First a little history…
I moved back to the God forsaken county of Riverside in order to care for my mother.No one else (my two sisters) were willing to do this.
For 15 years I cared not only for her but her animals and the management of the property.My mother contracted Alzheimers and when she repeatedly called 911 saying that the neighbors were spying on her and stealing her dogs,the police had her committed to a convalescent facility,she passed 2 months later.
Five years later my younger sister’s father hired an attorney so she could claim her 1/3 interest in the property.A summary judgement was made and I will have to sell this property.
That selfish bitch hadn’t communicated with my mother for over 8 years ,she didn’t even attend the funeral.
I realize that I will have to sell,I’m just wondering if there’s anything I can do to delay it as much as possible?Or to screw her in any other way?
P.S-My mother told me when she was lucid that if I let my sister have one thin dime she would come back and haunt me,she hasn’t shown up yet.
Retain an attorney.
That’s what your sister('s father) has done in an effort to go about this through the legal system.
Whether or not she has a moral or ethical right to any interest in the property obviously doesn’t matter to her…and now that she’s lawyered up you have to find out if it matters to the courts.
You need a lawyer. First, it is your mother’s property, not yours, so only a lawyer can tell you what options you might have. IANAL but it doesn’t sound like you have much power in this situation. The lawyer will want to know if your mother left a will, and if not can tell you what will happen. If there was a will and you don’t happen to like it, a lawyer can assess whether you have grounds to contest it (and I don’t even know if you can do that outside the movies :)).
Only a lawyer is going to be able to give you the advice you need. Please tell me your mom made up a will and gave the property to you. If not, it will get messy trying to keep the property from your sister.
A lawyer may be able to figure out a way to say that you are due some sort of payment for the 15 years you took care of your mom. But that would be a longshot since typically you would have to file the claim within 90 days or so after she passed.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean a thing unless she wrote a proper will. Like FirstLoser and CookingWithGas said, you need a lawyer, at least for a consultation to see if there is any way to contest the claim.
Just out of curiosity, if it’s been five years, have you transferred the deed to your name?
If there is no will, I’d just suck it up and go with my 1/3.
Sis will hire an attorney, too and they will send each other letters and send papers sucking up to a judge, and charging you and sis money out the kazoo.
My experience with the legal system is that it’s not fair or just, it’s about who has the most money to throw at the problem.
During probate ,I was named executor and it was discovered that the quitclaim deed my mother possessed had a typo so a new one was drawn with my name under the title of administrator of estate.So six of one, half a dozen of the other.I just want to drag this out as long as possible.
I have to agree with the suck it up advice. Unfortunately no matter how right you are attorneys are EXPENSIVE. I would guess that the cost of an attorney will end up more than you will retain. There is always a fine line between doing what is right and doing what is cost effective.
In the end you can console yourself with the fact that you are on the “righteous” side and she isn’t. She will have to live with what she has done. And if you believe in God, then one day she will be standing before the man and will have to answer. I learned this in dealing with my ex-wife. There are so many issues with her that I wish I had the money to pursue even though there is no payoff other than being proven right. But I have come to the conclusion that she knows what a piece of shit she is and that one day there will be a price to be paid. I wish you luck.
I’m going to avoid the legal issue and address the bigger concern:
THE HAUNTING.
If the sister secures a court order for 1/3 interest in the property or other parts of the estate, and you fought a reasonable legal fight to prevent the overturning of the will, ISTM you are not “letting” the sister have a dime.
That said, how did you hand over to her a summary judgment? In my understanding, that means you as executrix were served and ignored the lawsuit.
Also, a quitclaim deed does not necessarily transfer ownership. Work with the estate lawyer to make sure everything is done properly. And the quitclaim you describe only lists you as administratrix, not owner. So to me this sounds like legal fighting having tied the estate up in probate.
So you really want to drag this out? Run up lots of legal expenses charged to the estate. That way the sister will ultimately get a lesser amount and so do you, as the estate gets depleted to fund the lawsuit efforts. You may be better off cutting your losses eventually, and be sure to discuss with the estate lawyer how much effort is too much.
