Where I practice in IL the court may authorize and direct the guardian of the estate to make conditional gifts from the estate of a disable person to any spouse, parent, brother or sister of the disabled person who dedicated himself or herself to the care of the disabled person by living with and personally caring for the disabled person for at least 3 years. It shall be presumed the disabled person intends to make such conditional gifts.
Your case is a tough one because your dad left no will and your siblings are correct, you all own the house equally per intestate laws. If you want to keep the house, you'll have to buy them out or somehow get them to quitclaim their interest to you. A probate estate may HAVE to be opened merely because there is a piece of real estate (not sure what NC law is on that one) involved. If a probate estate is opened if I were you I would petition to be given more than your 1/3 intestate share because of the time you invested in your daddy's care. Your worst case scenario is that you will have proceeds from the house sale to locate hopefully affordable housing. Good luck to you.
Answered on Sep 20th, 2011 at 8:02 PM