Selling inherited house when sibling living in it

I think you're awful. You want to make her homeless, and for what?

It is not their 'own money'. It was their mother's. They have done nothing to earn it.

Also I assume you think it was OK for one sister to have been a carer for their elderly parent 24/7 while I assume the others enjoyed their lives, careers and families?

As I have already say I do hope that sister takes this to court and gets a bigger chunk of the estate due to her having been her mother carer which undoubtedly also affected her ability to work.

If your Dsis cared for her for five years rather than your Dm go into a home, every penny of that house (£280k) would have been used on care fees, and there would be no inheritance. I can’t understand why this wasn’t a conversation at least five year’s ago between all four of you. This is where the inability to have grown up conversations gets you all.

Must be so hard on your sister, living and minding your mother and then left like this. Presume she must be angry with your mother for leaving this mess while grieving

Their mother left a will knowing the situation of all 3 of them

If OP steps down as executor a solicitor would charge a fairly large sum to do exactly as rhe will suggests

You seem to easily ignore the avoidant, possibly entitled, behaviour by the one sister to the detriment of the other 2, especially given the poor state of repair the house is reported to be in

Not only will the other 2 have to pay for the upkeep it is likely they will also have to cover the 3rd sisters share.

The legal position OP is in is nothing like many posters here seem to imagine

It’s not like the sister isn’t getting a provision in the will. Also could she afford to run and maintain the house on her own and on her income? It’s not like she needs a family home

I agree that you need legal advice. One point that jumps out to me is that the house is in a bad state of repair - if your Dsis wants to remain living there, how on earth is she going to maintain it? Plus all the household bills that she presumably wasn't paying when your Mum was alive.

As she views you as the Wicked Witch, perhaps your other sibling could sit down with her and go over the financial implications of her staying the house - take a look at the council tax bills, utilities, etc. and estimate what she'd need to live there. It sounds as if she's burying her head in the sand.

I think you are going to need to be pragmatic. You have had the house valued at 280, but unless that was a low ball Red Book valuation for probate, you may only sell for 230+. Then you need to pay estate agents and legal fees etc. the difference between one third of what is left after all the bills and letting your DS having 50% will not amount to that much. You can do a deed of variation to change things.

We were paying over £30 ph for carers up until a year ago and a small room in a nursing home in the SE can be 5k pm - some are double that.

It is horrible dealing with this. I hope you sort it out without permanent damage to your relationships.

Yes - I do; plenty of knowledge. Thanks.

It is entirely borough rules and amount dependent of course@Dutchhouse14 I wish you and all your family all the best.

It was obviously OP's mum's wish that her daughter didn't pay rent while living in the family home. However, it was also OP's mum's wish that her estate was to be divided equally between her three adult children and she made her wishes clear in her will so those wishes should also be respected.

> Point is, it's not about moral duties, legal duties. The OP as executor
The Executor has very specific legal duties
They do not have to 'sort it out'
If the will says to divide the entire estate equally, that requires the sale of the property, OR if, and only if, the property comprises only one third of the estate it can go to one person and the others receive one half of all remaining assets each
There is no ambiguity in the will as OP described
The executor is legally liable for distributing the estate exactly as specified in the will, there is no room for fudge or compromise
The property can be sold and the sister evicted, either by the executor or the purchaser (this will, of course, dissuade all but corporate buyers)
The resident sister has no arguments against a legal will

I agree and frankly there shouldn't be any need to go down that route. Posters pulling completely inapplicable legal concepts from thin air doesn't change the situation and nor does arguing back and forth about who saved what money where.

The best thing OP can do is ignore this thread and ask a solicitor to help navigate all of this. Ideally one who is STEP qualified.

I agree. Just a tiny bit of patience and kindness.

OP said "Although I live with DH and DC, the money would really help my future, my pension etc"

That's hardly an urgent necessity. Surely all of this can wait until the new year, giving in situ sister time to recover a little from the death of her mother and the change in her circumstances.

I'm sure some people quoting the ins and outs of law are correct. I hope the OP doesn't go down that route.
This is a family; they have just lost their mum. Surely everyone involved, but especially the sister who cared for the mum and will be left homeless, needs time, space and understanding to come to terms with what's happened.

First of all you mean proprietary estoppel and not promissory.

Secondly OP has given absolutely no indication that the sister has claimed she was promised the house.

This appears to be an entirely expected will which the sister is not contesting but rather obstructing. There is absolutely no evidence - based on this thread - that there is any proprietary estoppel claim possible.

Get legal advice. Might be around to put it on the market but all owners would need to agree the same and only a lawyer can definitely advise on how easy it would be to force a sale - the costs may impact the benefit of selling also consider if sister doesn't agree it will negatively impact your relationship going forward. If they have never loved else where they may really struggle mentally never financially (which doesn't you d the easiest for them) at the idea of moving. Getting a mortgage alone isn't always the easiest, she may not have much of a credit rating if mid 50s and never moved out.

Ultimately if the resident sister does nothing and sits it out, it will be the court that makes that decision for her, the likely outcome would be a lifetime right to stay.

And who would pay for the repairs and maintenance of the house for the next 30-odd years?

promissory estoppel is the law on this - if the sister was told by mum different to the will, came to rely upon that promise and in doing so acted to her detriment, then there is a case to present.

Would she win, who knows, maybe, maybe not - but at least two components are going to be readily demonstrable here.

You are correct, there is plenty of case law where the resident child has been awarded the house or lifetime leave to remain.

The resident sister can argue promissory estoppel if she claims that she was given assurances (verbal is good enough, written of course better) by the mother, that she came to rely upon acting to her detriment, which in this case would likely be easy to demonstrate.

Let’s say rent should have cost £1000 per month. For 30 years that’s £360k. If DM had gone into care home for 5 years at £6k per month, that also equals £360k so the two things balance out.

The law may be different where I am. That was the legal advice I was given. A woman who had lived her entire life in her mother's house and has only minor income is effectively a dependent, and I believe would be viewed as such.

Unless the sister has some sort of disability which renders her unable to work, which OP hasn't mentioned, she isn't a dependent. She might have depended on the mother for income and housing but that is a very different situation to being a dependent in law, i.e. you are unable to support yourself.

Unless there is information I've missed, she doesn't qualify as a dependent. Choosing not to work or move out is not the same as not being able to.

My understanding is the sister has a claim as a dependent adult child, and could take out a caveat on the house preventing sale, and if it did got to court, she'd have a fair case to get the whole house. This is all worse case scenario, as it's only four months since her mother who she lived with her whole life and was a carer for for 5 years, died, and perhaps she just needs a moment to catch her breath and actually grieve, unlike the OP.

What is more important in law is the written will, not what someone was told.

The only potential claim is that the will has failed to make reasonable financial provision for the sister, and that frankly is going to be a VERY hard bar to meet for a comparatively low value estate that has been split equally between siblings. An equal split for healthy adult siblings would rarely, very very rarely, be regarded as unreasonable. "But I was told" isn't going to cut it, especially when you are already receiving a third of the estate equal to your siblings.

As I have said before, the only thing OP should do is engage a solicitor who can either help with the route forward or who can take on the executorship on her behalf.

Just bear in mind that if you sell, the buyers will likely want her to have moved out PRIOR to exchange of contracts, so she’ll likely need somewhere to go before the property is sold and she receives her share.