[JMHICKS]

Three brothers were the sole survivor of an estate. An oral agreement was made by the brothers for one of the brothers to live in the estate home as long as he wanted or a decision was made to sell the home. An oral agreement was made that the rent reinburfsement would be taken out of the proceeds when the house was sold. Five years later the brother whom lived in the house died. The house has been sold. Can t?he surviving brothers recover the rent?

[ebaines]

First, turn off your caps lock key - it looks like you're shouting at us!

Second - this appears to be a homework question, so please tell us what you think the answer is and why, and then we can comment.

[JMHICKS]

Three brothers are beneficiaries of their deceased mothers home. One of the brothers decided to live in the house until the house was sold with the understanding that the rental fee would be taken out when the house sold and closed. This was an orfal agreement between the brothers. The brother died five years later. The house sold. The house sold. His will left everything to his two surviving brothers. Is the surviving brothers have a right to the loss rent before any outstanding claims or suits in probate.

[massplumber2008]

Hi Jmhicks...

You posted this question in the wrong category... should probably be over in the LAW area under real estate law.

I'll see if I can get the moderators to bump this thread over to real estate law.

After that, pop back in/out a few times and eventually one or more of our experts will post a helpful response, OK?

Meanwhile, post back on what state your are from so they can localize an answer for you... :)

Mark

[AK lawyer]

Jmhicks:
you apparently overlooked Ebaines' request that you turn off your caps lock key. Please don't write in all-caps.

First, when you write that that the brothers were "beneficiaries" or "sole survivor" (sic), am I correctly assuming that they inherited the home from their mother? Was her estate probated and the home conveyed to them as tenants in common, or is her estate still in probate and the probate PR has sold the house?

Do the surviving brothers have a right to the agreed-upon 5 years of rent before other creditors of the dead brother are paid by his estate? No. All creditors should be paid equally. If there is not enough to go around, they all should be paid a pro-rated portion of what is available.

[JMHICKS]

The house belonged to my mother and her estate went to probate and was closed. The deceased brother file is in active probate. Can the surviving brothers file a claim against his estate for the five years of rent on an oral agreement and claim superced other creditors. And or suitors.

[Fr_Chuck]

Yes, they may, since rental is allowed to be on oral agreement,
The issue will be if the court ( judge) will believe there was a rental agreement. Also the rent would be owed to the estate or to the owners of the building, which he was 1/3. So was the rent set at an amount to be 2/3 or normal to take into consideration of his ownership ?

The math will be complicated, so don't expect anyone to be happy when it is over even if the court accepts the rent.

[JMHICKS]

Knox county, knoxville. Tenn.

[ScottGem]

Any share in the estate, not yet distributed would go to the deceased brother's estate. That share would be NET of the rental that was supposed to be deducted from his share. The math may be a little complicated but the concept shouldn't be.

A simplified example would look like this: If the estate was worth $120K, each brother was entitled to $40K. If the agreed rental costs were $500/month the deceased brother's estate would owe the mother's estate $30K ($6k/yr * 5 years) so the deceased brother's estate woiuld get $10K from mom's estate and the other 2 brothers split the $30K.