50 year old sister living rent free with mum

mummybest

My sister and her daughter moved in with my widowed mother 2 yrs ago as a temporary measure until she got on her feet again after her divorce. It now transpires that neither her or her daughter have any intention of moving out again. My 74yr old mum is ok with this, understandably so as this is her daughter, and does not charge her rent. She ahs given me a copy of her will where it states that on her death the house is to be sold and the proceeds to be split between my sister and I. My sister has not got any savings, and spends all her cash and basically treats the house as an hotel. Should the day come when the instructions on the Will are to be carried out, what will my position be? I understand that my sister may be classed as a sitting tenant? Really confused, and guidance in the right direction would be much appreciated.

ognum

So is this concern for your Mum or worry about your future inheritence.

You say you Mum is happy with it, you might just check with your Mum that she has change her council tax payment from the reduced single persons rate or she may have a problem!

You Mum may have 20 years to live and could change her will at anytime.

princeofpounds

She won't be a tenant, assuming your mother owns the house and is not renting it on some archaic tenancy format herself.

She lives with her 'landlord' and furthermore doesn't pay rent.

Who is the executor of the will?

mummybest

Thanks for your reply. Both, my sister is not a very nice person. We have spoken to mum about her council tax, and she says she has asked my sister to sort it out, which probably means that it hasn't been done. Nothing we can do there accept point out that in the end the liability will rest with mum.

I also hope that she receives her telegram from the queen, just good to be prepared. What she does with her money is completely up the her, however if things are going to get messy it would be good to have some sound guidance.

BitterAndTwisted

What your mother needs to ensure is that the two of you are not appointed as joint-executors, as there will be far too much room for emotional blackmail and jiggery-pokery.

Going through the process of a legal eviction of a family-member would be far too stressful for both parties.

mummybest

princeofpounds wrote: »

She won't be a tenant, assuming your mother owns the house and is not renting it on some archaic tenancy format herself.

She lives with her 'landlord' and furthermore doesn't pay rent.

Who is the executor of the will?

My mother owns the house out right. The mortgage was repaid many years ago.

I am the executor of the will - she did this as she said she could not trust my sister.

BitterAndTwisted

Well, it seems that your mother has made a very sensible decision in drawing up her will. If your mother doesn't decide to sell up before she dies you are gong to have an extremely nasty time of it evicting your sister in order to fulfill the conditions of the will, which will not be a quick or cheap process if she is unwilling to go. I wish you all the luck in the world

mummybest

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Well, it seems that your mother has made a very sensible decision in drawing up her will. If your mother doesn't decide to sell up before she dies you are gong to have an extremely nasty time of it evicting your sister in order to fulfill the conditions of the will, which will not be a quick or cheap process if she is unwilling to go. I wish you all the luck in the world

it would be good to avoid this situation, this is why I am trying to find out what her rights are, and what my rights are. At the moment I don't know much at all.

princeofpounds

Her rights will be minimal, but you might have to go through the full process.

Regaining possession isn't that expensive in the scale of the estate - a couple of hundred quid maybe - though you might wish to hire a solicitor which could be more reliable but a few more hundred quid on top.

But the time it takes can be a while. Maybe 2 months for court, 2 months for enforcement (though I wouldn't expect it to go to the wire).

If you are the executor then that will make it all much neater, so I don't think you need to worry too much.

BitterAndTwisted

She has no rights: she is your mother's lodger even if she's paying her no rent for the privilege.

When your mother dies, if she hasn't sold up or had to sell it for private nursing-care you will be tied to the conditions of the will and will have to evict her and sell it to divide up the proceeds between you both. If your sister has any money, she might be able to buy your half from you by raising a mortgage on the property, otherwise it will have to be sold.


Note: if she decides to be difficult you could threaten to deduct the cost of the eviction from her share of the proceeds and not yours. This could prove a compelling reason for her to co-operate when/if the time comes.

Tancred

mummybest wrote: »

My sister and her daughter moved in with my widowed mother 2 yrs ago as a temporary measure until she got on her feet again after her divorce. It now transpires that neither her or her daughter have any intention of moving out again. My 74yr old mum is ok with this, understandably so as this is her daughter, and does not charge her rent. She ahs given me a copy of her will where it states that on her death the house is to be sold and the proceeds to be split between my sister and I. My sister has not got any savings, and spends all her cash and basically treats the house as an hotel. Should the day come when the instructions on the Will are to be carried out, what will my position be? I understand that my sister may be classed as a sitting tenant? Really confused, and guidance in the right direction would be much appreciated.

I don't really understand your issue. Once your mum dies the house will be sold and the proceeds split - your sister will then have to move. If she is not paying rent and there is no rental agreement she can hardly be a sitting tenant. This is a family arrangement.