So, this is a long story that I'm going to try and make as short as possible without being vague or omitting details. On my mother's side of the family were 5 total siblings. My grandparents owned two homes almost next door to each other. Over a 3 year period both my grandparents, my mother and all of my aunts and uncles except for 1 aunt passed away (A long story for another thread). The one remaining aunt was the listed trustee of the trust the homes are in and executor of the estate. The condition of my grandparents will was that the homes were to be sold upon the deaths of both my grandparents and funds and remaining assets distributed equally among the 5 children and/or their remaining heirs. The problem here is that the remaining aunt still lives in one of the homes that has yet to be sold and is dragging her feet on selling it. The house is still full of not only her stuff but the stuff left over from my grandparents. We have offered to help but she's always been stubborn and insists on doing stuff herself, however being a procrastinator she never does anything quickly. It's gotten to the point that myself, my brother and the remaining heirs are getting frustrated. Not because we're obsessed with the money, but it's the last remaining hurdle with everything we've been through and we just want it over with. Unfortunately at this point she has started going limited contact, insists she's working on it but it's near impossible to get her on the phone, and even if we know she's home and we knock on the door she won't answer.

I really, really don't want to pursue legal action but I fear that we're running out of options. It's been about 5 years at this point. We initially didn't rush the issue given everything that happened, but now it's getting a bit ridiculous. We've missed multiple good housing markets and we're just losing money at this point.

I guess my question is, what options do we have if we had to go the legal route. I would assume file a complaint with the probate court? This isn't my area of expertise and I know it varies state to state but any general advice would help.

You will likely need a competent trust and probate lawyer, as the existence of the trust, and the rules governing succession when there are multiple deaths during an administration period can get complicated.

I am a lawyer, BU grad, and am still (inactive license) Mass Bar Certified.

I don't know the exact answer to your problem but I'd be happy to have a call with you, help you sort out your facts, and then potentially identify a local lawyer with the right skills to help you out.

email is in profile, and I have time to talk this afternoon.

A

I'm assuming from your comments that a probate proceeding has been opened with the court. If that is the case, the easiest first step would be to file a motion requesting a status or case management conference. That is essentially a meeting with the probate judge, the personal representative of the estate, and any interested beneficiaries (like you) to discuss where the case is and what needs to happen for it to end. You can use that opportunity to very calmly explain to the judge that little progress is being made and you have some concern that the PR may have a conflict of interest given that she is living in a home she is supposed to be selling.

The real point here isn't to get anyone in trouble, it's to let your aunt know that as PR she has a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries and will be held accountable for how she behaves. It also sets the stage for future action by the court, if necessary.

If money isn't the issue then let her die in peace in her home if at all possible.

I'll shoot you an email Artie. I'm at the firehouse today. Would after this weekend work?

Dave the case is not currently open in court. Nothing has been filed.

KH, I should have mentioned. All of the siblings died young. This isn't a case of an elderly child in the home. She (hopefully) has many many years left.

Yes. I'm around all next week; generally afternoons are best, but we can figure out a time by email.

quote:

Dave the case is not currently open in court. Nothing has been filed.

Are you saying that the will was never filed and she was never officially appointed as the executor of the estate, if so, how was the first house sold without an appointed executor.

Sounds like with a will and a trust, and the trustee and executor being one in the same you need competent legal representation to at least advise you on the steps.

Hopefully Artie can point you in the right direction.

I am currently going through something similar.

5 siblings.

Both of my parents died 9 months apart.

We had 3 houses to deal with.

My oldest brother has lived in one of the houses for 45 years. He’s the executor of the estate too.

He was dragging his feet on things until he met with the family lawyer and was told he has a legal fiduciary responsibility to all of us to liquidate the estate.

That’s what it took to get things going. We have sold 2 of the 3 properties. Naturally the house he lives in has not been sold yet.

Progress is being made on the 3rd house and it looks like it should be on the market by May.

It’s not a comfortable feeling to tell family to get out!

Good luck and get a lawyer involved if you don’t have one. It did the trick for my family.

I work for a financial firm that has a trust department. One big reason and a selling point we use to name a financial firm as a co-trustee or sole trustee is in addition to professional advice and advice, the siblings involved can just point to the big bad bank trust officer and say “hey man sorry about you living in the house, but bank says you gotta sell and pay us out our share. Not me making it up, the bank is just doing what mom and dad said to do in the trust”

quote:

It’s not a comfortable feeling to tell family to get out!

They don't have to get out. They could purchase it themselves. I know that it's not always feasible, but it's honestly the first place to start.

I was helping a friend of mine from high school deal with a partition suit brought against her by her cousin. They equally inherited a house, my friend lived in it, and the cousin wanted to sell it. Instead of approaching my friend, she just filed suit.

It could have cost them both a lot of money as it would have been sold on the courthouse steps. Instead my friend suggested to the judge that they work together instead of fighting, ended up getting a real estate agent involved, and it all worked out in the end to the benefit of both parties.

Find an experienced lawyer with a probate-litigation and consider a mediator. If that's a no-go try binding arbitration.

I'm not a lawyer and don't live in your state. I am, however, familiar with Trusts.

The Trust will have (should have) lots of instructions about how things are done. As a beneficiary of the trust (as your mother's heir), you have the right to have a copy of the relevant documents (wills and trusts) and to hold the Trustee to the terms of her position. There may be instructions within the trust on replacing a Trustee.

Your first task then is to carefully read and understand the structure and instructions in the Will and the Trust. Does the Trust allow for "The sole discretion of the Trustee"? What provisions are there for timeliness or for failure to accomplish the required distributions?

The Probate Court should be involved in the Wills. It sounds from your description that the Wills have all been probated, and all that remains is the one house which sits in a Trust with no other official assets in the Trust.

A good estate lawyer can tell you if you have cause to have the Trustee removed or to otherwise speed things up.

How are the expenses for the home being paid? Is the Trust (i.e. the Trustee) managing the property responsibly, to include receiving reasonable rent from the tenant (who is the Trustee)? If she is living there free, and even more so if she is using Trust assets to pay the expenses for the home (taxes, maintenance, utilities), then you and any other heirs are having your rightful assets stolen.

I know that isn't very polite or generous for me to put it that way, but I have experienced relatives greedily depriving the rest of the family of their intended inheritance. Somewhere along the way there is a line between your aunt being slow and her being intentionally abusive of her situation.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
I'll shoot you an email Artie. I'm at the firehouse today. Would after this weekend work?

Dave the case is not currently open in court. Nothing has been filed.

KH, I should have mentioned. All of the siblings died young. This isn't a case of an elderly child in the home. She (hopefully) has many many years left.

Understood. Artie is sharp and will get you pointed in the right direction. It’s not absolutely necessary to probate a will if the assets are all in a trust - one of the purposes of a trust is to avoid probate. That said, a trustee has the same fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries as a PR does in probate so it comes to the same thing.


I’d start by building a consensus among the beneficiaries regarding what you want done and by when. Once you have that you can then approach her with a united message. If that fails you may have to remove her as trustee.