So, I feel like when it rains it pours. I just had an issue on one side of the family and now we have this. A few years ago my mom died without a will and she left no debt and a house with a small lien that my brother and me were able to pay off with a small life insurance policy. We were able to do an Affidavit of Heirship and not go through any type of probate. In the end, my brother bought me out of the house and he is now living in it. Everything was settled and my brother and I were happy.
Fast forward to Friday afternoon, I get a phone call from my mom's sister trying to close out the estate of my grandparents. It seems their house was left to the three children, my mom being one of them. According to the will, we are entitled to my mom's share. They didn't know this was the case until they met with their lawyer. We met with the two siblings today and they basically told us they supported my mom and grandparents all in their adulthood, made many improvements to the house for my grandparents, helped my grandparents and mom financially and paid off many of their debts through the years, watched my brother and me get many, many things from my grandparents, whereas their children got little to none including attention.
I had a suspicion they felt this way, but didn't know it would end up with my brother and me ultimately being able to decide if we want to pursue for our part of the house or just sign it over as, they said, "gratitude" for being taken care through my life. What they mean is my mom had many issues. Alcoholism and partying one of them. She was never stable and my grandparents had to step in many, many times and know, unbeknownst to us, it seemed they helped my grandparents financially as well.
SO....I'm left with what to do. My brother is indifferent and feels like nothing will be lost if we don't sign because there is no relationship there, but also knows they did do a lot of our mom over the years. We have not seen anything on paper. If they are talking about things they've done in the past there may be no papertrail or they will have to go back to things like building a garage for my aging grandparents or helping to fix leaks. Our cousin (one of the siblings' child) currently leaves in the house and has been for a few years which has been absolutely fine with us, but now there is this issue.
What do we do? Do we sign over the house or fight it out like rednecks racking up court and attorney fees? Any, ANY advice will be welcome.