My sister and I inherited property from our parents. The wills say equal shares. The property she wanted was $85,000.00 greater than my share. The timber is on a timber deed to me that is to be shared equally. I can not get my sister to understand that I am due $85,000.00 in cash when the timber is sold and then the balance is to be divided equally. I understand that she has a deed to the larger portion of the RE inherited if she refuses to grant me the $85,000.00 balance due me I can not do anything about the inequity of the division. Is this true? Gwen Bell

Who is the executor of the estate? If the will says to split the property equally then the executor is responsible to make that happen. Perhaps what should happen is the executor keeps the property in the estate for now, sells the timber, then distributes the resulting cash and property such that each of you receives the same total amount of property value plus cash. This "true up" of value should happen before the property is distributed to the heirs, not after.

If I read ypou correctly your share of the lumber would be $42500 not a full $85000. The deed says you share the timber equally.

You need to hire an attorney, that will file properly in probate for equal shares to be divided, If they do not want the property to be sold.

First all property should have a new value set by a professional

I agree with EBaines. It sounds like there are multiple properties in the estate. Rather than liquidate the estate the siblings want to leave the properties intact and distribute them that way. This means that is one property appraises for less than another, the sibling getting the large value has to take something less from the estate or reimburse the other sibling.

But this should all be handled by the executor. If the executor fails to distribute the estate equally, then that is grounds for a lawsuit.

For one thing Im not sure your math is up to par on this one. Equal usually means equal. So if her share of the home/property was 85,000 more then the share you received then she would only owe you 1/2 of the difference. Or 42,500. To ask for 85,000 is unjust enrichment.