Please can anyone help my brother and I?

[Drew1986]

I have a bunch of questions and a lot of things that I really could use some help with, but this is my first visit to this site and I can't think of everything right this second, but tomorrow I will definitely be posting everything else. First I would just like to explain a little about my situation and then I will ask the main question that is at the top of my head right now. Im 23 years old and I live in Albany New York with my brother who is 25 and is disabled {we were both born in ny}.. Almost five years ago my mother and father passed away about a month a part from eachother. My father owned a motorcycle store and also had a contracting business. My father also owned two different houses, and many other assets. My father passed away suddenly of a heart attack and his death was totally unexpected for my whole family. My father did not have a will supposadly{thats what my fathers attorney say's, but this attorney is not to be trusted}, and everything was left to my mother. My mother was sick with pancreatic cancer at the time of my fathers passing. After my father passed away, my mother started to get all of her affairs in order such as her wills and trust. My mother made the will and trust at our home, while she was very sick, and my fathers attorney who was kind of a friend to my father{so we thought} decided he would come to our house and help my mom make her will and trust. Which she was very sick when she made it.Now about three weeks later my mother passed away. I did not see the will or trust before my mother passed away, I actually did not see them for almost three years after she passed, but I know from what my mom told me and my aunt before she passed, That things did not go at all the way she wanted. I took care of my mother for about a year before she passed, I dropped out of my senior year in high school because I could not stand to leave my mother, because of the worry that something mIght happen while I WAS GONE. My mother and I became very close in that year, which we were close already, but my mom told me some different things about how she wanted things to go after she passed away, and they did not go that way at all. My mothers will explained that she wanted everything to be split into fours, because I have a brother and two sister's, who are my half sisters on my mothers side, which I guess in a way everything that was left after my parents attorney got done with it, was split into fours, but that is the problem, is there was hardly anything left from what my parents had, which was a lot.. This attorney was also the executor of the estate, only because my mom originaly appointed my grandmother who refused to do it because she was dealing with her own problems, so my moms lawyer was the second choice of executor if my grandma couldnt do it. I think Im getting ahead of myself here. The problem is there is so much I need help with and the executor {my parents lawyer} has done so much wrong {illegal things} that I dont know where to begin. I would litteraly have to write a book just to expalain everything that has happened and everything my brother and I need help with. Let me just say, that I know 100% that this lawyer is a crook, I know I shouldnt throw around accusations, but I know he is. First of all this lawyer I have different sources of people who have told me what this guy is like personally and I know that he is/was big into cocaine and likes to party. Not that I care what he does with his personal life, but when I have beliefs that he has stolen from this estate big time, then thats when this became a problem. My mother made a trust for my brother and I until we reach the age of 24. Now Im 23 and my brother is 25. We live in one of the two houses my parents owned when they were alive. We moved into this house shortly after they passed away. My mother wanted my brother and I to stay in the house we lived while they were alive, but the lawyer explained that their was not a lot of money left in the estate and that it would be to expensive for us to live there. He told us that we would be better of selling the {$200,000 {at the time}) property, this way we would have money to pay off more debts and there would be money left for all four of us to survive on. We didnt want to leave, but we thought it would be the best bet after what the lawyer had said. So we moved into the other house my parents owned in a city nearby. This house we moved into should have been condemed for the condition it was in, but we moved in anyway, and it is still in pretty horrible condition five years later. Now the old house I will call house1 and the house we live in now I will call house2.. House1 sat there for about three years after we left it, the lawyer/executor let it sit and rot, even though it was his job to put the money into it that it needed, he did nothing. And even though he said their was hardly any money left in the estate, this was a lie. The lawyer also sold my fathers store which was worth $500,000, which my bR22other and I DId not want to sell, and it was my parents dream to see us run the business, but their was to much money owed in taxes I guess, so the lawyer basically gave the store away for nothing. And house 1 ended up getting sold for ($89,000). My mother also had a life insurance policy which was $100,000 and I believe my mother had $70,000 in the bank before she passed. Some how all of this money is gone. I know my parents had alot of debts and I know the lawyer took his cut, but this seems ridiculous to me. Anyway let me get back on track. Let me just talk about the main reason Im posting this thread, My brother and I live in house2 as of today, we are trying to get the deed to the house. Like I said the house should be condemed, And for almost a year now, our hot water heater has been broken and we have not been able to take showeres, we have to boil water and take baths. If my brother and I CAN GET THE deed we can get help through weatherization national grid and they will help us with the heat and hot water, this is the biggest reason