Selling parents home

[Adyn]

Jurisdiction

Virginia

I have 8 brothers and sister myself makes 9 in all. My father past away Dec 3 ,2013 leaving his home to us 9 . In the process of selling we have discovered one sibling has 2 lien on his credit and refuses to have these to come from the proceeds he would get and refuses to pay them from his pocket. What possible action do us 8 have to make him sign or pay his debt. We are getting up in years oldest being 74 and youngest being 61,we do not want this to fall in to heirship ,to many people would be involved. Someone mentioned to me about a Parchment Lien could be an answer.


Patty

 

[adjusterjack]

Why do the sibling's debts have anything to do with the sale of the home?

 

[Tax Counsel]

I have 8 brothers and sister myself makes 9 in all. My father past away Dec 3 ,2013 leaving his home to us 9 . In the process of selling we have discovered one sibling has 2 lien on his credit and refuses to have these to come from the proceeds he would get and refuses to pay them from his pocket. What possible action do us 8 have to make him sign or pay his debt. We are getting up in years oldest being 74 and youngest being 61,we do not want this to fall in to heirship ,to many people would be involved. Someone mentioned to me about a Parchment Lien could be an answer.

The personal representative (PR) of the estate can sell the property and should not need consent from any beneficiary to do it unless the will somehow restricts the PR's power to sell property. The issue then is distribution of the cash from the estate. If the estate has received some kind of lien or court order directing it to pay any distributions to the brother to his creditors, then the estate simply needs to follow that order. Nothing the brother can do about that but complain to anyone who will listen. If the estate has not received anything like that, then it just pays the brother his distribution just like everyone else. I suggest the PR consult a probate attorney about this, but unless there is something unusual about this estate there should be no need to get the brother's consent to sell the place and settle the estate.

 

[flyingron]

That presumes that the estate still owns the house. Since the father died in 2013, it's quite possible the property was already transferred to the nine children.

 

[adjusterjack]

it's quite possible the property was already transferred to the nine children.

If that happened then all nine owners would have to sign for the sale. If the recalcitrant sibling refused, the other owners would be faced with filing a Partition Action, which may be what Adyn was referring to since a search for "parchment lien" came up empty.

 

[zddoodah]

I have 8 brothers and sister myself makes 9 in all. My father past away Dec 3 ,2013 leaving his home to us 9 .

Just to confirm: your father was not married at the time of his death. Correct? When you say he left his home to the nine children, what exactly does that mean? For example, did his will expressly direct the executor of his estate to transfer title into the names of all nine of his children?

In whose name(s) does title to the house presently stand? It sounds like title has been transferred to the nine of you (presumably as a result of the administration of his estate being concluded). Correct?

In the process of selling we have discovered one sibling has 2 lien on his credit and refuses to have these to come from the proceeds he would get and refuses to pay them from his pocket.

Please explain exactly what "liens on his credit" means. Liens against what?

Assuming these liens attach to his interest in the property, I'm not sure why he thinks he gets a choice about whether they get paid from the sale of the property. The liens would have to be discharged in order for the property to be sold (unless the buyer is an idiot).

What possible action do us 8 have to make him sign or pay his debt.

If push truly comes to shove, you may have to sue him. Keep in mind that an estate plan that results in a home being put in nine heirs' names is just dumb. With that many owners, it was pretty much guaranteed that at least one would cause trouble.

Are the other eight of you unable to exert pressure on this brother to go with the flow? How much is the home worth? How much is the existing mortgage? How much are the liens?

we do not want this to fall in to heirship ,to many people would be involved.

I'm not sure what you mean by "fall in to heirship," but I can assure you that too many people are already involved.

Someone mentioned to me about a Parchment Lien could be an answer.

Never heard of such a thing, and googling the term produced zero results, so I'm guessing that whoever mentioned this doesn't know what he/she is talking about.