Q: Do I have to allow a fellow heir to live in a house with a mortgage if they refuse to pay the mortgage, taxes or upkeep?

A: You are not stuck paying your brother's share, at least not forever. If you can't get your sister to do anything inside the probate case, then after the probate case is concluded and the house is in all of your names, file a "partition" lawsuit against all of the other owners to force the sale of the house. The house will be sold pursuant to a court order and then there will be a court-supervised process for distributing the proceeds. That is where you will ask the court to take an amount from your brother's share to reimburse you for the amounts you have spent carrying his share. Start looking for an attorney now so that when the probate case is over you can launch immediately.

In the meantime, you might want to explain to all of your siblings that if you all can agree to sell the house and split the proceeds fairly, that would be a lot cheaper than paying attorneys' fees and court costs to do what you can accomplish yourselves. Everyone's share in the end will be bigger if you don't have to pay court costs and attorneys' fees. But if you have even one holdout, then you'll have to go to court to accomplish that which is inevitable, and those costs will come off the top.

A: If you want to avoid problems in the future, I would suggest that you demand your share of the estate in cash, and the only way you would co-own property with your brother is if you and your brother are able to negotiate a tenancy in common agreement defining the parties’ rights, duties and responsibilities under the agreement before the probate closes. Without a negotiated agreement before the close of probate, you’re setting yourself up for trouble when your brother fails to follow through on his promises.