Now that it is after the holidays and the state legislature will soon be back at work I want and NEED to get this bill passed. Any help or information that you can give me will be greatly appreciated. I'm not a smoozer and am very direct so small talk isn't my forte.
One of my step silblings I MIGHT be able to reason with to give me some time. The other one I've no doubt would keep everything in the house. Both of them are extremly wealthly and own their own homes so it isn't a matter of them needing what my Mom's belongings would bring them at an estate sale.
Thanks in advance for your help/advice.
Maybe the state could pass a civil union law that allows you to marry your mother... seriously, it sounds like your mom made a contractual agreement with her deceased husband that would stay in effect even if the law was changed.
I don't see why not.
You've painted a very hostile relationship between the relations, here, and that's too bad. Perhaps the issue is you don't think you can agree on the terms. The thing of value in that estate is likely the house, not your mother's things, unless there are particular valuable things where ownership is not as settled as you think.
Maybe there is no law because civilized people don't behave this way. There can't be a law regarding every single event that may ever occur. Anyhow, I would get a second opinion about the idea of an agreement not being binding. I hope that is incorrect and a better option for you.
It would seem to me that you have some sort of tenant rights. Here in Michigan someone can just move into a house you own and it still takes you 30 days to evict them. I would look at that angle.
Your step father wanted to take care of his kids, but he also wanted to make sure your mother had the security of a home for the rest of her life. Your mother has a home and the kids end up (sooner or later) with the house. Fair deal.
It sounds like the step siblings own the house but you don't trust them. Maybe they don't trust you, either, and if your mother passes away you better believe they will change the locks. There will be a "custody" battle over nearly anything and everything in that house. "That was my mother's!" "No, that was my father's!"
My advice is to get everything of value out of that house NOW, while you and your mother have complete legal access. Even then, expect battles. ("Hey! Did you take the ____________ my father left here for me?") Inventory and photograph EVERYTHING for your own reference, and don't tell anybody you did so. Maybe rent a storage unit.
Good luck.
(Disclaimer: I am not an attorney but I read 'Cat in the Hat' to my kids.)
I doubt you've been correctly informed. Title to your mother's personal property does not pass to the new owners of the house simply because she died there. Otherwise every tenant would be in a similar position.
Gaining access to remove the personal property might be a problem, but I doubt title would be in question, at least not if there is some documentation about the ownership of the personal property.
Assuming the items in the house are furniture, personalty, etc., and that she has proof of ownership, she can:[a] give them to you now, [b] sell them, and gift you with thye cash , either all at once, or so much a year [depending on whether itr exceeds the gift tax cap].From what you wrote, the law entitles them to the house, i.e building, and heating equipemnt, stove refrigerastor/freezer, etc. The rest , I presume under the law down there, is not defined as part of the house, but the lawyer can tell you that.
Don't think this is just Alabama. It happened to my friend in California. Why do you assume your step-siblings would be so mean? Other than that, you're screwed, my friend. However, you should thank God that your Mom has a place to stay until she passes.
The house was the stepfather's and upon your mother's death, his family should inherit.
The attorney says that anything within the house goes with it, so move it all out! Have the sale now or put it all in storage. Buy or rent cheap throwaway furniture for your mother's use. Don't leave anything in there that the vultures can't have when the time comes.
I posted to this thread because my wife is in almost exactly the opposite situation. Her mother and father shared their lives for over 50 years before she died three years ago. I can only imagine the loneliness he felt after she passed - such that IMHO it clouded his judgement about the woman he married only a few months ago. He's absolutely smitten with a woman no one else can stand. Communications with them aren't strained, they're nonexistent.
He's in his late 70's and in poor health. He made a will, but may have altered it since the wedding. It was only through efforts from all of his children, along with his lawyer, that he was convinced to draw up a prenuptial agreement. I fear that upon his death, the house my wife and her siblings grew up in, along with all of treasures her parents built up over a lifetime, all go to a gold digger and her worthless family.
Does that put a different complexion on things?
Your mom could move out and rent. She doesn't have to buy a condo or home. At her age, though, that really sucks. Sounds like a troubled family.
Why don't you come out and say it. You are worried about your inheritance. No one is kicking your mother out, her lifestyle will remain the same. I have seen this so many times where kids are looking after the estate instead of looking out for a single parents lifestyle while she is still on this earth.
There's one in every family. I had a family member die and one of her siblings had kept track of everything they gave for Christmas or a birthday over the years and then showed up with that list to get them all back! Who does that?
Have your mom quit paying the taxes and let the house go in foreclosure and then move her stuff all out and some cheap junk in and have wild parties every night until the walls look like swiss cheese.
This is not legal advice.
This "loophole" is known as the Common Law,and I know nowhere that Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence prevails where it is otherwise. If real property is not the subject of a will and you are not in the line of intestate succession, (i.e., who gets the property if there is no will,) then your "rights" only extend as far as the lease or rental terms.
You might check this website for information on probate in Alabama. (Scrowl down on the left hand side until you get to Title 43: Wills and Decedents' Estates
http://freeadvice.com/site_frames/template_fa_frames.php?web=http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeofAlabama/1975/coatoc.htm
Is there a law protecting your step siblings share of the contents? (Another loophole?)
With your mom in temporary possession of the household items, how do your step-siblings know that YOU are not going in there and taking things that belonged to their DAD, before your mother dies?
Incidentally, I am the executor of my parent's estate. After my father died eight years ago, I added a mother-in-law's suite to my home, moved my mom in, and boxed up a 50 year accumulation of incredibly valuable possessions. All that "stuff" is still just sitting in those boxes.