Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Connecticut

No. I assume the house is still in the estate (i.e., hasn't been distributed from the estate to the two brothers). At best, your brother-in-law is a tenant. The executor has as much right to enter/occupy the house as does the brother. However, these cases where one brother lived with (and probably was supported by) Mom, get real personal. I'll bet brother doesn't want his life disrupted in any way and is probably in denial. There are a couple of ways to go here. First, as executor, your husband could try to evict him. That would certainly cause friction and would be expensive and would take time. Another approach would be to ask for advice from the probate judge. The court would schedule a hearing (which the brother will attend, I hope) and the judge would explain to him that things have changed and he's going to have to co-operate with the executor. He/she will also explain the brother will have to pay rent and utilities, if he's going to live there while the estate is being probated. Then someone is going to have to drop the bomb shell on the brother: Once the house is distributed to the two of them, brother is going to be faced with either buying out your husband, or faced with what is called a "partition lawsuit". When two or more people own a piece of property, any one of them can force a sale of the property if they can't come to a buy-out agreement. I don't know, of course, what the brother's finances are, or what your husband wants to do with the property, but he has the right to either be bought out or to force a sale. And while the estate is being settled, the executor has the right to enter the property and to have any tenant pay rent or contribute to expenses.