Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

My mother died 3 years ago. She had no beneficiaries, her living relatives were myself who is 29, my brother who lives in Wisconsin and is estranged, and my disabled sister who my father has custody of. My father and mother have been divorced for over 20 years and they have both been remarried. When she died the judge granted my father temp executor of her estate because he had my sister. My father isn't anything to my mother. His only connection is my disabled sister... I have grieved for about 2 years and finally decided it was time to clean the house up and complete a full estate and then house sell and split between us three... my father refuses. What can I do if anything? Can I take him to court for this?


Asked on 1/21/16, 6:04 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Where have you been for 3 years? Your father was not appointed on a temporary basis. If no one comes forward to petition for appointment as personal representative then anyone can, including your father. He is not acting as a spouse because divorce severed that relationship.

You post no relevant details. I assume your mother died without a will. The job of the personal representative is to figure out what the deceased owned and owed, pay any just debts/claims, and distribute what is left to the beneficiaries which would be the 3 children - your brother gets a share if there was no will. The share for the disabled sister might have to be in some kind of custodial trust or conservatorship/guardianship depending on her age and whether she can manage her affairs.

I suggest that you first go to the probate court in the state where your mother lived at the time of her death and see if an estate was opened. If so, make a copy of every single paper in the file and take it to a probate attorney who practices in the county where the estate was pending and pay him/her to review the file. Assuming that an estate was probated then the administration should have been completed by now.

If a home was owned solely by your mother, was it paid for? If not, who has been paying the mortgage all this time? if the home was paid for, then it would be owned jointly by all of your mother's heirs. If any one of you want to sell then the thing to do is either buy out the shares of the others who want to sell or have them buy out your share. If n no one can agree, then you would have to see a real estate or probate attorney about partitioning the property.

If the estate has not been administered and your father was appointed, then he can be removed for not doing his job and you can be substituted as personal representative. You can then complete the estate administration.

If nothing at all has been done, then your father could not have been appointed as personal representative over the estate and you are mistaken. He might have just been the conservator/guardian for your disabled sister. In such case, you would simply petition for probate and you could sell the home as personal representative if necessary. If no probate is necessary, then I would skip probate and either buy out the shares of the others or have them buy you out and again use partition if no one is willing to do that.

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Answered on 1/22/16, 4:08 pm


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