QUESTION
Do we have legal recourse to keep my mother in law in her home?
Asked on Mar 14th, 2017 on Wills and Probate - Georgia
More details to this question:
My mother in law(with diminished mental capacity) has lived in a home since 1992. Her mother bought the home & allowed her to live there with her 3 kids, but eventually came to live in the home along with one of her sons until she died 2 years ago. The mortgage is now in her estate. The brother moved out a few months ago & stopped paying the mortgage & now they are behind. Another brother who is the executor of the will is evicting my mother in law in 2 days & plans to have his daughter buy it & do repairs & sell it. The will, which we have not seen & has possibly been probated, is said to say that any proceeds from sale of home are to be split three ways. Is all of this legal?
2 ANSWERS
Probate Litigation Attorney serving Lawrenceville, GA
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I can’t tell from your statement who died, and how that person dying impacts your mother in law. Regardless, apparently the owner of the home died and the mother in law has been living there. You need to contact the probate court in the county where the deceased person lived and see if an estate has been opened. If so, you need to go to the court and get a copy of the will and see what your mother in law is supposed to get under the will. If nothing, then she is probably out of luck. If something, then she needs to see a lawyer about what her inheritance rights are.
Answered on Mar 15th, 2017 at 7:52 AM
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Unfortunately for your mother-in-law, if her own mother owned the home and her Will actually says that it is to be sold and the proceeds divided between three children, then your mother-in-law likely has no way to demand that she be allowed to continue to live in the home, although she might have some rights as a tenant regarding how much notice she must be given before an eviction takes place. Also, if she is one of the beneficiaries of the Will (it sounds like she is but it's not clear to me from your post), and if the executor plans to sell the house to his daughter for less than the fair market value of the house, then she may have some right to complain about that sale. But again, the executor of an estate (assuming the Will appointing him is valid and has been admitted to probate in the appropriate court) generally has the power to sell the estate's assets unless the Will specifically directs that the asset be distributed to a particular beneficiary; and even then, the executor is often still permitted to sell the asset if needed to allow debts or expenses to be paid.
The only way for your mother-in-law to really know what rights she may have and how to enforce them is for her to actually consult an attorney. This kind of forum is not conducive to the discussions that need to take place before an attorney can understand enough of the situation to really give her specific answers. The answer I've given above assumes a number of facts, including what the Will says, that the Will was actually admitted to probate (you can contact the probate court to get a copy of the Will and everything else in the probate file if it has, by the way- although if your mother-in-law is an heir she also should have been given a copy of the Will when it was submitted to the court if not sooner), and that everything you say is accurate. If any of these assumptions are wrong, the answer could be different.
Best wishes to your mother-in-law. I hope she is able to get a good resolution.
Answered on Mar 15th, 2017 at 5:17 AM
This answer is being provided as general information and not as legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this answer.