Allowing sibling to inhabit house after parents passed away/legal issues...
Hi all...
Sadly, a friend has seen both of her parents pass away in the past year and change. They were older and it was not unexpected. They left a will with my friend as the executor of the estate. There are three children and as you may have guessed, there are issues.
The will is very clear which is good. (1/3 x 3 basically.) However, the sister is not compliant and has a very rogue attitude about this. She doesn't seem to understand that the house is essentially a legally protected area at this point.
In any case, here's the issue. This sister (we'll call Kate) wants to live in the house with her kids and husband for a while. The executor (we'll call Andrea) has concerns about this. (As she should IMO.) There is also a brother ("Bob") in the picture who is out of the city, fairly laid back and just happy to get his 1/3 when it's sorted out.
I've advised my friend against allowing them to live in the house, as I fear they will become tenants and Andrea will have to literally evict them to get them out. Kate says they "just want to stay there for a few months." But, it's a contentious situation at best. They hardly speak. Not only do I believe she will loot anything she can from there (which is a side issue)... but I do not believe they will leave until they feel like it. Thus, holding up any forward movement on the sale/distributions of equity.
If the house was EMPTY, I wouldn't even know where to tell Andrea to start with all of this. But with a potential "naturalized tenant" of sorts, this seems like it could get messy.
I have no experience in how these things are handled. Reaching out to those here who may have some ideas for this situation, advice on how to handle this... what to expect, etc. I'd love to know what YOU would do if you were her. (Having a better legal foundation of knowledge than I do on all of this.)
Thanks in advance for any help. Sorry this was so long.