Q: My father is in the hospital and not expected to survive. Someone is living on his property and I'll need them to leave.
My father is unresponsive and deteriorating. This was unexpected and he doesn't have a will. My parents are divorced and I am the oldest of his 2 adult children. He owns a trailer in a mobile home park and a former girlfriend is living there. My father was living there originally but got an apartment when she moved in and refused to leave. From what I know she pays the lot rent even though my dad owns the trailer. How do I get her out of there when he passes so I can deal with his estate and settle any financial obligations he has? I've never met or talked to her, but from what I hear I'm not expecting this to be an easy process. I don't care if she stays as long as she pays for the trailer, which I doubt will happen.
A:
You will have to hire a lawyer and open an estate. Either all of the siblings must serve as co-administrators or the other siblings can sign a renunciation form so that you can serve as the sole administratrix.
If the lot is rented to your father, even though she pays the rent, once the estate is opened, you can go to court, probably before a magistrate, and have her evicted, if need be. If, however, she is the tenant for the lot, it is a bigger problem. You would then have to have her evicted from the trailer and basically sell the trailer from underneath her.
There are many other issues associated with the administration of an estate, and you will need legal help to sort it out.
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A: There is no short answer to your question. Since your father does not have a Will and is divorced, you and your sibling are both eligible to petition to open an Estate and can act as Co-Administrators, or one of you can renounce the right to act as Administrator and the other can act alone. You will want to work with an attorney on this one since it is unlikely that the mobile home has much value, and if there are not other assets to protect there are several options for you and your sibling including abandonment of the mobile home or not even opening an Estate if there are no other assets to protect.
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