Help!!!

[KatieGrace4]

This is my first post here so I hope I am in the right place.

Here is my situation.......

My mother passed away in May of 2006. She had just married my step-father (about three years ago) and many of their bills were in both their names. There were; however, some credit cards that were solely in her name. I offered to take those and notify the issuers of her death but my step-father didn't want me to. He told me he would handle that. This concerns me now because I have reason to believe that his new live-in girlfriend is using my mother's credit cards. I need to know how to best handle my suspicions.

Secondly, my mother had taken out a loan and had been paying for her house on her own for the past 15 years. Only months before she died, she refinanced her house and added her husband's name to it. Does that mean that now, he is entitled to her house? The same situation is true on her car. That loan is in both their names. I now see his new "friend" driving my mother's belvoed little PT Cruiser all over town.

Do we (my sisters and I) have any legal rights to make decisions on our mother's belongings? I know that he was at least 3 payments behind on the house and nearly lost it. Was there any way we could keep from losing mother's house?

This is not about us being angry that he has moved on. I fully expected that he would. I just don't appreciate seeing another woman living in a house that my mother poured her blood, sweat and tears into. There is also an issue of a missing 401K account that my step-father swears mother cashed in. I doubt that highly because mother was always so proud of what she had accumulated in that account and would never have just cashed it in and blew it (which is what he is claiming she did).

I know this is just a lot to read through but I appreciate your patience and really really appreciate any advice you can offer on this.

Thanks again!

 

[calalily]

Do you know if your mother had a will and/or if your mother's estate went through probate? What state did your mother live in?

 

[KatieGrace4]

Thanks for your reply...

My mother lived in Mississippi. She did not have a will. It was something she always put off. I think by the time the doctors realized how sick she was there just wasn't time. Her illness progressed rapidly and we lost her quickly.

There is another thing that worries me. My stepfather is not a US resident. He is Hispanic and originally from Mexico. He just told my sister yesterday that he is planning to move. I am so worried about what will happen to mother's house.

Thank you for your help. I hope you can offer some advice.

 

[calalily]

Check with the probate court records clerk; should be a matter of public record as to who the estate went to. Ask how to obtain a copy of the procedings. Were you ever given any paperwork from a probate court? Go to this link and read...and check out statutes too. You may need to hire an estate or probate lawyer to help you. http://michie.lexisnexis.com/mississippi/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=

 

[KatieGrace4]

I hate to sound simple but I have no idea about probate court. Neither I, nor my sisters, were informed of anything like that. Is that something that automatically happens or does someone have to set the process of probate court into motion? My step-father is very secretive about mother's affairs which worries me because I know for a fact that she still had me and my sisters listed as beneficiaries on her insurance and 401k. They owned a small restaurant that was to be sold and split between her husband and the three daughters in the event that anything happened to mother. Well, he let the restaurant go back to the bank because he couldn't keep up the payments. This happened without our knowledge until after it was over. I don't want to see everything my mother worked so hard for just lost. It makes me mad and I am not sure if there's even anything we can do about it.

thanks again!