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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

1 sibling just given a house

395 replies

canary1 · 20/07/2021 07:40

My parents have two houses, one they live in, one has sat empty for many years. The empty house was inherited. I’ve just been told third hand that one of my siblings is to be given it, is moving into it, and in addition, is being financially assisted by my parents to do the work that needs doing to it. It will be her house.
Some may say I’m merely jealous, but of course I’m jealous that one sibling has been this on a plate, while the rest of us work hard to achieve far less.
I also feel it confirms my parents’ hurtful and now blatantly obvious bias towards her.
AIBU to feel hurt and upset by this news?

OP posts:
marton4710 · 22/07/2021 10:39

You must feel very hurt. One way to be sure is to contact the District Land Registry and ask for a copy of the entries on the Register. This will show ownership. This can be done on line and you don’t need to tell family you have done it as it is open to the public. There will be a small fee but may be worth your while.

Hope everything works out well for you

mary1066 · 22/07/2021 10:40

If it were me, I'd ask my parents what their plans were for their empty house, hoping to get some facts from them for the sake of my mental state and based on those facts decide how to deal with the situation personally in a healthy way, and how to deal with them in a healthy way too. It's extremely painful for children to experience parents exercising discrimination amongst their children. It's very toxic, harmful and painful for the unchosen siblings. I hope, you deal with your situation in the healthiest possible way irrespective of what you find out.

Whydidimarrythisfamily · 22/07/2021 11:11

I'm sad that you are treated so differently but try to think of it that you are free and are your own person.
You owe none of them anything.

When my sister passed away I found out from my cousin in Australia.

Families they are all the same xx

Foxylass · 22/07/2021 11:37

This is so sad, I totally sympathise with you.
You say that you are not ready to speak to your parents or the sibling, but I would send an email, text...whatever asking for info because if there has been a misunderstanding (not sounding likely, but you never know), you will be relieved to know the facts. if it is true that your parents have gifted sibling the house, you could ask why.
It could be a way to limit inheritance tax? Avoid care home fees?

They may have agreed a trade off - have the house but nothing in our will????

Ask - just ask.

X

EKGEMS · 22/07/2021 13:10

@Mothership4two I'm trying not to imagine those dynamics at that age but you're right who wants to experience that?

notsofussy · 22/07/2021 15:08

We gave my divorced single parent daughter a house we had inherited. If I had more than one child I am afraid she wouldnt have got a whole house but a large deposit on a house.

sadperson16 · 22/07/2021 15:17

Families they are all the same

But they aren't. My partners elderly parents were impeccably fair.

Tzimi · 22/07/2021 17:07

@marton4710

You must feel very hurt. One way to be sure is to contact the District Land Registry and ask for a copy of the entries on the Register. This will show ownership. This can be done on line and you don’t need to tell family you have done it as it is open to the public. There will be a small fee but may be worth your while.

Hope everything works out well for you

That's what I suggested! That way you can establish who the property belongs to & whether it has changed hands.
Sudoku88 · 22/07/2021 17:25

@WeatherForecast

Going against the grain here to say YABU, on a few levels.

I've been in a similar situation being given £2000 while a sibling received ten times that amount, won't bore you with the details.

I think it's telling that this sibling is the only one who isn't a homeowner, and hasn't formed a steady relationship. I don't know if those two facts are linked in her situation, but it's far, far easier to get a mortgage when there are two of you to contribute a deposit, pay the mortgage, contribute to upkeep, and shoulder problems like redundancy that may befall any of us. If the rest of you have got partners and bought homes then it makes sense why if your parents wanted to give the property to one of you they'd choose her. A way of helping her to get on equal footing with the rest of you despite not having had the fortune to meet a partner like the rest of you have.

Secondly, I do think YABU to feel as though you have any right or claim over someone else's property. It comes across a bit like you feel as though it should have been yours or partly yours and now you're upset because it's been taken away from you. It was never yours, you and your parents are separate people and it's their home to do what they want with. Even if their choices don't make sense to you (or don't benefit you as much as you'd like them to).

'The rest of us work far harder to end up with a lot less' is a really horrible attitude to have. I worked hard to lift myself out of poverty and become a homeowner but that doesn't mean that outcome didn't also materialise due to a lot of privilege too. Meeting a partner is a major thing that not everyone is lucky enough to do. Being a homeowner (including with a mortgage, even if you don't own outright) is absolutely huge and something many people dream of but will never have. Your sister has I assume been paying rent for years while you pay towards buying your property, that doesn't make either of you more or less hard workers (you said yourself she has a career!).

What's fair isn't necessarily giving the precise same thing to every single child, and your parents have made their decision because they want your sister to have the home, not any of the rest of you. And that's down to them. If you allow something like this to ruin your relationship with them then I think you'll really regret it, there's no real way you can approach this with them without it seeming preposterous and entitled (imagine a grown adult crying to their parents because of what they've decided to do with a house they own, while being a homeowner themselves!).

I know you're coming across really bitter and quite nasty but I hope that's the shock talking and that once you've calmed down and processed it a bit you'll realise how unreasonable you're being here. I would hate to see it destroy your family relationships, but you do what you gotta do.

Totally disagree with what has been said here. I don’t think you’re being unreasonable or petty at all. OP your feelings are completely justified.

A similar thing happened to me. One of my siblings had always been helped and given things probably to the tune of well over 100k. He was the golden child. My mum couldn’t do enough to help/ carrry him whilst I had to struggle and find my way in life.

