Q: I live in a house that is owned by my dad. My husband and I pay my dad the mortgage he took a loan for to help us get in
if he dies and his estate settles the mortgage of the loan, and I take less of the inheritance to pay back the loan, does my sister get to claim half of the equity of the house we live in? we have paid interset and monthly in this house she has not paid a dime. Also, he is thinking of just selling the house to me for 0, and I just pay him directly and he puts the house in my name. If he does that, would that help the situation. Bascially, we dont want her to profit of the equity of this house we have been paying on for years with interset because his name is on the house and its part of his estate.
A: You need to go see a lawyer. You can have all sorts of problems when you are buying a house but the house is held in someone else's name as is the mortgage. It sounds like you need a contract for the sale of the house from your dad to you to memorialize what is really going on, ie your dad helped you buy the house. Then you need to figure out if recording the deed could mess up your mortgage arrangement. So go and see an Attorney immediately. There could be very serious problems if your father ever needs to apply for Medicaid to get into a nursing home and Medicaid turns him down because they think he owns this house. There are also probably tax issues such as who has been deducting the property taxes and mortgage interest on their tax return. Seriously get this fixed before it implodes. How your dad sets up his estate is another problem that your dad will need to address with an estate planning Attorney.
Nina Whitehurst agrees with this answer
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