What would my options be

Beckie Swindle

New Member
Jurisdiction
Texas
I apologize in advance for the length of this post, and any extra unneeded details if I ramble. I am worried.

In January of 2012 my husband separated from the Military and couldn't find a decent-paying job. By March we were hard-pressed to continue paying our rent. His mother's husband's father, offered up his home for us to rent to get on our feet. He moved in with my MIL and his son. He was in poor health and needed to be with others, and the house was said to be in need of some TLC- but all considered it a better option than us being homeless. My husband and I planned to live small and for him to attend college on VA benefits. We moved into the house at the end of May 2012. The initial rental agreement was 700 a month. However, upon moving in, we discovered almost immediately that the house was in terrible repair. The toilets randomly overflew at night, there was no ac and the one window unit provided didn't work well at all, the washer would overfill the kitchen sink. For six months we had no working plumbing in the main bathroom. By month four the rent had already been decreased to 400. By February of the following year, due to the owner being unable to repair anything, including the heating system that stopped working, the agreement became we would maintain responsibility for the annual taxes and do whatever we could to improve the house. We repaired the main pipe for the bathroom, and our FIL helped us to then repair the tubs plumbing as that stopped draining for several months after the toilet issue was resolved. It was an insane time. During all of that, in October of the previous year, I got pregnant and by the summer my husband and I were welcoming our third child. Plans changed, he stopped attending college and took a job at a local factory. Three years later he left the factory, utilizing his communications experience he found a job at a data center. A year later he started classes again to gain certification that would allow him to expand into the field. Fast forward to the present day. As skilled and intelligent as he is my husband found himself in a constant stream on temporary contract positions. From 2016 to just last year, my husband had no permanent job. This made renting anything else very hard, as the places we reached out to all said that job security was a huge factor in if they would rent to us. With no permanent job, there was no permanent source of income large enough to meet income requirements. Anything we could get into was in about as good of repair as what we are in. So we stayed, we made it work. Year after year, issue after issue. We worked with my MIL, paid any tax money to her, and all was well.

In November of 2019, the man who owned the house passed away quite suddenly. His possessions were left to his children, his son, my father-in-law, and his daughter. That December my husband took his first permanent job, and we were on track to be able to rent a home by the summer. Then came Covid, by the summer my husband was jobless, and he took yet another contract position but at much less pay. No doom and gloom here, he swiftly utilized the connections he had made with people further up the corporate ladder and by December 2020 found himself a new, good-paying job with benefits even! Minor setbacks included a significant drop in our credit due to a few late payments and two "predatory" loans we had to take to survive the loss of a job because UE is no relief. We estimate we should be able to slide into a house by late summer/fall this year.
That covers the when, who, how and supporting factors so here is the beef- The daughter of the old man who owned the house is harassing her brother, my father-in-law. She is wanting to kick us out so she can essentially sell the house. It's a shit house, truly. Its estimated value is about 80k. I think that's due to the immense lot it sits on in town. Currently, we don't wash clothes at home because the washer water shoots out the roof vent pipe because the pipes inside are collapsed in numerous places. We use one bathroom, the other doesn't stay working, requiring constant snaking, and often that causes problems in other areas of the home. Numerous plumbers have been out, quoting anything from 6-20k, they can't say for certain until they start. But all have been clear they expect it to get quite pricey due to the concrete slab foundation. She came this evening while we were at the store and put up a for-sale sign in the yard, and is planning on listing the home for sale as well. We are scheduled to pay the $1,900 in taxes tomorrow to my mother-in-law and her husband and we can't afford to move...just yet. There is talk that she plans to try and show the house, which I am not okay with due to Covid and probably wouldn't be if there was no Covid. Frankly, I have met her once in the 15 years her brother has been married to my mother-in-law. Her father, who I counted as a friend and sort of my own adopted grandpa, never really mentioned her either. I don't want to keep the house, I am not looking to try and squat it out or any such thing that has actually been recommended by people I thought were sane...I just need a few more months, maybe close to another year and then we can move on. I am deeply appreciative of the advantage this has given us in a number of ways despite the absolute horror of using a hand pump to remove human waste from the toilet for those long months...If I pay these taxes tomorrow am I safe to stay or can I still be thrown out on my arse? The other part-owner, my father-in-law, says we are fine if we pay the taxes. He too wants to sell but isnt going to toss us out, he understands the situation. What can this lady do? Can she continue to pop up when I am not home and post signs in my yard? Do I have any options?
 
Too long. I didn't read it all, just the last few lines. Based on those lines if the agreement is that you can stay if you pay the taxes

Get it in writing, signed by all the owners.

Have I made myself clear?

 
Too long. I didn't read it all, just the last few lines. Based on those lines if the agreement is that you can stay if you pay the taxes

Get it in writing, signed by all the owners.

Have I made myself clear?
If she will not sign on board with that agreement,any options for us? What would her options look like, in order to sell without her brother wanting to sell?
 
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