Okay this is gonna be a lot…
But July 2018 my Grandmother passed away from brain cancer. When she was diagnosed a will was written. Her house was left to 3 people’s evenly. My Brother, My aunt, my uncle. My mom lived with my grandma for as long as I can remember but she didn’t want to be in the drama. However she is the “executor” of the will.
Death certificate and will has never been turned in.
Fast forward to 2023 my mother was living in the house and I have a dope fiend cousin (son of the aunt) that had no where to go so my mom had no choice but to let him move in. They lived together for about 6 months before his drug use and the things he did was just too much for my mother to handle. Long story short she ended up moving out. He was there alone a few months. My brother would pop in and “check on the house” and he would find drugs everywhere. He even called the cops and when the cop was standing with him in the house looking at the drugs told my brother he couldn’t do anything about it but to just flush them. My cousin is in and out of jail so he went to jail. She turned the power and water off to the house, but when he got out he went back to the house and I guess turned the power on his name, however my brother and uncle are tired of my aunts bullshit and don’t want anything to do with it. I do not want my aunt to have full control over the house. My brother and I went in front of a notary and he signed “his” part over to me. I have the death certificate, will, and all the paperwork from her passing.
•house is paid for (she was also “tax exempt”)
•my cousin has completely trashed the house even took the ac unit to the scrap yard
What can I legally do to have him removed.
Comments
I’m sorry you’re dealing with this it sounds really tough. Since you have the will and paperwork, and your brother gave you his share, you should talk to an estate lawyer to help remove your cousin and secure the house legally. Stay strong, you’re doing the right thing protecting your grandmother’s wishes.
You want to remove the owner of the house from the house they own? That’s unlikely.
Enough is enough. Take control, file the will, and evict the squatter before your inheritance becomes a lost cause.
My wife’s grandpa married into the family. He was way younger than her grandma. They were pretty rich. Like Huge ranch in Texas and lots of oil rights.
Fucker admitted on his death bed the ranch was supposed to have gone to my wife but he destroyed the will, kept all the money, and let her family live in abject poverty. Like her aunt lived in a house with holes to the outside in the walls, and was eating cat food. My wife and her mom were living in projects and barely surviving.
And this dickbag spent $150k on slave era bricks to pave the paths around the mansion he bought
Your cousin is likely squatting, and has learned of his rights as one and won’t leave quietly. If the police can’t legally remove him, you’ll have to file eviction papers to have him physically removed and he’ll be charged with breaking and entering if he won’t move out. (Check the [your] mailbox. If he’s receiving mail there he has established residency.) I would talk to your sibling with ownership rights, and make an appt for you both with an estate lawyer, and split the legal fees. A legal eviction where I live is two weeks, but I don’t know how long it takes to file for eviction. I’d get started on it ASAP.
The short answer is that you need to talk to a lawyer. You have several legal concerns here:
One is, you need to get someone to be executor of the estate and deal with all this. Your mom was named as executor in the will, but what if she’s not willing? Someone needs to do this.
One is evicting your deadbeat cousin who is damaging the place.
Another is disposing of the house the estate owns. Your grandmother wanted it divided three ways. Does that mean actually having three equal-share owners? Or does that mean selling it and dividing the proceeds? Or valuing it and having one of the heirs buy out the other two?
The fourth is – IF the house ends up having three equal-share owners, dealing with any dispute whatsoever about what is to be done with the house. If anyone wants to sell it for instance, that’s its own whole extra dispute on top of the estate thing. Plus, if one of the things the owners disagree about is whether your cousin can stay or not, he could move back in and you’d have to deal with evicting him all over again.
The last is you actually getting your share of this. That thing your brother signed may not mean shit.
He can’t sign over something he doesn’t own. Your mother is the executor. She needs to sell it & disburse the money.
Nothing.
His mom has as much of a stake in the property as you do.
Neither of you can kick either one of you out. Most you can do is just keep sending him back to prison.