my parents are going back on our verbal agreement

Location: Illinois

My parents and I have been talking for a few months about my partner and I moving to Illinois on their land. To my understanding and what I was told, as soon as we get to Illinois, we will go do what needs to be done to transfer the land name from my mom, to my brother and I. This has been discussed many times and each time, they would agree that is the plan. Making the trip, there is cabin that is completely unliveable. No water/sewer hookups or lines, no electricity, no insulation, no inside walls. Just a bare bones cabin.

My partner and I are going to have save and spend to get everything it takes to follow the city laws making it liveable. We are not or have not asked for anything from my parents other than an $1800 loan that helped us make the trip out here. We have currently made two payments, so we’ve been here for two months. I asked my dad about a week into us moving here when he wanted to get the land transfered over to my brother and I. He said not until we get the loan paid off. A bit odd, but okay. I was having a talk with my uncle one day about the land he said that he should own half the property as he paid $2,000 from the owner to put it in my mom’s name, then was transferred over to my dad and my uncle. My dad told me my uncles name is not on the land and is solely in my mother’s name. This made me do a little digging. I found the county records and sure enough, my uncle was telling the truth. My mom had done a quit claim from her ownership, making my dad and uncle the owners. Two weeks later, to yesterday, I met with a plumber on the property to get a quote on a new sewer line install. Once the plumber left, my dad handed me a letter and said “I’ve been waiting for this for a LONG time. Now that youre here, you can start paying the property taxes.” I responded with “But the property isn’t in my name.” He said that didnt matter because we’re family and I should pay the bill to help out. I repeated myself. He said “That doesn’t matter, the property doesn’t have to be in your name. Once they see your name on the payments, they will assume youre taking over and you will have equal ownership of the land. Plus, we’re family, it doesn’t matter if the land is in your name. You dont want to help out your family?”

Today, my partner shared that I shouldn’t make payments on something I have no legal ownership of. If my name isn’t on the property, I shouldn’t have to pay their bill. I told him I would do more research. I found that you can deduct your property tax payments but only if the property is in your name. As well as, the state will not automatically assume youre the new owner just because you’ve taken over the property tax payments.
I called my uncle and shared that information with him. He agreed and said thats something we can talk to my dad about. The thing about my dad though, he is not…. Mentally well. Im talking, psychotic diagnosis.

We drove over to my parents house and I asked him when he wanted to get the land over in mine and my brothers name. He said he didnt want to because he didnt want there to be any arguments over my moving in. Installing plumbing, water, electricity, separate meters. He basically said that my brother and I were going to fight over the land. My brother chimed in, saying he wants nothing to do with the property. That then, made my dad say “Well then we’ll keep the land in my name. You know what? Fuck it. Let’s just sell it! You take $5,000, your uncle takes $5,000 and I’ll take $5,000!” No one mentioned selling the land beforehand. We dont want to sell the land and it’s worth much more than $15,000. So now, my dad doesn’t want to put the land in my name at all, breaking our verbal agreement. I have it in text that my mom said “I’m thinking about just putting the land in yours and your brothers name when you get out here. It belongs to you guys anyways!” We’ve been out here for two months now and already $1500 into the cabin on the property.
I also noticed the property tax bill is in my mom’s name and it says she’s the owner. Even though the county records say otherwise.

My uncle wants to try to see why that is, who actually owns the property, and if there is a way we can get my dad sign over the property to me, doing a quit claim and putting the property in my name and signing half over to my uncle, or trying to convince my little brother to say he wants the land, maybe conving my dad to sign over his half to us, then my brother signing it over to just me. That way, my uncle and I are the owners. Which is the ideal end result. I dont want to confront my dad about our verbal agreement or even go so far as taking legal action. The end goal really is to try to convince my dad that if he doesn’t want pay property taxes anymore, making me pay them instead, then my name should be on the property. That’s really all I want. I have no problem paying, I just want that paper trail showing ownership and I’m the one making the payments on the land I (would) own.

I’m sure I shared more information than I should have but I felt it important. I’m going to go down to the county clerk office on Monday to ask about the property tax bill and about the transfer over options.

Is there anything I should say to my dad? Keep investing into the property to live on it eventually? With his unpredictable behavior, I have no idea if one day he will just decide he doesnt want us there anymore. He also said “What if you and (Partner) get a divorce and he wants half the land? Mean. He also has this idea that we will invite all kinds of people to come and live on the land. I have absolutely no idea where he gets that idea from. The whole point of my partner and I making the move here was to live on the land, settle down, get good jobs, and save up to travel.