Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

Re: Living estate description

It is extremely unethical for your lawyer to advise him and you when you have possibly divergent interests (especially if he gave different answers to both). You may want to reconsider your choice of counsel.

There is no such thing as a "living estate." Perhaps you mean life estate. A life estate means the person owns the property as long as they live, and can do whatever they want (including rent it out), and the remainder interest goes to whomever is listed for when he dies. Ordinarilly, the recipient of a life estate pays the bills for the property while living, unless the will specifies otherwise.

Note that he also could file for year's support and get an additional stake in the house that way, depending on facts we do not have.

However, it is possible that the will imposed additional restrictions, so no one can give you a complete answer unless they read the will's language.

Re: Living estate description

In general, I agree with Glen, and the Will controls what happens. If it is silent on who pays the operating expenses of the house, it might be that these are estate obligations, but would only include taxes, insurance, repairs, maintenance and the like, but not things like utilities, telephone, cable TV, etc. If there are issues, I suggest contacting the husband and try to clarify who is going to pay for what. If there is a real dispute, you may even have a claim against the lawyer who prepared the Will for not covering this.