More details to this question:
My mother-in-law passed away a few weeks ago. Her 76 year old mother and son lived with her and the step-dad. She had the son there to help take care of his grand mother. Now the step-dad wants to get rid of the son and grand mother. He filed a complaint for ejectment and a LIS PENDENS to get them removed. She did not have a will and the property was in her name only. Do he have the right to do this before opening up a probate case to let the judge decide what happens to the property?
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Dear Anonymous,
Your facts are a bit confusing and hard to follow, but what it sounds like is that the property was your mother-in-law's homestead. If so, her husband (step-dad) probably "inherited" an interest in the property by operation of law.
However, if there was no will, per FL Stat Sec. 732.401, the step-dad is only entitled to a life estate or possibly 1/2 fee simple as tenant in common in the property . Your wife (a direct descendant) and any other of mom's kids (the son), inherited a vested remainder interestin the property as well. Homestead law is an extremely complex area of law in FL. If I am correct, the Grandmother probably has no legal interest in the property, but your wife and her brother (the son?) probably do. However, a remainder interest gives no right to current possession so the son will probably be forced to leave as well.
Also note: Step-dad will probably never be able to sell or mortgage the property outright without your wife's ok, so she should try to work out a deal to sell her interest to step-dad.
Answered on Jul 15th, 2014 at 2:44 PM