Q: Upon the death of my father, will my mother be sole heir of her home in PR, although he had kids outside the marriage?
The home was purchased over 20 yrs ago by both for retirement purposes.
A: You need to speak with a PR estate planning attorney if the property is in PR as you have stated. Things to consider include, is there a Will, what does the property deed say, is there a Trust? It is possible the property will pass to your mom per PR laws, Will and or other estate planning that is in place, so this would need to be reviewed. If there is no Will or other estate planning and the deed is not clear, there could be some issues (usually intestate statutes for probate will be applied then). Your starting point would be to review the actual deed, if it says something like husband and wife with rights of survivorship or similar, then the issue may be resolved, on the other hand, it is possible that your mom as the surviving spouse has rights and children from previous marriage may have rights if there is no estate planning and the deed is not clear on what happens. You really will need a PR Attorney since the property is located there and falls under PR laws for real estate/marriage/probate.
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