Hello, My sister and I inherited our mother’s home (50/50). My sister died sometime thereafter, before we got around to buying one or the other out, or selling. My sister’s 3 kids eventually ended up on the deed in place of their mother. I want to own the home free and clear of them, but one of the adult kids is not responding to me or his two adult siblings. So now I’m wondering if it’d be unwise to buy out the two willing siblings, and then deal with the unresponsive one at a later date. Thank you in advance, I look forward to your replies.
From experience, you need all person’s listed on the deed to sign off on the sale and deed transfer. If the one hold out is not responding to anyone, you may need to get a lawyer involved. They would most likely draw up a letter and send it via registered mail so they know he received the letter and is fully aware of your desire to buy the house. Good luck!
I dont think parents understand how much of a mess it creates when you leave your home to multiple people. It can become impossible to maintain or sell and very frequently leads to irreparably strained relationships within the family. How is the house titled now? In a Trust? 4 Individual owners with Right of Survivorship? Who is living in the house now? How are the bills being paid?
I have bought a couple of houses out of an estate. One went perfectly fine because both parties wanted to sell, but the other created a family rift. Eventually, one of the parties had to sue the other party to force a sale.
There’s a deed with my name and the names of 2 nieces and 1 nephew (The nephew is the one not responding).
Don’t know if there’s a right of survivorship. And there isn’t a Trust.
I live in the house and pay the bills, including taxes and insurance. I’ve lived in the house for a long time because I needed to care for my parents.
@MXJ - It certainly helps that your name is on the deed and that you have been living there and paying all the utilities, taxes, insurance, etc. for years. That being said, any sale or changes to the deed would need to be agreed (and signed off on) by all holders listed on the deed. Unless someone here is a lawyer, I strongly suggest you consult with a real estate lawyer. In the meantime, here are some articles that may help:
https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/do-all-owners-have-to-agree-and-sign-papers-when-s-2310254.html
You can sue to force a sale, but I’m not sure how that works when one of the owners is the one wanting to purchase. If you had purchased the property from your sister shortly after inheriting, getting a market appraisal and paying her half of that would have been easy. But now you lived in the house for a number of years, and borne all the expenses. A 50/(50÷3) split doesn’t really seem fair. You should have been paying half of market value rent, and they should have been paying half of all taxes, insurance, and maintenance.
Since her children inherited your sister’s half, y’all do not have right of survivorship. Instead, you have what is often referred to as tenants in common, where if one of the owners dies, their share is inherited by their heirs.
You really need an attorney to advise you on your best way to proceed. My gut feel is that purchasing your nieces’ shares puts you in a stronger position as you will then have an 83% ownership share vs your nephew’s 17% ownership share.
Is the nephew not responding about anything, or just not responding about the home?
He’s not responding at all. I feel like I’m dealing with a child rather than a man in his 30’s. I credit my sister for the way he’s turned out.
Thank you for your reply and the links.
You are going to have to leverage the 2 nieces to pressure your nephew to sell. If you do intend on buying out the 2 nieces, I wouldn’t offer them much more than 50% of what their share is worth unless you can get all 3 to sell. I believe as an 83% owner who is paying all the expenses on the home, you could probably force a sale. That will probably take awhile…..
With enough time and effort, you could probably do the equations to determine what fair market value at your sister’s passing vs now, and the amount of taxes, insurance, and maintenance (not improvement) you’ve put into the property. They inherited it at a cost basis of when your sister passed, and are entitled to any increase in value since then, but have not paid any of the costs, which ought to be deducted. If you really want to dig into the weeds, you can go back to when you and your sister inherited, and do that math, too.
You really need to speak with an attorney who understands both estates and real estate.
Thank you to all who’ve replied, and for your guidance and suggestions.
Nephew is not responding to his sisters either.
I do know where my nephew works, and several days ago I emailed the company’s email with a request for my nephew to contact me. But I didn’t mention our uncle/nephew relationship.
I’ve considered going to his place of employment, which is about 10 miles away, but I really don’t think that’s a good idea.
Agreed. I am certainly no legal scholar, but I wonder if there is an angle here that the other people on title are not contributing anything to the expenses, maintenance and upkeep of the property and using this as leverage to force a sale. Right now, everyone else is benefitting from the appreciation without equal participation. You will definitely need legal advice.
Yes, it is usually not an intelligent option to purchase out some of the willing siblings involved in the ownership of the property.
By doing this, you will not necessarily have full ownership of the property, as you will be replacing the two willing siblings while still being a co-owner along with the non-responsive sibling. This will complicate your ability to sell, refinance or settle the issues related to this property later on. In most cases, it is best to resolve any disagreements or disputes with the non-responsive owner first (through either using a solicitor’s letter or some formal legal process), before purchasing out any of the other owners involved. This way, you will avoid creating an even larger complication than you already have now.
Most likely the OP is in the United States. We don’t have solicitors here, nor their letters.
I realize you’re not referring to me, but if anyone is wondering where I am, I’m in the U.S.
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the owners MUST put the disposition of the house in the will.sell the house split the proceeds equally
in the will place this sentence “any party contesting this will is immediately removed from it!”
Agreed. That would have prevented this whole mess. I know of many other situations that ended up in a similar adverse relationship that resulted in irreparable family divisions.
We re-did our estate plan last year and used that exact verbiage in the Trust documents for the disposal of assets.
thanks for your support!