Q: How can the sale of a house in Puerto Rico be accomplished when one of four inheritors refuses to sell the house.
The probation of the inheritance has been completed. The house was the only property in the inheritance. There were no assets, liabilities or money in the inheritance. Each inheritor receive a different percentage of the house as inheritance. One inheritor received a majority percentage of the inheritance while the other three received equal portions of the remaining percentage. The majority inheritor plus two of remaining three inheritors agree to sell. The fourth wants money before agreeing to sell the house. The fourth claims they deserve this money as part of the inheritance as well as proceeds from a sale of the house. As indicated above, there was no money in the inheritance. What can be done to force a sale of the house.
A:
When you state that inheritance probation has been accomplished, does this include updating the public registry to reflect the participation and percentages of all heirs? Assuming that this is the case, given the refusal of one of the heirs, your best recourse would be to go before the Puerto Rico courts to request adjudication & partition of your inheritance, and liquidation of the estate. It seems that the case would be adversarial; so it would be in the form of a lawsuit where the three willing heirs would be plaintiffs and the remaining heir would be the defendant.
Mind you, should all three plaintiffs live outside Puerto Rico, the court may order posting of a bond in order to ensure execution of the sentence, whichever it may be. Once the lawsuit is filed, the heir who refuses to sell will need to be served either personally (if he/she lives in Puerto Rico) or by edict (if he/she lives abroad).
Justia Ask a Lawyer is a forum for consumers to get answers to basic legal questions. Any information sent through Justia Ask a Lawyer is not secure and is done so on a non-confidential basis only.
The use of this website to ask questions or receive answers does not create an attorney–client relationship between you and Justia, or between you and any attorney who receives your information or responds to your questions, nor is it intended to create such a relationship. Additionally, no responses on this forum constitute legal advice, which must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case. You should not act upon information provided in Justia Ask a Lawyer without seeking professional counsel from an attorney admitted or authorized to practice in your jurisdiction. Justia assumes no responsibility to any person who relies on information contained on or received through this site and disclaims all liability in respect to such information.
Justia cannot guarantee that the information on this website (including any legal information provided by an attorney through this service) is accurate, complete, or up-to-date. While we intend to make every attempt to keep the information on this site current, the owners of and contributors to this site make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to from this site.
