Hello, my parents recently have passed away and have left their home to me and my sibling equal share. I have always lived in the home and my sibling has moved out and is married. My sibling has agreed to leave the house to me in a will if my sibling were to pass away. My sibling's spouse now believes they also own half the house through being married to my sibling. My sibling does not want the spouse to have any say in it. I pay all bills and expenses and maintenance for the house and my sibling's spouse has no involvement with upkeep and paying of bills, expenses etc for the house. My question is if my sibling has made it absolutely clear in the will that I will get full ownership of the house, can my sibling's spouse challenge it in court and win? If so are there other legal ways to stop a challenge? Thanks
This do-able, but it's not DIY.
Depends, first, on who died first (even if that's minutes),
and on the terms of your parents' wills, and which way they were executed.
And, if either (or dog forbid, both) of your parents died intestate,
then that's a whole different bag of spiders.
Next, it depends in part on the nature of the title - whether you inherited as
tenants in commons, or a joint tenancy.
They are different legal machina, and the difference matters a lot.
Your sibling is wise to want to arrange things such that their interest in the house
(in whatever form) does not form part of the asset pool between sibling and sibling's spouse,
because sibling's spouse is obviously a problem waiting to happen.
Depends, first, on who died first (even if that's minutes),
and on the terms of your parents' wills, and which way they were executed.
And, if either (or dog forbid, both) of your parents died intestate,
then that's a whole different bag of spiders.
Next, it depends in part on the nature of the title - whether you inherited as
tenants in commons, or a joint tenancy.
They are different legal machina, and the difference matters a lot.
Your sibling is wise to want to arrange things such that their interest in the house
(in whatever form) does not form part of the asset pool between sibling and sibling's spouse,
because sibling's spouse is obviously a problem waiting to happen.
Thanks Tim for replying. We have the title with both our names on it with "Tenants in common in equal shares". Don't understand why the will matters anymore as we have the title of the house. Just want to know if my in-law can successfully claim on my sibling's half of the house even though my sibling has a will that state's my sibling's half is to go to me. Thanks
The danger here is if your sister & her partner separate... Under family law, her share of that asset may get dragged into a property settlement..
If she has no desire for the place & is willing for you to have it anyway, why not just have the title made out to you alone now
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