Who pays the mortgage for an estate that is not closed?
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Who pays the mortgage for an estate that is not closed?
My sibling and I are the sole beneficiaries. We are in the process of selling to close the estate. My sibling lived with my parent in the house before the passing of my parent and continued to stay after my parent passed away. She paid the mortgage, utilities, replaced items on the house, property taxes, and general upkeep maintenance for 2 ½ years. She used her money from her personal savings account. She has since moved out and wants reimbursement from the estate for the monies paid while she stayed there. Is there any legal obligation for the administrator of my parent’s estate obligated to reimburse my sister any of her monies used?
Asked on December 19, 2010 under Estate Planning, Ohio
Answers:
MD, Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Unless your parent's or parents' will specifically indicated any person who pays for expenses should be reimbursed, the only way is to determine if your state allows for some sort of equitable accounting when the property is probated. The property will be probated because it doesn't appear you were joint tenants with rights of survivorship with your parents. Since it doesn't appear you had an agreement with your parents regarding these expenses, you need to decide if you wish to split the property title in such a way as to allow her the reimbursement directly or when you sell the property to give her a bigger cut. I would argue that she gifted those amounts and expenses since she lived there and appears some of the things she did as being a daughter and not in the expectation of reimbursement.
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