I have an estate planning question. My aunt and mother are both listed on the deed for a single family house they inherited from their parents. Only the aunt lives in the residence, pays taxes and utilities, and maintains the property.
When the property is sold, how should the proceeds be divided? Obviously my Mother says 50/50. The rest of us say that the aunt should recoup at least her improvements made over the years (new siding, HVAC, carpets, etc) and then the remaining proceeds split 50/50. I would appreciate your opinion. Thanks in advance.

Of course the aunt also got use of the property as her home, so if you want to start adding to recoup, then she has to be liable for the value of the right to have lived in the property, so if they spent 30,000 over the last 10 years keeping the property up, they may have also gotten 40,000 in value of living there.

But no, basically what ever the percentage of ownership on the deed is, that is how the value if divided unless there is a prior written agreement.

So yes 50/50 is the base to be used.

I guess ifyou wanted to, as you want add up all they spend, then subtract what a similar home would have rented for in the area, but most likely aunt would get less money unless they spend a lot on the property.

Hello o:

I think your Aunt should be entitled to the money she put into the house IF she paid rent to your mother. But, she didn't pay rent did she? Then you might consider her costs for maintaining the house, the costs of living in it - or in other words, - rent.

excon

And I guess I have to ask, why do you care, I would think you would want your mom to get what is legally hers ?

Also this is just between your mom and her sister, the rest of the family should just stay out of it,

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

And I guess I have to ask, why do you care, I would think you would want your mom to get what is legally hers ?

Also this is just between your mom and her sister, the rest of the family should just stay out of it,

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Excellent advice, thanks for answering.

On a side note: When there are two people on a deed, as I described with my Aunt and Mother, and one of them dies and leaves their interests to their children, how do the children obtain their share? Can the beneficiaries "force" a sale of a property in order to obtain their inheritance?

Keep in mind this is not a normal family! My mother's will leaves her half of the house to my sister only, and this sister would definitely want to cash out if possible.