Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia

my brother died suddenly, he had two deadbeat sons who asked that me (his sister)handle all arrangements for his funeral as well as all paperwork for his life insurance and become administrator of his estate, because they did not know what to do. because the insurance money did not come in time to pay all funeral expenses, therefore we paid out of our own pockets several thousand dollars, which they promised to pay back when they received their insurance money. It took a lot of work on my part to gather a lot of documents from his house and several phone calls to the insurance company as well as mailing out documents. His house was in the middle of him renovating it so it is pretty torn up. it has no working heating system or air conditioning. Since his sons received their checks, they did not repay the money back they promised to pay in writing. they have abandoneed the property, they will not answer numerous attempts to contact them, from family or the attourney I hired. The house has been apraised and it will not bring enough money in its current state to pay off all the debts and is will be foreclosed on if I do not pay the past due months. I would like to have them sign over the house to me, but they do not respond. the house will be forclosed on and then no one in the family will have it. As the administrator, what can i do legally to keep this from happening. I refuse to fix the house without some type of legal ownership or agreement, and the house needs to be fixed up before it can be sold to get enough money to pay his creditors. it is a small estate under 15,000 other than the house which is worth about 70,000 and the mortgage on the house is about 75,000

Asked on 8/24/10, 1:23 pm

Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

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I would suggest that as administrator of your deceased brother's estate that you first file suit against the two "deadbeat sons" for their alleged

breach of their written promise to reimburse you for the funeral

and other expenses associated with the administration of the estate which

could prove to be an inducement for each of these defaulters to sign over

his individual share of the interest in the family home as a possible way

to settle the lawsuit. (Apparently, this action wouldn't cost either anything

anyway since apparently there's no equity in this property.)

Answered on 8/29/10, 2:29 pm

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