Woman doesn't want to add shady half-sister to property deed after mom's death. AITA?
When this woman is concerned about her sister after a death in the family, she asks Reddit:
"WIBTA for not wanting to add my half-sister to the deed of a property after my mom's death?"
My mom passed away in April without a will, and I'm currently going through probate to transfer my parents' properties. I plan to sell the church/house and keep the one where my half-sister is living. I am my mom's only child, and my half-sister is on my dad's side, who passed away in 2020.
My half-sister has been living at the second property for almost 20 years, paying rent to my dad and then to my mom/me since my mom let me handle rent collection.
A little over a week after my mom's funeral, she approached me and said, "I'd like to be added to the deed after the mortgage is paid off." I was stunned by the request and didn't know what to say, so I told her I would ask the lawyer about it.
I can understand her perspective, as paying rent for 20 years without having property in your name can be frustrating. She might also be worried about me raising the rent. She currently pays $875 in Los Angeles (the mortgage is $500), but the market rate on Zillow is $2k.
However, I have several reasons for not wanting to add her to the deed: My dad used to complain to me about how she took advantage of his kindness by not paying the rent in full by the first of every month (half on the 1st and half on the 15th), causing him to make up the shortfall himself until the middle of the month. Sometimes she'd skip a month of rent to go on vacation.
While sick with cancer, my dad advised me not to let people take advantage of me, especially if they're family, as it was one of his biggest regrets.
She lied to me about the reason my dad raised the rent, claiming it was so he would take over repairs because she was doing them herself with the lower rent (I remember accompanying my dad when he made repairs himself as a kid, so this is obviously not true).
Her request to be added to the deed "after the mortgage is paid off" seems unfair, as it implies she wants the benefits of homeownership without the debt involved if I decided to keep the mortgage. AITA?
Let's see what readers thought.
rckola writes:
YTA. It sounds to me like you’re sister needs to take you to court for half the share of the family property. I don’t understand why you think you get everything when there is no clear “will” and just this short story makes it seem like you are doing your best to cut your sister out of her inheritance. If you’re selling half the property, is your sister getting half the profits from this sale?
outsideguidance4752 writes:
NTA don’t gift the house or half to this person. She’s entitled AF. Honestly she’s been living at a significantly reduced rate for 20 years it seems. She isn’t owed a house because she paid a bit of rent.
If you wanna be gentle give her 6 or 12 months of notice that the rate will increase to something like market value and to be paid on the 1’st every month - unless you want to sell.
scarybutterscotch00 writes:
YTA Both of your parents have died (sorry about that) but your half sister inherited nothing because neither of your parents had a will. She has been paying the mortgage and repairs this whole time on a house. I think that you should give her the house.
Ideally you would have split all of the properties fairly across all of the kids so you are TA for not doing that. However the sister has actually been financially contributing to the property, which nobody else has. So frankly I am unsure why you or any of the siblings think they should profit from it.