QUESTION
Can I continue paying the mortgage after parents pass?
Asked on Jun 30th, 2014 on Estate Planning - Georgia
More details to this question:
This is a long, confusing question, so I will try to get to the point. My mother married my stepfather 27 years ago. There house has around $80k in equity. My stepfather passed in 2010 and has 3 surviving children in another state. My mother continued paying the mortgage and the house never went into probate. My mother just passed last week without a will. My question is, she wanted my wife and I to move in and continue paying the mortgage. I have spoken with my biological sister about this and also my step siblings and they are all ok with it. As long as sentimental items are shared equally. My mother had quite a few medical bills remaining along with credut card debt. Everything has been paid up to date, including the mortgage. Can my wife and I safely move in and continue paying or will the house go to probate regardless of what any of the siblings want? Thank you in advance and sorry for the extense of my post. My mother is on the deed as well.
1 ANSWER
4 Awards
Your mother should have dealt with the house as soon as possible after your stepfather died. His interest in the house may have become part of his probate estate at his death, depending on how the house was owned. That would happen even if no one opened a probate estate. If his name was on the deed, but he and your mother did not own the house as "joint tenants with rights of survivorship" (the deed has to say words like that or very similar), then it is very likely the case that his children now own shares in the house (for example, if this is a Georgia property, and he and your mother owned the house as "tenants in common," then your mother would own 1/2 + 1/6 of the property - her own half plus 1/3 of his half, and his children could own 4/6 of the property in equal shares.) If he and your mother owned the house as joint tenants (or, if it's not a Georgia property, they could have owned it as tenants by the entirety, which does not have to be stated on the deed, necessarily), then his interest would have transferred to her automatically.
Before you move in and begin paying anything, you need to get a good probate attorney to help you figure out exactly who now owns interests in the house. If it does turn out to be all your mother's, you will still need to deal with her estate. Since she has debts, those will have to be dealt with. If they can all be dealt with without the house having to be sold to pay them, then you and your siblings (all other heirs, actually, which may not be just you and your siblings if any sibling predeceased your mother) could agree to let you and your wife take on the house. It will then need to be deeded from the estate to you. If your stepfather's interest in the house didn't pass to your mother 100% under the deed, however, then his children likely also own interests in the house and they will need to be dealt with in addition to your needing to deal with the probate estate for your mother. You will have to open a probate estate for her, however, either way. Get a good attorney; it may not be an easy job and title to real estate is too important to risk messing things up.
Answered on Jul 13th, 2014 at 1:22 PM
This answer is being provided as general information and not as legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this answer.