I have a question that hopefully the more experienced members can help with. My family has had a vacation home for the last 50 years that is now in need of significant repairs. The home has always been treated as "family" property, with all the expenses to date shared between my parents and grandparents. In reality, the property is only in my grandparents name (On my father's side). In recent years, due to my grandparents age, my parents have taken over the majority of the responsibility for the property. My two siblings and I are at the age where our parents want us to be a part of the decision making process for the future of the home, something that makes us feel obligated to share in the financial burden as well. My siblings and I are all completely on board with helping out on the home, but we are uneasy about the fact that only our grandparents name is on the title. My father's only sibling is super bad with money, and we are all afraid that he will be a huge liability when my grandparents die and he gets his inheritance (which includes a portion of the house). The sibling has never contributed any time or money into the home, and is much less attached to it than the rest of the family. I feel that my parents were foolish to invest money into the home given the title and family situation, and I am not willing to get involved without protecting myself from the likely issues when my grandparents die.
Is there a way that my parents, siblings, and I can protect ourselves financially in this situation? Without us involving ourselves and having the repairs done it is likely that the home will suffer serious and irreparable damage, something that we would like to avoid if at all possible.