My mother and grandmother purchased some property in the state of Illinois.
The problem is that both are now deceased and my brother and myself were considered the trustees to this estate. While we thought the property was in foreclosure someone from the bank forged both of our names to a warranty deed in lieu of foreclosure. Well now the city of Chicago had levied some fines against the property, because my grandmother did not take care of these fines prior to her death, they are trying to hold me responsible for these fines. How can this be possible?

Hello, you have two separate issue,

Firs you ave a possible illegal foreclosure

And you have tax issues on the estate.

As the trustee of the estate it will be your duty to use the money in the estate ( the money they had in the bank and checking account) normally you will move all of their money into a trustee account at the bank and then sell off their property and put that money in the bank if needed.

So on the taxes if you have sold all of their property and there is no money left in their accounts, you merely tell them sorry there is no money left in the estate and they are free to sue the estate if they wish, but there is nothing left.

The people who are trustee of an estate are not personally liable for any of the debts of that estate.. So don't give them any of your personal social security numbers or the such, Many people use a EIN number for the use of the estate, so they don't have to give even the bank their personal Social secuirty number

Now if you wish to have the estate hire an attorney and sue the bank for the forgory, and try to save the property you have that right also.

After all the debts are paid ( each state has its rules on who gets paid first, normally funeral expenses are paid first, then tax and government debts, with non security debts being paid last. You do want to follow the correct procdure for your state in paying those debts.