Family Member On Home's Deed
REM #F733
By Ilyce R. Glink
Summary: A ThinkGlink reader's husband died leaving her all his assets. Unfortunately, his mother is on the deed for their home. Ilyce suggests calling her mother-in-law and making an offer for her portion of the home.
Q: My husband passed away last year and he left me the property that we lived
in together. Unfortunately, my mother-in-law is on the deed.
Can she transfer her half of the property to anybody she wants without my consent? She has never lived in this property, nor invested anything in it. My husband made a will before he died and intended me to have the property. But we weren’t married when he bought it, so he put his mother on the deed with him.
The court has transferred all of the assets in the estate, but she is still on the deed.
A: My condolences on the loss of your husband.
Your husband's will apparently stipulated that you would receive everything
he owns. But in this case, it sounds as though he only owned half of the house
in which you live. Since your mother-in-law owns the other half of the property,
she may be able to sell her half to someone without your consent. It depends
in part on how title is held to the property.
But why let it get to that? If you want to stay in the house, you should call
her and work something out with her, maybe even make an offer to purchase her
share of the property.
A good estate attorney can help you with other options that may be available.
NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher.
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