[jerseybred]

My father and his girlfriend inherited a house. They immediately gave the house to my brother and me (without our consent or knowledge at the time) and attached a life estate to the deed for each of them. My brother and I kind of just ignored the whole thing after we found out about it. My father recently died and now his girlfriend has been acting very badly towards my brother and me. They never lived in the house and rented it out to an old family friend. Now she wants to rent it out to somebody else. The thing is, my brother and I do not want to pay taxes, insurance and upkeep on this house for what may well be 30 years and not realize any benefit. Today's market value would probably only be around 45,000. How can we get rid of this house? Nobody wants to buy it with a life estate attached. If we can sell it to the girlfriend for little to nothing, what kind of taxes are my brother and I looking at. If we give it to her, what kind of taxes are we going to owe. I would like to realize some money from this but it is more important that we just some how come out even (my brother and I do not have any money). It seems to me you shouldn't be able to just give real estate to somebody without their consent and signature. If that was always the case, "Joe Smith" could be able to give his toxic mold laden, asbestos filled, condemned house to his worst enemy and not be bothered with it anymore. I live in West Virginia and this all seems to be legal here. I have consulted an attorney, but she seems to not be much help.

[AK lawyer]

My father and his girlfriend inherited a house. They immediately gave the house to my brother and me (without our consent or knowledge at the time) and
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It seems to me you shouldn't be able to just give real estate to somebody without their consent and signature.
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I live in West Virginia and this all seems to be legal here. I have consulted an attorney, but she seems to not be much help.

Normally a conveyance of real property isn't effective unless the grantee (you, in this case) accepts it. This doesn't come up a lot because it's grantees normally accept what's given them. I would be very surprised if West Virginia law on this subject differs from that of the rest of the world (or those parts of the world subject to the Common Law). Why don't you simply give your father's mistress a quit claim deed (reciting that you never accepted it so it isn't yours but desire to clear up the title)? As far as gift tax is concerned, I believe there is a very large exemption so that shouldn't be a problem, but in any event that tax would be her problem.

Even if you do own the house subject to the life estates, the taxable value of your remainder would be a lot less than the value of the entire fee simple (life estates plus remainder). If you want, charge her a few bucks for the trouble.