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T

tihstae

Guest
State is California.

Background:
My widowed mother recently died. 15 years ago, she allowed my brother (I have two) to take out a loan on the her house (which had 2 years of payment left) to bail him out of debt and do some renovation to the house. About $20,000 of the ~$70,000 loan went into the house. The loan company insisted that my brother's name go on the deed for the loan to go through and my mother agreed. I do not know if the deed is joint tenancy or tenants in common. The agreement was that my brother make the payments on the house and when my mother died, the house would be split between the 3 children after the amount put into the house was taken out. 3 years after the loan, my brother left and told my mother she would have to pay the house by herself. My mother was permanently disabled and living on Social Security Disability payments that were less than the mortage payments. I was single at the time, living in an apartment and just moved in with her and took over the payments. I have since married and moved out, but continued the payments to insure that my mother would not have to leave the family home of over 30 years. I kept my legal residence at my mother's house and claimed her as a dependent for the last 8-10 years. My mother has rented a bedroom to a family friend for the last 5 years. Within an hour after being notified of my mother's death, this same brother was at the house asking a neighbor that was my mother's caretaker for the keys to the house so he could change the locks and telling the renter that he would "not be able to afford next month's rent". My Mother hand wrote a will and enclosed her wedding ring inside the envelope before sealing it ~8-10 years ago (right after that brother decided to welch on his debts and his agreement with my Mother). I don't know what the will says, although I believe it says to split everything between the 3 children, except for certain sentimental items which are assigned to each child. I also don't know if it is witnessed.

My mother had at the time of her death, ~$8000 in credit card debt, a 1985 Hyundai (worth ~$800) and the house. One of her credit cards also had my name on the account as a second card holder, I never signed anything with them, but used the card occasionally to purchase item for my mother and made payments from my personal account to the card company a couple of times when Mom was short on money. My mother has had extensive medical treatment in the last 10 years and it was covered jointly by Medicare and Medi-Cal (Medicaid). The house is worth ~$120,00 with $67,000 outstanding debt.

Yes, I know what a terrible person that brother is, no need to discuss it here.

My Questions:

Please answer with the consideration that I don't know the status of the tenancy on the family house.

1. Under what circumstance would the will be valid? Should I take the diamond ring (which is intended for me) and throw the will out the window?
2. Does this brother get the house and the other 2 children get the shaft?
3. Am I under any obligation to pay my mother's outstanding bills? Both the card that had my name on it and the others?
4. If that brother gets the house, does he also get the debt?
5. I have heard that Medi-Cal will expect repayment from the estate. Is this true? Can they force sale of the home? Can they demand payment of excess medical payment from family? Am I in any danger of being billed for any of this since she was technically my dependent?
6. Can that brother kick the renter out of the house like that? Can the renter fight it legally? How about if I signed receipts for prepaid rent for the rest of the year?

Please address anything else that I may have left out of my questions and advise on any way I can be sure that that brother gets what he deserves.

Thank you for reading this far and thank you in advance for any replies.
 


A

advisor10

Guest
AUG 8, 2001

DEAR TIHSTAE:

So sorry that this estate is somewhat complicated!

Check at the county courthouse (of the city where your mother died) to see if your brother has filed the will yet (assuming he has it). If it has, you can get a copy of it since it is public record. If it has not been witnessed, then it will most likely not be accepted for probate. It is normally required that the will be filed at least within 30 days after the decedent's death. If your brother has the will, you should at least ask for a copy of it to see what you or other heirs may be entitled to.

Since the house still has an outstanding mortgage debt, it technically can not be assigned to any heir. Is it likely that your brother will continue making payments on the loan until the entire amount is paid in full, or is it likely that he would consider selling the house and then keeping the profits for himself or splitting the profits with the heirs if the will instructs that this be done? If the will is found invalid, then it is possible that the other siblings could receive a share of the house sale if it is sold, under intestate law (which applies when there is no will).

You are not personally obligated to pay your mother's bills, since that is supposed to be paid for by the estate executor, if there is enough money in there to pay it. However, if there is not enough in estate assets to pay the bills, it would be the responsible thing for you to do to pay the bills if you can afford to, otherwise they will be written off as bad debts.

Who, in the will, was named the executor of the estate? It is that person who will have the official responsibility of claiming all assets and handling all estate affairs. Your brother may have acted somewhat hastily in getting rid of the renter (if he assumed the responsibility of acting as executor without having yet received his official authorization papers from the probate court), since it appears he did not follow normal eviction procedures, and the situation looks even worse for him (he could be legally liable to be sued) if prepaid rent was already collected. I hope that this renter is eventually reimbursed for the prepaid rent.

Did your mother have any life insurance that could possibly help pay some of the debts?

Please post your question also on the website www.lawguru.com, since it is more likely that a California probate attorney with more experience in your type of situation would see your posting and could possibly advise you more completely on the other questions you have.
 

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