Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

Researching the house is easy. What county was the house/land located in? If in NC, most of the counties are online. Go to the register of deeds for that county and search any real property owned by your father (look under grantee). That will tell you how the property is titled. If he owned it jointly with his wife, then it passed to her automatically by operation of law. If your and your brother's names were on the house then they still would be on the title. Your father has no authority to legally remove someone from a deed. You would have had to have been aware of this as you and your brother would have had to sign a deed if the land was to be re-titled. This relates to what people can do legally. Nothing stopped someone from forging and filing false papers. Its a crime but ... we have laws making all kinds of things a crime and last time I checked, the jails were still full. Obviously, if the land was owned as a joint tenancyw with right of survivorship by your deceased brother, you and your father, then the shares of the deceased brother and father would pass to you and you would be the owner. This is not a likely scenario though.

You indicate your brother is deceased. How exactly was the property titled back in 1985? Who were the owners? Were they joint tenants with right of survivorship or tenants in common? If you were tenants in common, then when did brother die? Did he have a will? A spouse? Children? What happened with brother's share of the property?

The other issue is where did your father live at the time of his death? Was an estate probated for him? If not, why not? Did he have probate assets? If there was no will, then your father's share of the land (assuming father lived in NC). would have gone 1/3rd to ee-ville stepmother and 2/3rd to you and your siblings or their children, if any, if they are deceased. So if the land was owned jointly by your father and brother and you then your brother's share will go to your brother's heirs/beneficiaries and your father's share would pass to your father's wife and children. In which case this is going to be a big mess.

I suggest that you contact the court in the county/state where your father lived at the time of his death. See if an estate was ever probated. If not, you can still probate one if there is a need to do so but it would depend on if the father had probate assets. I also would check with the register of deeds and get a copy of the deed. I would then pay for a consult with a probate attorney to review these materials and assist you with acquiring the other shares of the property if it was held as a tenancy in common.

Your father died 3 years ago. Why the sudden interest? Why was no action taken when your father passed away? Who has been maintaining the property? Paying the taxes on it? All the more reason why you need to consult with a lawyer.