QUESTION
am i entiltled to compensation if paying taxes and water bills on a deceased family member
Asked on Sep 16th, 2012 on Estate Litigation - New Jersey
More details to this question:
my sisiter died back in 2010 she had a house and i have six other siblings who agreed to give me the house the house was in prbate they all signed waivers i as stated above have been paying taxes and water sewr trash bills since she passed. Now we have alawyer but she says i have to pay 6652.00 in order to get deed put in my name i dont agree because i took my savings in order to keep house from being sold in an auction i think the money i put in it so far should be taken off from the money owed fro inheritance taxes of nj I was told i could use estate monies but i have to pay it back. I think theses expenses should have been taken out of the estate account since this happened. Also since my sisiter passed so had no children nor husband no will she had a couple of policies that the lawyer stated we were not entiltled to because we are not her children but we are family and sibling why arent we entilted please help me understand
1 ANSWER
2 Awards
There are a lot of questions in here. Let me try to address them. The monies that you paid on the house are considered estate expenses, and should be paid by the estate, meaning any of the other assets owned by your sister. You owe Inheritance Tax because of your relationship to the decedent - you are siblings - and therefore owe tax. You are owed money as a reimbursement of what you paid, and you owe money for taxes. It would seem that you should get credit for what you paid. That reconciliation should be done by the attorney. Next, I'm not sure i agree with the position about the insurance. If your sister had life insurance policies and did not name a beneficiary, then those policies become part of the estate, and the money used to pay estate debts (like the expenses owed to you) and the rest distributed to the siblings. Good luck. Please call my office if I can be of any further assistance.
Answered on Sep 18th, 2012 at 8:37 AM
Diana L. Anderson, Certified Elder Law Attorney This response is not legal advice and does not establish any form of attorney/client relationship