Beneficiary info
My mother was left 1/4 share of her sister-in-laws estate. We were approached by the executor which is the daughter of the deceased, offering my mother to settle for 24,000.00. It was this or she would have to give them 6000.00 the following week for house upkeep. My aunt has only been dead 2 months and the house has a clear deed. the house is probably a 225,000.00 house. My Mother is considering agreeing to this because she is on a fixed income and has no money for upkeep on the house. They also want to remodel the house before trying to see it. Should she agree to this and can she be made to pay 1/4 on repairs or upkeep? It seems the house could be sold as is . We actually have no idea what my aunt has. Is there a way to find this out?
Re: Beneficiary info
The executor would seem to be "steam-rolling" your mother into what the executor wants and not necessarily what's in your mother's best interests.
Their offer of a $24K buyout appears to be roughly half of what your mother's 1/4 interest in the property is really worth. The demand for the immediate payment of $6K from your mother for upkeep and maintenance for work which hasn't even been performed borders on the absurd.
Your mother (in my view) should refuse
these offers/demands and tell them to sell the house. If they want to do some remodeling/refurbishing before it's sold, your mother would agree to a reasonable share of this expense but she must be given a reasonable estimate
of what her share might be before the work is to proceed.
If no agreement can be reached on any
of these issues which reasonably protects your mother's 1/4 share interest in the property, she should simply tell the executor to proceed with an executor's sale of the property
and deposit the sale proceeds in the estate account.
