Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

Unless you have a parent that has died, it is not your mess. But tell teh children that if they fail to hire a lawyer, the loinger each waits the more it will cost them to fix the mess. Without a proper probate, NONE of them owns the land and the one who is paying taxes may have wasted money.

Additionally, the children can expect to get sued for the funeral bill, since no one gets ANY assets from the estate until that is paid. Again, they need a lawyer, and will spend more than if they had acted promptly. The cost will continue to rise the longer they goof off and fail to act.

If grandmother died without a will (I assume that she lived in Georgia) did she have a spouse? If not, generally, the land passes to all of her children. If any of her children died before her but if those children had children, then the grandchildren would inherit their deceased parent's share.

This is general info and assumes that grandma owned the house and land singly and did not give it away during her lifetime. If she only had a life estate or if she owned the land with her children (check the deed) then depending on the language in the deed, the land might have passed outright to them.

One of grandmother's children did not "have" to pay the land taxes. No one held a gun to that person's head. However, they should not have done that without first figuring out about the probate of grandmother's estate. Since they did, they need to sit down with the other children and grandchildren and discuss a couple of things:

(1) Who should be the personal representative of grandmother's estate? If should be someone who is reasonably competent and able to do whatever needs done with the estate. The other children can help, but there should be one person in charge, Ideally, they will live closest to where grandmother's estate is probated. The person should be fair and should keep the others apprised of what is going on. While the personal representative does get a bigger share as they are entitled to be paid a commission for their work, the fact is they are doing extra work. Handling an estate is a big time consuming job, depending on the assets and claims and number of heirs. So do not choose someone because they are the eldest, think its their right or someone who is motivated by greed as it will lead to more fighting and lawsuits. The more the heirs fight, the less money there is in the estate for the heirs to receive. Its that simple.

(2) What did grandmother own of value? How much did she have in the bank? Is there enough money to pay the funeral bill and other claims? What is the value of the land? Is it mortgaged?

(3) If there is not enough money, the children may all have to ante up some money to pay the funeral expenses and they can be reimbursed by the estate. This may take awhile if the land must be sold to pay the bills.

(4) If some children want the land and some do not, then the children who want the land should buy out the share of those who don't. The children who want the land may not have enough cash - in such case, they will have to mortgage the property or take out a loan on it. The money can then be put into the estate and used to pay the funeral bill and other claims and used to buy out the share of those who don't want.

(5) In fairness, the person who paid more than his or her fair share of the taxes should be entitled to contribution from the other children. This all assumes though that the land was not leased out for farming or rented out or that the person who paid the taxes did not live in grandma's house rent free or did not not inherit the land if their name was on the deed.

Once the children and grandchildren have a basic idea of what is to be done, then the person who is chosen as the personal representative needs to hire a probate lawyer in the county/state where grandmother lived prior to her death. Since there is no will, the personal representative can start gathering the names and addresses of all the children or grandhildren and a list of assets and debts, including the funeral bill and taxes. It will make the lawyer's job easier.