What Are My Rights When Inheriting a House with Siblings?

When deciding how to divide inherited property between siblings, the first thing you should do as a beneficiary is to consult the will or trust document. What percentage interest of the home have you been designated? Did the decedent leave instructions about whether to sell the home or keep it in the family?

When specific instructions regarding the disposal of the property are not provided in the decedent’s estate planning documents, the executor or trustee generally has the right to proceed with disposing of it as they see fit. Executors and trustees are fiduciaries, so it is their duty to do what is best for the estate or trust, respectively. This means that they sometimes have to make decisions that are not in line with what all beneficiaries want.

There is a lot to consider when deciding how to divide inherited property between siblings, such as your financial situation and whether you can afford the home if you were to take ownership of it. You also have to consider the preferences of your siblings.

Whether or not you will be allowed to reside in the home you were left depends on a variety of factors, which can include the terms of the will or trust, the executor’s or trustee’s discretion, and any agreements reached between you and your siblings. Hypothetically, if a will or trust says you and your siblings receive equal shares of a property, all of you are entitled to use and enjoy it once you have the title to it; however, in most instances, siblings jointly using and enjoying a property is impractical, so another agreement will have to be reached about how to divide the inherited property between siblings.

It is important for any beneficiary who is set on taking ownership of a home to consult with a lawyer to learn how best to enforce their right to the property. They should keep in mind that if their desire to remain in the home conflicts with their siblings’ desire to sell the home, a partition action could ultimately lead to a forced sale of the property.

Another scenario may be that you would like to reside in the home before it is disposed of through the will or trust. This might be possible, but only if fair rental value is paid to the estate or trust, respectively.

Although there are exceptions, homes being disposed of through a will do generally need to pass through probate, which is a court-supervised process. While property held by a trust does pass through trust administration, it is not generally a court-supervised process.

As for dividing inherited property among siblings once the title of the property has been transferred to them, it is usually not required for the court to get involved unless the siblings cannot reach a mutual agreement on their own about how to do it. Only when siblings cannot agree on a route of action does it become necessary to bring something known as a partition lawsuit. We will delve more into partition actions in the next section of this article.

You’ve inherited your parents’ home with your siblings. You want to keep it in the family, but they want to sell. You’re probably wondering: Can siblings force the sale of inherited property? What steps can I take to try to maintain ownership of the home?

The forced sale of property can occur even in instances where the majority of co-owners wish to keep ownership of the home, as the court generally cannot coerce anyone into remaining a co-owner of a property if they do not wish to be.

Even if a partition action is started, it can be settled out of court. Those seeking to keep ownership of the home could try to seek a buyout agreement as part of the partition lawsuit. If such an agreement cannot be reached, the court will usually decide to put the property up for sale – at which point, it is out of the control of all the co-owners.

It is important to note that the winner of the partition suit can ask the court to award them attorney’s fees and costs. This could mean that the party defending the partition action could be forced to cover the litigation costs of the other side or that the costs could be covered by the proceeds from the sale of the property.

Another scenario in which partition actions are common occurs when the property being inherited did not fully belong to the decedent (i.e., the decedent had been a co-owner with a third party). It is often illogical for the family members inheriting the decedent’s share of such a property to maintain their ownership.

Take, for example, a decedent who had co-owned a vacation property with a friend. The decedent designated the property to go to their children in their will, but would the children be willing to share the property with the decedent’s friend? They would have to buy out the friend’s interest, or vice versa. If a deal cannot be made, and one party refuses to sell the property, it may be necessary to bring a partition lawsuit.

Sometimes the co-owner of a piece of property is a trust. The trustee of a trust can also bring a partition suit to try and force the sale of the property. Trusts are likewise entitled to defend partition actions and negotiate buyout agreements.

When a piece of property is co-owned, partition actions are generally a viable solution for any co-owner seeking to terminate their interest in the property by forcing its sale. Certain titles to properties, however, are binding; in these instances, partition actions cannot usually be brought.

If a co-owner is wondering about how to stop a partition action, they should keep in mind that doing so is very difficult, albeit possible. It is crucial they hire a probate lawyer to help defend their ownership rights. In fact, even those set on forcing the sale of jointly owned property through a partition action should hire a probate lawyer to achieve the best possible outcome for their case.

It’s important to remember that partition actions cannot be brought by persons who are not yet owners of a property. For instance, if you are inheriting a house with siblings, but the executor or trustee has not yet transferred the title, you are not considered an owner of the home, and therefore, you cannot bring a partition action.

If the executor or trustee is delaying transferring the home or selling the home because they are residing in it rent-free, this is wrong, but it is not cause for a partition action. In this situation, it would be best to petition the court to have the executor or trustee removed and surcharged with help from a trust and estate lawyer.

The last step of splitting property is where it gets complicated. The obvious and least complicated way of proceeding would be to sell the home and divide the proceeds from the sale among the siblings; however, what do you do if one sibling wants to keep ownership of the property?

As the executor or trustee, you are entitled to make decisions about the estate or trust, respectively. Those decisions generally include the right to sell property without obtaining consent from beneficiaries. Whether you should do so is a different story. As a fiduciary, you are supposed to represent the interests of beneficiaries, so when making a significant decision such as selling an inherited home, it is wise to involve them in the decision.

Inherited property splits between siblings can get complicated when siblings don’t agree on how to divide the inherited property. The best option is generally to involve a probate lawyer who can either mediate the dispute, help create and execute a buyout agreement, or, if it comes down to it, bring or defend a partition action. A probate lawyer might also be able to help if the personal representative or trustee is trying to sell estate or trust property, respectively, that the siblings do not want being sold.