Estate with multiple heirs and renters

[eternalgrief]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL. I hope I'm asking this in the correct section. My mother wanted me to ask about her father's estate. There are nine heirs involved with the three bedroom home and several unimproved acres. She and her sister own the majority of the property, as some of the heirs sold to them etc. They own six and the other three own their one part in the home and property I believe. It has been a mess since he passed away almost ten years ago. The three heirs want to sell, and two of them don't help to pay property taxes or maintenance and haven't for at least five years. They want their full buy out amount, which was $8,000 before. They got angry when they had the home appraised again and it was not worth the same amount because of the market. They keep refusing to take $8,000 and demand $15,000. One sister sold for the $8,000 when the estate was being settled based on the prior appraisal. They are blaming the renters for the appraisal coming out lower than what they wanted. The renter was put into the home by the two sisters to keep the property maintained and do home improvement work on the house. He and his girlfriend have done wonders with it. The heirs could not afford to pay someone to maintain the property and repair the home, so they put someone in it that would do that in return for no rent to be paid. They have a vast amount of acreage and no help in paying for maintenance or taxes from the other heirs. Now the two that don't pay their parts want to threaten the renters with physical harm, and are saying that they will come down from California and kick them out so that they can live in the home. These people have lived in the home for at least five years, and taken care of it when none of them would help with the property. The two heirs maintaining the property don't want to take the others to court, everyone is telling them to force the other ones to do it. However, I think for everyone's piece of mind that they should go ahead and take it to court so that they can present all of their proof and force them to sell their parts for the fair amount and pay their back taxes and maintenance. They think that they will get $5,000 a month rent off of this home and that these renters should pay them, as well as keep up all of those acres, and repair the house that they won't attempt to fix. We live in southern IL, not California, and $500 a month for a three bedroom here is on the expensive side for any home similar to this ranch style home. So, I would like to know what are the two maintaing heirs best course of action, and what should the renters do in the meantime to protect themselves and get the troublemakers off of their backs? Thank you for looking at this messy question.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[JETX]

With all those parties and the clear and complex issues that are sure to arise in ANY negotiations, the best answer is likely to have the executor file a 'partition lawsuit' to have the court determine the best distribution.

partition
n. a lawsuit which one co-owner of real property can file to get a court order requiring the sale of the property and division of the profits, or division of the land between the co-owners, which is often a practical impossibility. Normally, a partition order provides for an appraisal of the total property, which sets the price for one of the parties to buy out the other's half. Partition cases are common when co-owners differ on whether to sell, keep or divide the property.