Q: Is it legal for a trustee to continue to pay the mortgage on a property after the borrower has past away?
My mother past away last year, she had all of her real estate set up in a trust. The trustees are my brother and myself, her only 2 heirs. There is the house that she has lived in which has a mortgage. My brother was named as executor of the estate, because he lives close, while I live out of state. He has continued to pay the mortgage because he wants to do repairs to the house before it gets sold. He had not notified the mortgage company that my mother has died, he moved the address on the account to his address, although he still uses my mother's name as though she lives there now. I have also just found out that he is 2 months behind on the mortgage, I am worried that this constitutes fraud and because I am 50% owner that I am also guilty.
A: I would not worry about fraud in a criminal sense. The mortgage obviously needs to be satisfied. And in fact the trustee has an obligation to preserve the estate by doing so. Is your brother going about it 100% by the book? No. And it sounds like some legal guidance could be useful to the both of you. But I think we are still on the right side of fraud at this point.
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