Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If there is no Will and she died without a spouse, then her two children would inherit equally. Since there is a house, in order to be able to sell it there must be a probate [also, if the estate is worth more than $100,000]. Your mother needs to go and look through her mother's papers to see if she can find a Will, safety deposit box at a bank that might have the Will in it, or mention of an attorney who might have prepared a Will for her [look at her checkbook and/or credit card statements][if you are sure she used an attorney and you do not live in a very large city, send out a form letter to all the probate attorneys telling them she has died ad asking if they prepared a Will for her and that it has not yet been probated and you think the Uncle might not file it but that needs to be done]. Her brother has no right to prevent her from doing so unless he can produce and show her a Will stating that he is the executor. If he is, she should still insist on going through all the papers to see if there is a more recent Will. If he has not filed to probate the Will, she can do so.

Your mother has to be very firm with her brother. If she can not be, she needs to hire an attorney to do so and to guide her in getting the Will and probating it. normally using a local attorney is best, but it is not mandatory. I handle such matters for $100 per hour, as i am semi-retired. If you need more assistance, your mother can contact me at 510-441-2684 or e-mail me at [email protected].

Good luck.