I’m not familiar with estate law, but seeing as you state your family is living on a trailer on the land, seems like either there’d be an exception (I don’t see how having essentially unused rooms on a plot of land would be a problem) or there’s some other stuff going on. Maybe if they’re not paying into the estate to rent the land that’d be an issue, but I have no idea how that works for land held in an estate. I wonder if 100% tax would incentivize him to sell? One way or the other either he sells or the land is repossessed because presumably the estate would not be able to cover the tax.
He’s a very stubborn man, and very convinced an asset he’s never seen has tremendous worth. He was apparently very disappointed that my grandfather only had $100 in his checking.
In this proposed scenario, if he does nothing he loses some money (he’s doing pretty well), but then my parents become homeless through his inaction. That seems wrong.
My family lives on the land yes, but ownership of the land belongs only to the estate. No issue with a rent payment since there was never a rent payment prior to my grandfather’s death.
If your family is living on the property I still don’t understand how this applies? The land is in use, occupied by your family, and is not vacant. If it’s zoned for single family, and a single family lives there, it’s not vacant? As far as them not paying rent now, not really sure how that happens, seeing as the land is now owned by the estate, and they are livening on it for free(?). I’m not sure how that’s not just legally considered squatting, unless there’s an agreement for use of the land provided they maintain it in the interim, but again, not an estate lawyer, nor do I know anything about property stuff. But yea, pretty sure the proposal is not relevant to your situation. It’s like considering a property with a mother in law suite vacant unless there suite is also occupied. That’s not the way it would work.
My grandfather’s home is vacant, my parents live in a separate trailer on the property. So that’s the crux isn’t it, what does vacancy mean? Because on paper this property has an occupied trailer and an unoccupied single family home. It’s one “property” but the trailer and home are taxed separately by the county and owned by different people. The county does consider them seperate dwellings, unlike a mother-in-law suite.
The estate lawyer has made it clear there are no issues from my parents living on the property still and there is no expectations of payment. It’s definently not squatting, 50% of the estate does belong to my parents after all.
Thank you for that information. Who would have guessed estate/property law is complicated. I would still suggest there are solutions to this sort of situation than can be reasonably addressed while still honoring the main purpose of the proposal, but I obviously would not be the person to speak on them.
Good luck to your family. I’m sorry you’re dealing with that.
If 50% of the estate belongs to your parents and there’s already a tax entity for the trailer, then in this example they would go to forced arbitration to draw up their portion of the land ownership and get their single family tax rebate, and the other half of the property would be the part that starts getting a vacancy tax. I’d imagine with a timeline like six months there’d be a whole lot of arbitrations in the short term to settle existing arrangements like this one. Honestly I’m curious what the land ownership looks like already for the trailer - if they can legally stay on the estate then there must be a portion of the ground that already legally belongs to them.
No part of the land is directly owned by my parents. It is owned by the estate, which is 50/50 between my parent and my uncle. Trust me if my parents owned the land under their trailer they would be a lot less stressed.
Like I said them continuing to live there is not an issue. Maybe if my uncle pressed it it would become one, but all he wants is 100k +. So he really doesn’t care beyond that.
Unfortunately his wants aren’t compatible with the reality of the situation.
No one has pursued a forced arbitration, and honestly I’m not sure why. Per the lawyer it seems like the property can exist in limbo indefinitely, or at least until one party forces something. It’s a weird stalemate of unrealistic expectations. He wants a lot of money, but also doesn’t want to pay a lawyer himself or do any work. As long as this continues my parents keep their home at least.
I’m not familiar with estate law, but seeing as you state your family is living on a trailer on the land, seems like either there’d be an exception (I don’t see how having essentially unused rooms on a plot of land would be a problem) or there’s some other stuff going on. Maybe if they’re not paying into the estate to rent the land that’d be an issue, but I have no idea how that works for land held in an estate. I wonder if 100% tax would incentivize him to sell? One way or the other either he sells or the land is repossessed because presumably the estate would not be able to cover the tax.
He’s a very stubborn man, and very convinced an asset he’s never seen has tremendous worth. He was apparently very disappointed that my grandfather only had $100 in his checking.
In this proposed scenario, if he does nothing he loses some money (he’s doing pretty well), but then my parents become homeless through his inaction. That seems wrong.
My family lives on the land yes, but ownership of the land belongs only to the estate. No issue with a rent payment since there was never a rent payment prior to my grandfather’s death.
If your family is living on the property I still don’t understand how this applies? The land is in use, occupied by your family, and is not vacant. If it’s zoned for single family, and a single family lives there, it’s not vacant? As far as them not paying rent now, not really sure how that happens, seeing as the land is now owned by the estate, and they are livening on it for free(?). I’m not sure how that’s not just legally considered squatting, unless there’s an agreement for use of the land provided they maintain it in the interim, but again, not an estate lawyer, nor do I know anything about property stuff. But yea, pretty sure the proposal is not relevant to your situation. It’s like considering a property with a mother in law suite vacant unless there suite is also occupied. That’s not the way it would work.
My grandfather’s home is vacant, my parents live in a separate trailer on the property. So that’s the crux isn’t it, what does vacancy mean? Because on paper this property has an occupied trailer and an unoccupied single family home. It’s one “property” but the trailer and home are taxed separately by the county and owned by different people. The county does consider them seperate dwellings, unlike a mother-in-law suite.
The estate lawyer has made it clear there are no issues from my parents living on the property still and there is no expectations of payment. It’s definently not squatting, 50% of the estate does belong to my parents after all.
Thank you for that information. Who would have guessed estate/property law is complicated. I would still suggest there are solutions to this sort of situation than can be reasonably addressed while still honoring the main purpose of the proposal, but I obviously would not be the person to speak on them.
Good luck to your family. I’m sorry you’re dealing with that.
If 50% of the estate belongs to your parents and there’s already a tax entity for the trailer, then in this example they would go to forced arbitration to draw up their portion of the land ownership and get their single family tax rebate, and the other half of the property would be the part that starts getting a vacancy tax. I’d imagine with a timeline like six months there’d be a whole lot of arbitrations in the short term to settle existing arrangements like this one. Honestly I’m curious what the land ownership looks like already for the trailer - if they can legally stay on the estate then there must be a portion of the ground that already legally belongs to them.
No part of the land is directly owned by my parents. It is owned by the estate, which is 50/50 between my parent and my uncle. Trust me if my parents owned the land under their trailer they would be a lot less stressed.
Like I said them continuing to live there is not an issue. Maybe if my uncle pressed it it would become one, but all he wants is 100k +. So he really doesn’t care beyond that.
Unfortunately his wants aren’t compatible with the reality of the situation.
No one has pursued a forced arbitration, and honestly I’m not sure why. Per the lawyer it seems like the property can exist in limbo indefinitely, or at least until one party forces something. It’s a weird stalemate of unrealistic expectations. He wants a lot of money, but also doesn’t want to pay a lawyer himself or do any work. As long as this continues my parents keep their home at least.