My mother died a little over two years ago. My brother and I inherited, in addition to all her stocks, bonds, CD's, a very nice house that she lived in for a number of years. I lived in the house for about four months while I was deciding where I would live in an apartment somewhere in Phoenix, AZ. I decided to move to a quiet, comfortable studio apartment in the center of the City. Since I have moved and left my mom's former house, my brother has decided to hire a recovering alcoholic who alleges that she has not had a drink in over three years. A number of times I have called her and she either does not return my calls or when I call her, she sounds totally soussed--ie, long strings of incomprehensible gibberish with periodic, though infrequent, interjections of comprehensible English. I tell her that I do not understand what she is talking about and she starts to raise her voice in logical English. Our house has a fairly large pool which we keep clean on a regular basis. The "recovered alcoholic" has young children to pre-adolescents coming over to our house on a regular basis to babysit them. She appears overall to be a very loving and lovable person, but I am still concerned about a child going into the back yard and drowning in our pool. I have asked her not to babysit at our house, but she has not responded in any way, shape or form since I sent her the letter. Since then, she has not returned my voice messages at her phone number. I have expressed my fears to my brother about the possibility of a drowning at our house. Not only do I not want that, but also I do not want to be continuing to sit on the sidelines, not doing anything to prevent an accident from happening. If an accidental drowning does happen some time in the future, what should I be doing now to protect myself from being considered partially responsible for a child drowning in the pool. My brother has not done anything about this situation, even though I have talked with him about it at least two times.
I have stuffed my anger at this lack of concern for quite some time, and it has caused me untold stress. What should I do now--disinherit the house, and give my half to my brother. It would certainly buy me piece of mind about any nefarious possibility from happening.

Do you and your brother have homeowners' insurance on the house? If so, you are protected.

Actually, no, just having home insurance may not protect you. You need to read up on local laws about how to protect a pool area. You need to make sure that the pool is protected according to code. There was a recent event on LI where 2 children went through a hole in a fence and drowned in a neighbor's pool. The homeowner's were charged with negligent homicide.

The second thing that bothers me is you said your brother "hired" this woman. Hired her to do what? Act as a caretaker or what. Or did he rent the house to her?

Another possibility is to report her as an illegal day care center. Have children's services investigate, but I would let your brother know you are doing that first.

You are right to be concerned about your liability but there are ways to limit it.

You can ask your brother to buy you out if he refuses to cooperate.

Maybe this woman doesn't make sense, but I have no idea what you said, either. As Scott said, your brother "hired" this woman, this recovering alcoholic. Hired her to live in the house? That doesn't make sense. Rented the house to her? Something else?

What would I do? I'd consult with an Attorney - maybe insurance would cover an injury or death but do you need the legal hassle of being sued?

It sounds like you haven't talked to your brother - you should. The two of you need to: (a) ensure that there is a proper lease agreement that the woman signs to allow her to live there and pay rent, (b) call the insurance company to let them know that the property is now a rental, and (c) let them know that the woman is running a business out of the house. In all likelihood your insurance rates are about to sky rocket, but that's the price for renting the place out to a woman running a business. So discuss this with your brother and together hopefully you can agree whether this is a good use of the house or not.

I would also stronglty recommend that you buy an excess liability policy ("umbrella" policy) to increase your personal liability coverage beyond what's on your home owner's insurance.

As for your original question which was: can you disinherit the house? The answer is yes but there are stringent rules. The proper term for this is "disclaiming" an inheritance. The rules vary by state, but in general it must be done before you gain control of the asset - in this case before your name is put on the deed. What you do is file an irrevocable disclaimer with the probate court and then the executor of the estate transfers the asset to the next person in line per the terms of the will. But if the deed is in your name as a joint owner then it's too late to disclaim. Instead you could simply quit claim the property to your brother, but be aware that this is equivalent to you making a rather large gift to him and so may result in gift tax or estate planning consequences for you.

Why don't you just sell the house?

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Originally Posted by joypulv

Why don't you just sell the house??

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Would you buy an undivided interest in a house?

Sorry, have you tried to convince your brother to both sell?