If your mother really cared that much, she could/should have made a will or trust indicating her desires. Without a will, you are locked into the rules of intestate succession in your state. I think you already understand this.
Finalizing probate with real estate can take years in some cases. If you could find any strap of paper from your mother indicating her thoughts, it might at least be a means of objecting to the rules and causing a delay of months. You might receive more if you were to agree NOT to object and delay. And a delay might give the real estate market a chance to improve some.
My brother never made a will, but he typed two sentences on a scrap of paper and went to the bank to have it notarized. The intent was to leave out the other brother and relatives from his estate. I was shocked that the judge accepted this as a will without the required witnesses and left me as the sole heir.
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That said, how did you hand over to her a summary judgment? In my understanding, that means you as executrix were served and ignored the lawsuit.
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Scuba Ben you are confusing a “summary judgement” with a “default judgement.” A default judgement means : you didn’t show up so you lose.
Summary judgement means: even if I take everything you say as 100% factual and correct, you still lose so no trial is necessary.
Summary judgement means the court found no facts that could be disputed. Thus, only one conclusion is possible.
Welcome to the legal system. This is not about what is fair, just, or deserved. The justice system does not determine what is morally right.
So, since no other person has mentioned this - GETALAWYER.
Basically, absent a specific will, every child gets an equal share. If ma didn’t want this, she would have said so in a will. It’s not up to you, even as executor. Trying to monkey with the system or be passive-aggressive with will only piss off the judge. I assume basically the judge already said as default “you were executor, you were legally obliged to give her a third, you did not; do it now.” Not much wiggle room there.
If you want to stretch it out - first, see if the lawyer will stretch it out. Some may tell you this is unethical? However, if you can, it will run up her legal costs (google “phyrric victory”) so even after she’s won, she’s not that far ahead. Unfortunately for you, she’s waited long enough that I assume there’s no way you can chalk up any of these actions to estate costs. It’s between you and her, not her and the estate. If you can afford to outspend and out-lawyer her, go ahead. If you can figure a way to low-ball selling the place, good luck; but if they’ve already been through and assessed the place, it’s too late to make it look like years of alzheimer neglect and grieving daughter neglect have dropped its value. Maybe you can claim any improvements you’ve made should be recouped form the selling price. (See GETALAWYER, above)
Lowball tricks fall under trying to screw over the court, and the judge will not take kindly to those shenanigans especially since you’ve already shirked your obligation as executor to properly distribute the estate.
Take comfort in the knowledge that you are probably selling in the worst possible market, significantly worse than 5 years ago as far as house sales… Provided her lawyer does not clue in and demand that the price be assessed as of 5 years ago and demand you make up the difference.
Good luck! Nothing like an inheritance fight between siblings to bring out the nastiness.
A document by the deceased dictating his estate’s disposition, dated and notarized, which is essentially legally witnesed. Why would this NOT be legal?
The only gotcha in home-made wills is the technical jargon. Did Joe mean equal share to every nephew, or every nephew as of the will being written? What about someone who died between writing and execution of will? Did Joe explicitly mean to leave out Fred, or did it slip his mind because he was in a hurry? A lawyer can tell you what could go wrong and be challenged; this is why you should get legal advice if you plan to do anything complicated. However, unless we’re talking estate on the level of Anna Nicole Smith and hubby, it’s usually not worth the legal fees to fight a will.
There was some Urban Legend years ago about a scorned wife selling her husband’s Corvette for $1.00, as he was going to get half of the proceeds and she didn’t want to give him anything, thus selling the car for a buck.
I’m surprised at how willing the posters in this thread seem to be to agree that the OP is the good guy and her sister is the bad guy.
Even the ones who point out this is irrelevant still make comments affirming that the dichotomy exists.
Weird.
For all we know this lady’s mother sexually abused her and her sisters for their entire childhoods and the two sisters were the only ones strong enough to break off the relationship. I don’t suggest this is actually the case. Rather, I am pointing out that it is true for all we know, because “all we know” is basically nothing in this case.