M, and I don't think they'd be willing to pay me that much for my share. I think they'll try to lowball the appraisal so they won't have to pay me full value. I can most certainly find other accomodations for much less than the yearly $5000.00 fee plus rent required to keep the home! I need some way to force them to let me stay in the home two weeks a year rent-free without having to worry about someone else "bumping" my vacation. When I make vacation plans, I include all our adult children, who take off from work and make other arrangements that cannot easily be undone.
In the meantime, the "evil sister" is spending my money left and right on unnecessary improvements on the home (the money will come out of my share in the estate). These improvements consist of new furniture but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the old furniture. Is she, as personal representative of the estate, allowed to do that without the permission of the other three siblings?
To summarize- two questions:
1. How can I use a vacation home where I am 25% owner without paying rent to my three siblings to secure the dates of my vacation?
2. Can one of the personal representatives of the estate use estate money to pay for improvements on estate property without obtaining permission from all interested parties (or at least a majority)?
Thanks, -KR4WM
I am the sole shut-out in being appointed as a personal representative of my mother's estate, in spite of doing many things for her in her final years. She was influenced by an "evil sister" to make changes to her will to exclude me from all inheritance, then changed her will back again to include me in the will, and added additional gifts solely to me to make up for having kept some distributions from me in the past. The only problem is that she did not appoint me, as she did my three siblings, to be personal representatives of her estate.
We are left with a sizeable estate numbering in the millions of dollars. The largest contention we have is a rental home that has been losing $20,000.00 every year for years. It was kept for sentimental reasons. Our family uses it as a vacation home, in addition to renting it out as a vacation home to others. In order to keep and maintain this home, each child (we're all adults) is going to have to ante up $5000.00 every year for maintenance, upkeep, and HOA fees. I would like to spend two weeks a year in this home as a vacation. Two of the three personal representatives are telling me that I must pay rent to stay in this vacation home, in spite of the fact that I'm already paying $5000.00 a year to keep the home in the family. If I don't pay rent in addition to the $5000.00, I must take a chance on someone renting the home out from under me. How may I secure the rental (other than paying rent) so that the other siblings cannot rent the home when I plan to be there for my family vacation?
I thought about letting them buy me out, but my share of the equity in the home is probably around $1M, and I don't think they'd be willing to pay me that much for my share. I think they'll try to lowball the appraisal so they won't have to pay me full value. I can most certainly find other accomodations for much less than the yearly $5000.00 fee plus rent required to keep the home! I need some way to force them to let me stay in the home two weeks a year rent-free without having to worry about someone else "bumping" my vacation. When I make vacation plans, I include all our adult children, who take off from work and make other arrangements that cannot easily be undone.
In the meantime, the "evil sister" is spending my money left and right on unnecessary improvements on the home (the money will come out of my share in the estate). These improvements consist of new furniture but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the old furniture. Is she, as personal representative of the estate, allowed to do that without the permission of the other three siblings?
To summarize- two questions:
1. How can I use a vacation home where I am 25% owner without paying rent to my three siblings to secure the dates of my vacation?
2. Can one of the personal representatives of the estate use estate money to pay for improvements on estate property without obtaining permission from all interested parties (or at least a majority)?
Thanks, -KR4WM
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