Can I claim my deceased aunt’s property if she died without a Will?
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Can I claim my deceased aunt’s property if she died without a Will?
My deceased aunt and her shortly-thereafter-deceased husband owned a
couple of acres and a mobile home in Tennessee. Since they passed, nobody has filed probate on the property, and their son my cousin has rented out the trailer. My father also passed, about a year after my aunt and uncle had his own mobile home on the same property, and on their passing had assumed payments for the property and trailer. The 3 of them had a verbal agreement to sell the property and other trailer to my father but my aunt and uncle both passed before entering into any written agreements. Since no one has filed a motion of probate on the property to date, and the people living there are living there under my deceased relatives’ name, can I file a claim on the property and assume whatever mortgage remains?
Asked on September 19, 2016 under Estate Planning, Georgia
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
If your aunt passed first, then her husband, then all her property (if she did not have a will leaving it to someone else) because his and their son's: the spouse and children (when the outlive the person who died) inherit everything from the decedent (person who died) and share in it. Therefore, you have no claim to the property--it becamse first the husband's and son's, then, when he died, it all went to the son: it is his solely (though if he has any siblings you did not mention, then it would be shared with them).
Oral agreements to sell property are not enforceable after death; they are void.
Based on what you write, you do not appear to have any claim to any property there other than if any personal property on the land was clearly and solely owned by your father; then that personal property would be yours.
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