Q: My adult brother has passed, our mother paid to have an apartment over his detached garage built. ($108K). 1 month later

A: There are multiple potential arguments, but you need to review all of the facts with a competent attorney. Some interesting issues to explore include whether there was a lease arising from the written communications of your mother and your brother; whether the development has unjustly enriched the estate; and whether there was an agreement that defined the work and the benefit to your mother. There may be other potential issues in elder abuse, but that sounds unlikely from the facts as presented in your post. You should not review the facts on-line in an open, non-confidential forum. Find a lawyer and get a consult.

A: It’s a rather complicated scenario, since it involves an improvement to real property in exchange, apparently, for a right to reside there. Ordinarily a transfer of an interest in land (whether by sale or lease) must be in writing and signed by the parties. The argument I suppose will be one of contract, for the grant of a life estate in the use of the apartment by your mother, or failing that, an unjust enrichment claim against the surviving daughter-in-law for the amount of the renovation expenses. I think you would want to avoid a mere landlord-tenant characterization, as that would permit your mother’s eviction at the end of her “term” as a tenant, which is likely to be treated as month-to-month in that scenario. But with her building that apartment with her own funds, there seems to be much more here than a rental situation, and it clearly was not a gift, as there was a bargained-for benefit in the form of a right to reside there. Hopefully you have contemporaneous emails, written notes, etc., that support what the arrangement was supposed to be, which can help prove the terms of any agreement.