we want the deed right now. Im so sorry for draggin this on for so long, I CANT Think of the exact questions I NEED to be asking, because there is just so much. Question 1 is, since my mother made trust for my brother and I UNTIL we reach the age of 24, is the lawyer responsible to pay my half of the back taxes on the house2? because it states in the will/trust that the executor is responsible to take care of living expenses and education expenses and things like that until we reach the age of 24. Im only 23, and the executor/lawyer has definietly not paid any of my living/education expenses or taxes on the house or anything for this house. When things got split into fours by the executor/lawyer, my sister both received $11,000/each, and my brother and I were to get the house we are living in which is worth $22,000, this way everything was split evenly. My sister received this money a year ago and my brother who is 25 still has not received the deed to our house. The thing is my sisters were grown up and already had families of there own when my parents passed away. I was only 18 and living with my parents when they passed and my brother was 20, but disabled from a heart attack that he had at the age of fourteen. My parents babied us big time, we were 100% dependent on my parents when they passed, which definitely not a good things because we had no clue what life was like when they passed. My mother wanted everything split into fours except for the house we were living in at the time of there passing. My mom and dad wanted my brother and I TO HAVE A place to live then after that, everything should have been split. My parents knew that I would have to take care of my brother possibly for the rest of our lives, and my father worked so hard to make sure that we would be taken care of. And it did not state in the will what would be split, it did not name any assests specifically, my mother figured that all four of us would be able to figure that out, which we were okay for the most part with splitting things eveny as possible, until it came to this issue, but I know 100% that my brother and I WERE SUPPOSE TO GET HOUSE1 which was where we lived our whole lives, then after we got the house, everything after that was suppose to be split inot fours, but somehow this lawyer measled his way into making the house we lived in part of this evenly split between the four of us. We were upset, because we had no other place to live and we needed help survivng and it should not have worked out this way, but it did. Now all of that information is a bunch of problems in themselves, but what I need to know is, Is the lawyer responsible for the taxes on the house? And should my brother have received the deed to the house2 when my sisters received there $11,000? Also since after everything, my brother and I ARE JUST sick of everything. Im so stressed that I think I have made myself litteraly sick, I dont even know what health problems i HAVE CAUSED MYSELF from this stress, but im To scared to see a Doctor. I dont know what my brother would do if anything ever happened to me. But through all of this we right now just want the deed and the taxes paid. Also the day my sisters received there money, I agreed to let my brother be my trustee until I turn 24, this way my brother can receive the deed, and he would own the house we live in, then when I turned 24 I would receive my half of the house on paper. Wasnt the lawyer/executor suppose to divide the things up at the same time between us. When my sisters got that money shouldnt my brother have received the deed? AS you can see this is a huge mess and I havnt even explained a fraction of it. If anyone can help us in any way we would appreciate it so much. If anyone know's of a lawyer or lawfirm that could help us I would really appreciate it. We have no money, my brother is on disability and I recently finished a semester in a college class, but between the stress of this and that I could not continue. Everytime I get a job or if I was to go back to school, I get overloaded with stress, and I start to become sick with my immune system . I dont know what to do anymore. My brother is on disablity and I do the best I can at taking care of him to the extent that he needs, and I do the best I can at taking care of myself, we have no family or friends that will help us in any way. This lawyer has screwed us in a way I believe that I dont even know where to begin, my sisters dont care because they got there money they dont have a brother that they need to care for, they dont live in a house that is falling apart all around them they live far away from all these issues, so they dont care to help either.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Most folks who answer here are not going to spend the energy to read what you've posted unless you reduce it by about half and use paragraphs to make it much easier to understand.

Gail

 

[jharris352]

BINGO. Thank you Gail.

 

[dee_dub]

I'll third that.

From what I can tell, I don't see a claim that the estate was divided improperly. If your mother's will doesn't reflect what you think her wishes are, that's not the executor's problem. His job is to carry out the terms of the will. Perhaps he didn't draft it properly, in his former capacity as her lawyer - but that is virtually impossible to demonstrate.

What does the executor say when you tell him you want the deed? And have you seen an accounting of the estate?

I would suggest you separate out your thoughts about the lawyer from your thoughts about the estate. He is not the estate. He is not obliged to do anything other than look after the estate and carry out the terms of the will. Your questions are not about "does the lawyer need to do this or that", but "what am I entitled to under the will".

If your sisters are happy with their $11,000, that suggests strongly to me that your share of the estate isn't worth more than $11,000 either. You will probably be hard-pressed to find a lawyer to take this case on - it is simply not worth it. You might try going to a legal aid or student law clinic.