Q: Several years ago, our mother left a small house for her six children. One sibling has since passed away. Now two of us want to buy the property from the others. Do we have to pay our deceased brother’s children his part? How can we get this done? —Mattie
A: It will depend on how your mother left you the house.
If she left it to you in a living trust, this could be a simple process. The trust agreement would need to be reviewed and the market value of the property determined. You would have to include your deceased brother’s heirs unless the trust stated otherwise. A properly drafted deed would need to be signed, and the selling siblings paid, and you would be all set.
If your mother devised the property in her will or died without one, the process will be more complicated.
Your mother’s estate will have to be probated if that was not already done. The probate process requires an attorney’s assistance to have your mother’s assets gathered and then used to pay her eligible creditors.
Her remaining assets, including the home, are then transferred to her heirs. Since your brother passed away after your mother, his portion of the property would also need to be probated so his heirs could transfer the property. This can cost thousands of dollars and take upwards of a year to work its way through the courts.
Your situation highlights the need for proper estate planning. As you can see, having a trust agreement in place will save time, money, and aggravation for all involved.
While having a proper estate plan worked up is not inexpensive, it is much more costly to deal with the consequences of not having a solid plan in place.
