thinblueline
New Member
My wife's mother is a widow in her late sixties. She was the wife of a Baptist pastor and they spent their entire married life living in small parsonages, therefore they never had a home of their own. When my wife's father passed away thirteen years ago, it was only natural for my mother-in-law to move in with her elderly parents, as she had no where else to go, and life insurance only produced enough income for her for basic living expenses. Eventually my wife's grandfather passed away, and it was just my mother-in-law and her now widowed mother living together. The last six or seven years, my grandmother-in-law became senile, and lost control of her bladder and other such nice things. My mother-in-law honored her mother's wishes by not placing her in a nursing home, but caring for her and cleaning her up several times a day and night all those years in her mother's own home, with no life of her own. All that with almost no help whatsoever from my mother-in-law's sister, just a couple years younger, who lived no more than fifteen minutes away. My mother-in-law's sister, contrary to my mother-in-law, is rather wealthy, having received at least one large inheritance, as well as her husband's substantial retirement. Over the years, my wife's grandmother stated several times to my wife and sister-in-law that my mother-in-law can live out her years as long as she wants to in that house. When my wife's grandmother died this spring, however, we learned the will, as expected, split the house 50/50 between the two daughters. Now even though my wife's aunt is substantially more wealthy with a home of her own, she is demanding the house be immediately put up for sale, or immediately have my mother-in-law pay half of whatever the value of the house is. To apply pressure to my mother-in-law, she is also making frequent, secret trips inside the house while my mother-in-law is off cleaning houses, taking pictures, moving things around and other such things. My question is, doesn't my mother-in-law have some legal rights or protections to keep from being forced out of her house, even though the will grants my mother-in-law's sister half the value of the house? My mother-in-law wants to live there a couple more years to regroup, get her things in order, and work for two more years, but her sister is having no part of waiting two more years to get her half of the pie. How should we handle this? And what can be done about my mother-in-law's sister coming into that house without my mother-in-law's permission, since she has never lived there? Any insight you can give is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
