Niece sold family property

If it was so important how come you hadn’t been there in years or noticed it had been sold until you asked about it?

I would be miffed if my aunt who hadn’t even noticed I had left the country started asking about my property tbh.

I would be livid. You had an emotional connection to the property and she didn’t. She probably saw it as a way to make a good amount of money.

It's because people haven't bothered to read the entire OP and also the thread title is misleading.

It's a shame that your neice has cut contact with you OP, I expect that hurts quite badly.

Your response acts like the OP did the niece a huge favour? She helped organise her sister's funeral which is quite normal and helped the niece sort some insurance something many people of the nieces age need support with.

The niece then moved back less than a year later into he flat and yet it seems at that point she was indeed ignored by her aunt and maternal family, less than one year after her mother died her aunt wasn't in touch with her?

Why would the niece then ask family who weren't in contact with her about the property, it was clear they weren't interested in her if they all stopped making the effort so soon after her mother death.

It's no wonder the poor women sold it quickly and left all the sadness behind.

Hi, so my parents owned a property that has been in our family for generations. About 15 years ago my parents had to move out as it was a flat in a building which did have a lift but it didn’t go to the top floor and they weren’t mobile enough to use the stairs. My sister was going through a divorce at this time and moved in. When my parents passed away in 2019 and 2020 respectively they left the flat to my sister in its entirety as she was living there. I got the holiday home and some savings they had but ultimately the flat was worth much more (central London location). I didn’t really mind as long as it stayed in the family.
my sister then passed away quite suddenly in 2022. My niece was abroad for university but it was left to her. We stepped in to help with funeral planning etc as my niece was only 21 at the time and an only child. We also helped her organise insurance for the property, and we were the ones who checked in on it regularly while she was abroad.
She moved back to London for her masters in 2023 and moved back in, we lost touch with her despite trying to keep contact, she wasn’t interested.

The property meant a lot to me, I remember my grandparents living there, then in my late teens and uni years I lived there with my parents, then it was my sisters. We no longer live anywhere near London as we moved 2 years ago but I liked knowing it was in the family.

Recently my son asked me what happened to the flat, I asked what he meant and he told me that he had noticed niece had moved back to her country of birth and fathers home country so probably wasn’t using the flat. I reached out to my niece and she told me she had sold it. I got extremely upset, and was probably a bit harsh on her. But if I had known she was wanting to sell I’d have found a way to purchase it myself for my own family. However she gave me no notice she was planning to do this.

She told me she didn’t want to keep it as it reminded her too much of her mums death, which is fair enough. However I think it was extremely insensitive of her to sell a property that had been in the family for so long without checking in with me or my cousins.

My husband thinks I’m being unreasonable as the property wasn’t mine, it was my nieces to do as she wished with and that happened to be selling it. However I’m not disagreeing with her right to sell it just her choice not to check if anyone in the family wanted to buy it before letting strangers have it (and most likely turn it into a rental or AirBnB).

AIBU?

Your response acts like the OP did the niece a huge favour? She helped organise her sister's funeral which is quite normal and helped the niece sort some insurance something many people of the nieces age need support with.

The niece then moved back less than a year later into he flat and yet it seems at that point she was indeed ignored by her aunt and maternal family, less than one year after her mother died her aunt wasn't in touch with her?

Why would the niece then ask family who weren't in contact with her about the property, it was clear they weren't interested in her if they all stopped making the effort so soon after her mother death.

It's no wonder the poor women sold it quickly and left all the sadness behind.

Yes I do.

Very hard to lose your mum, but very odd not to notify the rest of the family that you were selling their parents’ flat, particularly given OP had herself lived in it.

Perhaps you didn’t read the OP properly - DN wasn’t “ignored” by the OP. She was at uni abroad, and the OP helped with funeral planning, organised insurance for the property and checked it regularly while she was away at uni.

I was ready to YABU but the fact is you don’t mind her selling it - you’d have just like to have been told. For that YANBU and I’m surprised so many disagree.

I don’t think she wanted permission - she would have liked the option to buy that’s all.

I would be livid. You had an emotional connection to the property and she didn’t. She probably saw it as a way to make a good amount of money.