Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

hire a lawyer to probate the estate.

Much may depend on the other assets in the estate. If there are other funds, there may be more flexibility in how to get you into the house.

There is not anything that can be done to compel the lender to let you "take over." If you are in any position to finance the purchase, with a payoff of the current obligation, that would be best. Your interest in the estate/house, if any, may be considered as a down payment. Otherwise, you can approach the lender, but do not get your hopes up. Third, you could simply keep the payments current and hope the lender continues the account as if nothing happened, but that puts you at risk of putting money into it with a risk that the lender will demand payoff at some point. Of course, if that is no worse than paying rent, then the risk is not a big deal.

All that said, the probate aspects of this need to be addressed and, unless there is cooperation, the eviction of the girlfriend. You need to be in touch with an attorney experienced in probate and real estate in the area where your father resided.

Without a will (and even with one) now ownership of the home has to be declared by the probate court. As Mr. Repay says, depending on whether there are other assets this could be simple, or complicated. And the girlfriend, unless she somehow is a borrower on the mortgage, would have no obligation to pay it. Get an attorney involved because unless somebody in your family actually wants the house it will most likely have to be sold -- the mortgage most likely has a provision that it can be "called" on death of the borrower but will usually allow a reasonable period of time for probate and sale if the estate continues to pay the loan.