Being Sued By My Parents For Granny Flat Expenses

[khodgkin]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Near Sacramento, CALIFORNIA. My husband is a contractor and offered to build my parents a granny flat on our property in 2001 if the folks paid for the materials. They moved back here from Mexico and lived with us during construction and moved into their new home (a granny flat on our 5 acre property) in February of 2002. I could tell that my mom was not happy with the size of her home from the very beginning and we offered to buy them out and return all of the permit costs before they had spent any money on materials (only permits). They said, "no". A few years later, I could tell that my mom wanted a bigger home so we told them we would sell our property and buy them a larger home. We gave them a $400K budget and they found a home. We put our home on the market and purchased 10 acres in a neighboring county and enrolled our youngest child in the neighborhood. Upon the VERY first potential purchaser, my parents quickly changed their mind and we canceled the selling contract with our realtor, took our property off of the market and got rid of the 10 acres (however our daughter finished out the school year in the neighboring county). We thought everything was fine and we've been going along happy-go-lucky for years. Last week we got a threatening letter that they wanted to move and now want ALL their money back. They have been living here for free all these years and have not contributed a dime of property taxes after the first tax bill after construction. My father had agreed to pay all the additional property taxes so my husband and I would not be out any money for them living here and there's a letter at the county tax collectors' office stating such facts, which my father wrote and signed. My husband is furious and wants them out of his granny flat but we agreed to let them live there for their whole lives (although technically they have breached their oral contract by not paying any of the additional property taxes as they had promised). I never asked for any money, as I thought that they just didn't have it (despite the fact that they have a HUGE 5th wheel they take to Mexico and Arizona in the winter and Oregon in the summer). However, a few months ago they bought a VERY nice car for cash and it was then that I asked my father to contribute to the property tax bill. He said he woudl start but he was not going to go back to 2002 (he has not made good on that promise either). Well, we found out that they are completely out of money and just quit their golf course membership a couple of weeks ago. They want to move now and want ALL their money back (they informed us that we could keep the appreication in the granny flat despite the fact that people can't GIVE their homes away right now). Needless to say, I was SHOCKED! What are my rights? How should I handle this delicate situation with and 82 year old mother and an 80 year old father? My husband is a contractor and is unemployed (as is every other contractor in the county). I work part-time but thankfully have benefits. We are in a situation where we couldn't get a second mortgage to buy them out (as they suggest) because we don't have the income base to quality (our equity is fine but we couldn't service the debt right now). They want us to rent out the granny flat and use that money to service the debt. They did pay for nearly all of the material costs (not labor) but they've been living there for nearly 8 years (plus they lived with us for 7 months) RENT FREE and property tax free. We even let them use our garbage service. I know this sounds bizzare but I had a 90 year old man I visited every month until he passed who was upset that he missed his driver's license appointment....he couldn't even stand up and he actually thought he needed his licence and would be issued one if only he could make the appointment. I think that's the case here....my parents are losing their ability to think congnitively. What do you suggest I do (my hubby is really upset, as he has cleaned their gutters, weed-eated their driveway, trimmed their trees, sprayed for spiders & pests, fixed their driveway and was just about to install an automatic gate opener on a security gate to thier driveway (we could not afford two automatic openers so we were going to put the one we bought on THEIR driveway and we would have a manual gate since we are 35 years younger than they are). My mother has wanted a deer fence for years and now we have nearly 100% of our 5 acres fenced in an 8' perimeter fence....the gates are the last section to secure our property and she can grow anything she wants without worry of deer damage (however they are rarely outside). Any comments?

 

[Alex23]

Can we get that with paragraphs?

 

[Cvillecpm]

....and less drama!

 

[Equeen]

Are they suing you? Have you been served with anything or are they threatening a suit?