Estate options?

WiseManTobes

Will try and keep to relevant stuff ( will dump some feelings stuff behind a spoiler possibly)

When my mom passed a badly worded will stuck her estate between me and my sister, which included the house I had bought myself and my mom to live in.

My sister will accept no deals, to the point of I had her accepting a deal once, got the mortgage set up, then she backed out of the paperwork at last second( which was a nice little bonus hit to my credit cancelling it at the last second too)

It's been almost 3 years, contact from her has all but ceased to exist, and here I am stuck in my ghost box, unable to move forward with anything,

Do I have any legal recourse? I've been the only one of us to pay any estate bills, I pay all the rents and costs on said estate, for 3 years post her death, and 10+ years prior to her death. ( have paperwork showing both)

I just, I need to move forward with this, I am slowly circling a mental drain being trapped by this situation.

Personal stuff

The main reason this dwells on me so hard is ya, she almost never contacted/gave a shit about either parent when they got sick, when my dad died, when mom then got sick, it was 100% on me, I took care of both of them, both of them died in my arms. I had gifted my mom a visit to said sister about 3 weeks before she died, sister ignored her, and let her get badly hurt in a fall as well. an injury she died clutching. She had even realized how the bad wording could end up and we had an appointment with the lawyer to adjust it ( that lawyer shrugged about it , and was useless so that's sadly not a route)

It was me and my mom against the world post my dad's death, and being trapped unable to move any of our plans to improve life forward, being trapped by the sister that has abused her the most , it's just destroying me, and I need an option, she's had multiple high priced offers she's accepted then rejected at last minute for no reason, and offers no further options, then just vanishes from contact for a year at a time.

Bowen

Are you the executor of the estate?

Enc

IANAL: I'm pretty sure there are some things an estate lawyer can do to facilitate this, especially if your name is on the house. It's worth bringing before an expert. If you are paying for the house and the taxes on it that usually opens some doors from what (extremely little) I remember about this stuff from college.

Bowen

The executor can essentially force people to play nice or force them to be bought out I think (which essentially gives them the power to steal, but that can be squished with a lawsuit and all that). So, if you're the executor you might have more power to force her hand. If you're not, the executor might push hard against the heir that's not cooperating and force them to walk away from their claim on that part of the estate.

Enc is right, you probably have extra rights to the house since you purchased it and your mother was named on the deed (with you I hope). You probably inherit at least 75% of that house (your 50%, plus 50% of your mom's share, assuming it's not named specifically in the will). You absolutely need to talk to a lawyer there though, because I am not one, and I'm probably wrong.

So It Goes

You need to set up an appointment with a trusts/will/estate lawyer so they can consult with you and tell you your options.

Darkewolfe

Echoing everyone else, you have plenty of justification to consult with a lawyer. And that's about all the useful info you can get here without way more details that you should only be providing to that lawyer.

Djeet

You will want an attorney to represent your interests. If the other parties (your sister) were non-combative you all may have been able to come to terms, but for your sake either pay someone else to deal with this or walk away and sign it all off to her.

Mom2Kat

@WiseManTobes your in nanimo or Kelowna right? If it nanimo I can ask around the bank and see who are good estate lawyers on the island. If it's Kelowna unfortunately even though I grew up in sicamous I don't have any contacts that might know interior lawyers.

One thing I have learned working at the bank and in my position being only tangentially dealing with estate stuff is get your ducks in a row early and being executor for someone sucks.

Best of luck with it all.

WiseManTobes

Mom2Kat wrote: »

WiseManTobes your in nanimo or Kelowna right? If it nanimo I can ask around the bank and see who are good estate lawyers on the island. If it's Kelowna unfortunately even though I grew up in sicamous I don't have any contacts that might know interior lawyers.

One thing I have learned working at the bank and in my position being only tangentially dealing with estate stuff is get your ducks in a row early and being executor for someone sucks.

Best of luck with it all.

Kelowna

Mom2Kat

Bummer. Fortunately the provincial law courts are downtown and they should be able to at least give you a list of who does estate stuff in town. They may even have recommendations. Better than just blindly calling from yellow pages. Good luck.