Can Uncle/new wife sell family estate while his children still reside & pay mortgage on?

[Jela]

Jurisdiction

Indiana

This is a slightly complicated issue, so I'll try to be brief. My aunt and uncle took over my grandparents estate after my grandfather (aunt's father) passed away. The property was actually divided between them and my mother, where they inherited the house and two acres and my mother inherited the rest of the 52 acres. The three of them had to get a mortgage that is basically split between them, but the individual deeds are separate (mortgage in all three names, titles separate in case that was confusing). My aunt and uncle later got a second mortgage on their property that my mother is not part of. Unfortunately, my aunt passed away two years ago, and not imagining my uncle would ever remarry (he's in his late 70s and promised never to - they had a joint cemetery plot and he put his name on the tombstone when she died), she didn't think of trying to protect the property her parents built, if there was a way she could have. Now, my uncle has remarried and moved out of the home. His adult children still live there and have taken over payment of the mortgage, in addition to the other bills of running the estate, including property taxes. My uncle has now decided he wants to sell the property unless we (our family is very close and none of us want to lose what my grandparents built with their own hands) pay him $15,000 and take over the existing mortgages. My question (finally, I know!), is does he have the right to do this if his children are living there and paying on the mortgage? Unfortunately, they are in their early 20s and aren't able to get a loan to take over the mortgage in their names, and none of the rest of the family can do so either in the timeline my uncle is giving us. Also can he do this without my mother's permission, since she is also on the mortgage? Another question I have is what rights to the property would his new wife have if he were to pass away? My family is desperately worried and extremely hurt by this. Any advice given would be greatly appreciated. I apologize for the length of my post!

 

[adjusterjack]

The answers to all your questions boil down to this:

Whose name is on the deed to your uncle's property?

If he and his late wife owned it jointly with right of survivorship then he became the sole owner when she died. If that's the case then he certainly can sell his property whenever he wants to and nothing else matters.

Anybody who lives on the property who doesn't own the property are tenants who are paying rent. They may be writing checks to a mortgage company, tax agency, insurance company, utility companies, etc but all of that, in reality, is just rent because they don't own the property and have nothing to say about it's disposition.

What his new wife gets when he dies depends on whether he has a will or not. If he dies without a will then she shares in the estate with his children under the laws of intestacy. If he dies with a will he could leave her 100% of his estate and nobody can say boo about it.

If your uncle sells his property then you and your family haven't "lost" anything because you and your family didn't "own" it.

As for paying him $15,000 and taking over the mortgage, unless it's a very old mortgage it won't be assumable and the mortgage company might call in the balance if ownership transfers.

And if ownership doesn't transfer you'd have to be crazy to put up $15,000 without getting ownership of the property.

What you need to do is examine the deeds to the property going back to when your grandparents first bought it and moving forward to see what changes in ownership have been made.

You also need to examine the mortgage loan contract and the current balances to see how much as to be refinanced to pay off existing loans.

If any of you want to buy the property from your uncle you'll have to get a new mortgage in your own name. If you can qualify, no problem. If you can't, and/or can't come up with the $15,000 down payment that your uncle wants then you might have to accept the practical reality of life that your uncle has no obligation to provide you with a place to live.