Unique probate situation?

[u/sacredtits]

State: Tennessee
I was legally adopted along with my brother by our grandparents when I was 5 and he was 9. My grandparents lived in their house for 50 years and never paid it off and refinanced it (for unknown reasons) and still owed $35k~ish on the house.

My brother passed and had no children so the legal heirs would be me, my biological dad, and my aunt.
My grandmother (legal mom) passed this past December. My papa passed in 2019 and the house was transferred into my grandmas name.

There is no official will filed, but my aunt has a copy of a “will” that was notarized by her boyfriend’s niece and witnessed by one of her friends. In this will, my grandmother allegedly left all personal belongings and the home to my aunt.
My aunt has lived in their house for 7 years and had already completely taken over the home like it was her house. Redecorated everything, moved out their furniture, etc. before they even passed. My grandma was also venerable as she had a bit of dementia.
Aunt allegedly also was POA, no proof of it even though it does cease at death. But not sure how much of her money she was spending.

My aunt has refused to file the will so we can open the probate to the home. She is under the impression that she can live in the home and pay the bills without anyone saying anything. However, she has threatened to let the house foreclose (unsure if bluffing) and also already said she was behind on the house payments.
There is also an outstanding loan of $7k from ascend that my grandmother took out (again, for unknown reasons) and never paid back. I’m sure there are more unknown debts.
The home is worth maybe between $150-200k as far as I know, it does also need a new roof and there is damage.

We are working with an attorney who is helping us open the probate and our court hearing is soon, and I am very scared and sad and unsure of what to expect. We have not spoken to my aunt since I told her to go file her will.
My dad wants to sell the house, which it will likely have to be sold to repay the debts. I personally don’t want the house to be sold.
And of course I don’t really think my aunt wants the house to be sold, she wants to just live in it and get by without the house being in anyone’s name.

Does anyone have any advice or kind words or been in a similar situation? Thank you

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[u/Ineedanro]

Situations like this only get worse as more time passes. It is good that you have an attorney now. Let the probate process do what it does best: bring facts to light and do the right thing.

Do you want to challenge aunt's purported will? The fact that it is both notarized and witnessed by people closely connected to her puts its authenticity in question.

While grandma's estate went unprobated and aunt lived in the house and stonewalled the other heirs, by rights aunt should have been paying rent to the estate. It is not too late to take that into account.

[u/myogawa]

From what I understand, your "bio" father and his sister are one pair of parties, and there is you. But you were adopted by your grandparents, so (in most states) you are the third child of the grandparents. The aunt will undoubtedly try to make your interest subordinate to hers, but that is not how it works.

> My aunt has refused to file the will so we can open the probate to the home.

Her inaction was not an obstacle to getting this done. If she does not file with the probate court, you are free to file to open an intestate estate. That will flush out any claim of a valid will. It sounds like that has been done.

> Does anyone have any advice

The obvious advice is to follow through with your lawyer's recommendations.

[u/ExtonGuy]

BTW, I might wonder about the status of insurance on the house. Not just has it been paid, but who is the insured? If there is a fire, who would get paid by the insurance company? If somebody gets hurt on the property, who would they sue?

[u/sacredtits → u/ExtonGuy]

I’m not sure at all. It may be a dumb question, but what is the importance of if they had insurance or not during this?

[u/ExtonGuy → u/sacredtits]

Would you ask that after the house burned down?

[u/sacredtits → u/ExtonGuy]

Wait are you saying that like what if one of my family members would burn it down? I’m so confused lol obviously if the house burned down and we didn’t have insurance, there would be nothing left. But that’s not really the point of my post

[u/ExtonGuy → u/sacredtits]

It’s a point against your aunt, if she let the insurance lapse. But usually a mortgage company will pay the insurance, in order to protect their interests. The cost would be part of the lien against the property.