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House Now Sold - Distr of Gross Proceeds

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MrNix

Junior Member
This is a Florida law post.

Ok. The background on this is a bit messy and complicated so I will do the best of explaining;

My wifes father passed away in 2008 and did not leave a will. He had only 2 beneficiaries; my wife and her (half) brother. My wife was named PR for the estate shortly after the death. The estate basically included a small service company, a few vehicles, a few acres of land in Puerto Rico, and a single family home in northern Florida where he resided. For debts he had a mortgage on the house, a few credit cards balances, and that was about it.

At the time my wife was named executor the brother wanted to keep the service business and run it on is own so he agreed to buy it as part of his portion of the proceeds from the estate. A contract was written up that he was to purchase my wifes share of the business for so much upfront and the balance to be paid from the proceeds on the sale of the house. Another agreement in the contract allowed him to live in the house until the house was sold, with him agreeing to pay the mortgage payment every month. After entering into the contract the brother didn't pay his upfront payment, but took over the daily operation of the business. The contract was well written so she knew eventually she would get her agreed to share with interest. The brother also stopped making payments on the mortgage six months after starting the agreement, and continued living in the house for free for almost another year. The estate had to pay the mortage in full to keep the house from going into foreclosure.

Over the last six months my wife had to change from the original attorney who said the house WAS part of the estate, to her own attorney who said the house was to be handled on it's own and not part of the estate. The original attorney was not doing his job of representing the estate and would not help enforce the language in the contract to have the brother evicted from the house. Whether this attorney change, and if the house is to be part of the estate has any bearing on whats transpired, i don't know. I thought I'd better mention it though.

The house was just sold, with the brother finally giving in to vacating just days before the closing. At closing he signed all the papers he was required to for the sale of the house. My wifes attorney provided him one last document to sign which dealt with the distribution of the gross proceeds of the house. He wouldn't sign it after realizing that his half share of the proceeds had been adjusted accordingly to account for his purchase of the service business and the monies the estate had to make while he lived in the house for free. Both of these issues are clearly part of the contract he signed.

The funds from the sale of the house are now sitting in the attorneys escrow account. The question is how does my wife get the proceeds distributed as they should be? Does this need to go in front of a district court? Or is this still part of an issue involving an estate and a different court?

Any help on a direction to take this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
 
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