Then one day I was told he was being given the family home which we all grew up in as I had my properties (which my OH and I had sacrificed so much to buy Nd

Sudoku88 · 22/07/2021 17:28

Submitted previous message too early.

Basically I still had massive mortgages to pay off, but my sibling was given the family home (worth about 1 million) on a plate amongst all the other help he’d been given.

It’s not about been greedy, it’s about being treated like you don’t matter at all, and very very difficult to stomach.

Petlover9 · 22/07/2021 18:01

"CrouchEndTiger12

Very well. When my parents came to be elderly I wouldn't lift a finger to help.

The other sibling can do the care and the running around after them.

I'd be very upset and I not sure I could ever spend time with them much again"

I totally agree with this. Maybe, you could bring the empty house up in a conversation and say something along the lines of - when you sell it, will you divide it between all your children because I am struggling with (something urgent). and could do with some help. I would be devastated OP and if it goes ahead I would do nothing to help them, EVER

HoneyNutLoop · 23/07/2021 06:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sadperson16 · 23/07/2021 08:15

Can I ask anybody who has been the victim of this ,how they moved away from the hurt and on with their lives please? Thanks

ScrollingLeaves · 23/07/2021 14:07

You could try to see if there might be any justification? Being honest to yourself, does your sister help them a lot, or do they envisage that she will? Even though you could not do this because you grew up and had a family and other responsibilities but you shouldn’t be ‘punished’ for this, could they be being practical? A nursing/care home costs well over £1000 per week.

You could speak to them and ask.

If there is no real reason you can come to understand, I don’t think you can get over it unless you believe that in some divine way- separate from them- you will always have what you need. Or that karma will resolve the unfairness.

ScrollingLeaves · 23/07/2021 14:12

I do think your parents or one of them may have held your sister back. There seems to be some sort of enmeshment involved which may explain why she has not been or is not in a relationship.

You could be happy that you missed out on whatever it was that affected her.

expat101 · 23/07/2021 20:18

@sadperson16

Can I ask anybody who has been the victim of this ,how they moved away from the hurt and on with their lives please? Thanks
I don’t think you fully do… in DH’s case if he is reflecting on this or that, his speaks of his frustration over how his sister manipulated MIL until the end and then helped herself to the bank account after she died, comes up.

I’m trying to help him understand it was also very much his mother’s choice and that she wasn’t a silly person either.

He has an elderly friend of the family he sees a couple of times a year and in some ways that has been good for him to have someone else from those times share their memories as then it’s not much a lonely place to feel like he is the only one who noticed what was going on. ..

We saw SIL some years back with her new partner and she approached DH, ignoring me and our family. I don’t know what she thought DH’s reaction was going to be, but he restrained himself very well and said to her that he had nothing to say to her whatsoever and moved away.

I think the best thing to do, like with most unpleasant experiences, is to start to make newer, better memories to reflect on down the track. There are definitely some things you can never change after the fact, and you also cannot let them eat away at you either.

Do what you can at the time.

Jux · 24/07/2021 18:55

If you can't bear to speak to them, how about writing to them? Not email, a letter. Tell them how you feel, how their action has made you feel. Try to state it calmly and factually rather than emotionally. You could add that obviously they knew it would be upsetting to all of you as they've failed to mention it for some time. Ask them if they would discuss all of this openly and honestly with you and all your siblings (golden girl included) in order that you can all understand and put it behind you, you d o need to do something like this or you will all be feeling ill-treated, unloved and resentment for a long time.

ScrollingLeaves · 24/07/2021 20:20

It is the patents not being open and not explaining that is particularly harmful.

Maggiesfarm · 24/07/2021 20:25

The op (Canary) hasn't been back for a few days.
I wonder if she has found out some more detail and/or has come to terms with it. I hope so.

Tzimi · 24/07/2021 21:52

@Jux

If you can't bear to speak to them, how about writing to them? Not email, a letter. Tell them how you feel, how their action has made you feel. Try to state it calmly and factually rather than emotionally. You could add that obviously they knew it would be upsetting to all of you as they've failed to mention it for some time. Ask them if they would discuss all of this openly and honestly with you and all your siblings (golden girl included) in order that you can all understand and put it behind you, you d o need to do something like this or you will all be feeling ill-treated, unloved and resentment for a long time.
But OP doesn't even know if ownership of the house has been transferred to her sister! She needs to do a land registry search to establish the facts.
clartins · 25/07/2021 08:46

Have you spoken to your parents about this? I wouldn’t go in all guns blazing, I’d just ask why if that’s what I wanted to know. Their explanation may resolve this. You never know you might be left the other house…..

ExpatAl · 25/07/2021 09:25

Op, you must discuss with your parents. It’s not fair. We are 6 kids and eldest sister made several big stupid life changing decisions- decisions we all begged her not to take. Now she’s single, ill and skint and my mum briefly considered giving her the house and other valuable things outright. She can’t do it and knows it. The fact she considered it was hurtful enough, I can’t imagine finding a fait accompli. Hugs.

GrandmasCat · 25/07/2021 09:32

It may be as innocent and simple as sister renting the house from parents to save a bit of money herself and generate an income for the parents.

Tzimi · 25/07/2021 10:03

@GrandmasCat

It may be as innocent and simple as sister renting the house from parents to save a bit of money herself and generate an income for the parents.
So do a land registry search to see who house belongs to!
CatsArePeople · 25/07/2021 11:20

Why was the house sitting empty for years? Seems selfish, wasteful, impractical.