Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Indiana

Buying out family (we are already on the deed)

Farm house left to 4 brothers when father passed. Estate closed last fall and one brother sold his portion to the other 3. Estate house value was $80000 therefore each son has $26,666 ownership in the property. The oldest son has been living at the house rent free/mortgage free for the past 2 yrs and remodeled house. He now has to sell his portion to the other brothers. What amount do we try to settle on? The $26,666 that he has ownership in or do we have to pay for the improvements even though we were already part owners on the property and didn't agree to the improvements? For OUR financing purpose we will have a new appraisal done but we do not feel that it is fair to give him a 1/3rd of the appraised value when just last year the other brothers portion was bought out for only the $26,666. Please advise


Asked on 11/14/08, 10:49 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: Buying out family (we are already on the deed)

If you went to court a judge would use the appraised value now. You need to offset the value of his labor and materials for remodeling against 2/3rds of the fair market rental value for the two years that he lived there. You then factor that into appraisla as either a credit or a debit and then go 1/3rd to each of you.

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Answered on 11/14/08, 3:17 pm


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