no assets, just debt

[shropsters]

hi, my mother in law just passed away. she had no property in her name, actually she signed her house over to my husband almost 5 years ago. she did continue to live in it, it was paid for and we just paid the yearly taxes on it. she has a substantial amount of credit card debt. my husbands sister wants to sell the house that is in my husbands name to pay off my mother in laws debt. we are willing to split the house with her, but we dont want to use our half for the debt. are we obligated to do this? she did have a will naming her son and daughter as half and half, but, the only asset she had was a $6000 life insurance policy which his sister signed over to the funeral home. well, she did have some personal furniture, nothing lavish or anything. any advice would be great.

 

[seniorjudge]

The land belongs to your husband.

If he wants to sell half or all of it to his sister, that's up to him.

The life insurance doesn't go through probate (besides, it's all used up).

Sell all the personal stuff and pay on her debts. That's as far as you need to go since you didn't get anything from her estate.

 

[shropsters]

thanks for the information. one thing i did not know i needed to mention until you said my husband owns the land, is, the house (doublewide mobile home), sits on my sister in laws land. we have paid the taxes on the home, but of course not on the land it is sitting on. does this change anything as far as her rights to the house itself?
again, thanks

 

[seniorjudge]

thanks for the information. one thing i did not know i needed to mention until you said my husband owns the land, is, the house (doublewide mobile home), sits on my sister in laws land. we have paid the taxes on the home, but of course not on the land it is sitting on. does this change anything as far as her rights to the house itself?
again, thanks

Of course your husband does not own his sister's land; ma (nor anyone else) can give away land that does not belong to her (or him).

You said "house" when you meant "trailer".

A trailer is often personal property.

It can become real property when it is attached to land and both the trailer and the land are owned by the same person.

If your husband wants to sell the trailer and give the money to the creditors, then that is up to him.

 

[eagle20]

Can creditors go after you if a sibling is/was in debt? I'm not even sure they can go after a spouse (does this depend on one's State of residence?) if the other spouse is/was in debt.

Who is responsible for departed's debts? Spouse? immediate family member?