Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia
My mother purchased a home for my grandmother to reside in. My mother and uncle's name were put on the deed although my uncle didn't contribute to the purchase. My single and childless uncle dies, as a result his half of the ownership of the house was divided among his six surviving siblings. My mother continues to pay all expenses for the house (taxes, insurance, etc) amounting to over $54K, while no one else has paid a dime. All of the siblings, except one, has signed over their ownership of the home to my mother knowing it was the right thing to do having not contributed to the upkeep. She is the administrator of my uncle's estate and the majority owner of the property owning 91.67%. My mother is now 78 years old and cannot continue to incur the expenses. After nearly 20 years, she has decided to sell the home, but the one sibling who still owns 8.33% of the property refuses to sign any paperwork agreeing to the sale or relinquishing his ownership. She gotten as far as the closing and everything was halted. What is her recourse at this point?
2 Answers from Attorneys
This was not handled very well. If your uncle's name was to be added to the deed, there should have been something to indicate that your mother and uncle owned the home with your grandmother as joint tenants with right of survivorship. That way, the last survivor would inherit and the land automatically would have passed to your mother upon uncle's death. I don't see why the uncle's name should have been added to begin with. I assume your mother and uncle were brother and sister and not married. If this is correct then there would have been no requirement that he be put on the deed. The fact that he was suggests that someone wanted to think they were saving a few dollars and not get a lawyer so they did what is called "poor man's" estate planning. So they saved a few bucks and now have a much bigger legal problem that was created by being cheap and/or stupid.
I do not mean to sound harsh but this post is made public and hopefully it will be read by others. So this will serve as a lesson of what NOT to do for someone else..
Getting back to your mother's situation. Where is the property located at in GA? There is a simple remedy called partition. If your mother now owns the share of everyone else, she can seek to have the property divided between herself and the recalcitrant sibling. Once divided or partitioned, she can then sell her part of the land. If the land cannot be divided then it will be sold at a partition sale and the proceeds divided according to the percentage of ownership of each party.
Your mother must see a real estate litigation attorney and ask about partition - what is involved and cost. The only other way would be for your mother to buy out the share of the holdout for whatever it is worth. So if the other person only owns 1/8th of the land and the land is worth say $88,000, then the other person gets $11,000 minus his/her share of the taxes, maintenance and upkeep plus 1/8th of the profits (rental value of the home).
And your mother never should have made it to the closing table unless she hand 100% of the property to convey.
I hate to be harsh, but the family bungled this badly years ago in how the paperwork was done. This was avoidable and I suspect with good legal advice never would have happened. I post that not to give you a hard time but so others who read this will not make the same mistake. I should add that your mother should never have set up a sale and closing without everyone on board; that fiasco was avoidable too.
The answer is expensive. She will need a lawyer. If the lawyer cannot negotiate an agreed buy out, she will have to sue the family member in Superior court for partition and force a sale. The legal fees in such cases can be large and the property will usually be sold for less than it is worth.
The main consolation here is your post may warn others from similar situations.
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