Can my sister, the executor of my late mom's estate, rent Mom's home and not share the rental income?

Hello61, sorry but I'm having difficulty following the issues.   E.g.,

1.  You wrote:

"I was living with my mom/paying room rent for 16yrs."     So at that time, you had no actual legal interest in the property, but was a tenant only?    To whom was this property willed by your mother's will, or as stated in the trust? 

2.   …"real estate investment my mom and I made in 2009 joint tenancy, I am now sole owner...'.   This a different property, I assume, or did you inherit it when your mother died?   How does it relate to your mother's property?

3.   " Both sisters tried to use my investment property to buy me out my 1/3 of mom's house due to being financial strapped."     What rights, and how, if this occurred,  did your sisters obtain these rights to YOUR investment property?   Again, is this separate from any inheritance?   If they "bought you out", you must have accepted remuneration at some level from them?  And you did so voluntarily?  T

It would suggest to me that your rights were "extinguished" (legal term) in the investment property, even though you originally owned it?  I'm not clear on this situation.

4.     "Now they are renting mom's house for $2500.00."    If they handled the rental with a standard lease form, and although I haven't seen those forms for years, I do believe there's an assertion of ownership by the lessor (landlord).    What's the situation on this issue?   Are they renting your mother's house illegally?

5.   "The trust execitor is lying about rental and says she is going to let it set empty, and she can do what she wants. "    First, an executor or executrix manages a will, but not a trust.  A Trustee handles a trust.  

Trustees have high responsibilities, obligations, and duties to the heirs of the estate.    The property would have had to be retitled to be transferred and included as a trust asset.   Was this done?

Is the house in rentable state?   The Trustee also has an obligation to manage property if it was properly retitled and vested as an asset in the Trust.   Was this done, and is it one sister who's Successor Trustee or both?   

She does have to account to the beneficiaries, so this apparently vacant house needs to be addressed in terms of being a Trust asset.

There are enough complications in this situation that I think you really need to consider retaining your own legal counsel, someone experienced in contested (this is an important consideration) estates and/or trust property, someone with litigation experience as it seems there's enough friction, contest, and hostility that the estate isn't going to be settled without intervention.

The litigation experience is important, and not always within the background of those in the estate planning and management field.

The person who is executor of the estate is limited by the language of the will; same for the Trustee if there is a Trust.
You should now have your own attorney. It takes little time for an Trust and Estate attorney to check on how a trust or estate is being administered by the Executor or Trustee, so hire your own Trust and Estate attorney now to represent you and be certain things are going as they should be.
It is unlikely that any Trust and Estate Attorney working for your sister-executor is acting fraudulently. Just be certain of anything you sign so your aren't signing things away.
The home you purchased in joint tenancy should already have passed to you, making YOU responsible for it's repairs, rental, and etc. Your Attorney can check the deed on home, and reassure you on that.
As to properties that are in the will going to all sisters, if those are being rented the rental goes into the estate account and would be divided as directed in the will.
Again, with these legal things you need a professional advisor, not the opinions of a bunch of folks on social media. So hire your own respresentative for your Mom's estate given that there seems to be some substantial assets in it.
Best of luck.

I couldn't understand a single thing of this post.

See an attorney, and before you go, write down as concisely as you can, all the salient info.

There's a lot at play here--good luck.

Assets in a Trust and Assets of an Estate have different legal structures for how dealt with and what “ownership” means. You have to, have to, clearly understand the exact legal structure for things your mom left behind.

Trust has Trustee who manages whatever titled into it (the Trust) or Trust has law firm who does. It sounds like mom, while still alive, as a Settlor placed her home into into a Trust & Sister is Trustee.

Estate would be whatever after death assets left that were NOT titled into the Trust. Estate - if assets left after death - are dealt with in probate court. Terms of her will determines who is named Executor & who gets what as heir & beneficiary. It sounds like Executor is the same Sister. Sometimes items in a will no longer exist as they have been sold or spent. Will still exists but assets named in it that would go to heirs are gone or diminished.

Your post reads that you do not understand what a Trust / Trustee is vs an Estate / Executor and that you view what Sister has done as unfair. If so, you HAVE TO retain your own attorney & need one that does Litigation. That 2009 property you own can be put up as collateral for an attorney if need be.

Here my guess on the situation:
- mom while alive put house into a Trust but no other assets in Trust
- mom pays for house expenses from her savings or her monthly retirement income. As long as mom is alive, $ coming in. (if you and your sisters paid mom’s taxes unless you had a legal agreement it was lending, neither mom or the Trust or Estate need to pay this $ back)
- mom dies & her monthly income dies with her
- whatever $ & savings mom left in bank accounts can be used by Executor to pay for expenses of the Estate. All assets & debts of an Estate are filed in probate. You can go to the courthouse to get a copy of all. Probate is all open records for estate filings.

There could be no $ left in deceased moms Estate.

- but the house as it’s in a Trust is not part of the Estate. Trust really cannot use Estate $ to pay Trust (house) expenses.
- Trustee, being responsible, has Trust rent house for $2500 a mo & $ is used to pay for house and administrative costs of Trust.
- If Executor actually fronted her own $ to pay debts of the Estate and she is also Trustee of the Trust, she can have the Trust attorney do some sort of lending agreement or Memo of Understanding to deal with reimbursement to Executor from the Trust which has rental income coming in.
- Trustee can be paid by Trust to manage the Trust. What is exactly in Trust document determines this.
- it’s up to Trustee to decide what happens with house. Even if you are a beneficiary of the Trust, decisions are totally up to the Trustee. Trustee does NOT have to give you any of the rent $. Often beneficiaries only get $ after property sold and all debts incurred by Trust settled & paperwork filed to close out the Trust Administration by an attorney.
- if Trustee is somehow doing nefarious actions with that $2500 a mo, & this can be shown to effect the eventual Trust beneficiaries, then you as a beneficiary have the attorney (you have paid a retainer to represent you) file for violations of whatever laws or administrative codes Trusts are under for your State. It will not be cheap. Regular atty maybe $250 hr, a litigation atty at least double that.

Really it would be so worthwhile for you to speak with an attorney so they can clearly go over all the existing paperwork of both the Trust and the Estate & it’s will and explain what it means to you as a heir and / or a beneficiary. Best of luck.

In TN, the personal representative/ executor can rent all assets imcluded in the estate and deposit the income in the estate account to be settled when the estate is. Here real estate is not automatically included in an estate (unless the will directs it be) so heirs can mutually rent and spilt rent IF they agree. Most end up with real estate in the estate and under the control of the executor, income going to the estate account until all outstanding bills are paid.

You have my sympathy for being in the middle of such a mess, but your narrative is very confused.
1. Have you seen the will?
2. Are you named as a beneficiary?
3. Has the will been probated?
4. How is your mother's house titled? You can check on county property records if you don't know.
5. Does the will distribute the house specifically to you and your other sisters? Is it mentioned in the will at all?
6. As executor of you mother's will, among other things, your sister has the legal duty to file the will with the county, give notice to creditors, pay all known bills, pay taxes, give notice to SS, maintain property including real estate, and so on.
7. According the the probate laws of the state in which your mother lived or where her real property was located, probate can last for 6 months to a couple of years.
8. If your mother had what is called a memorandum of personal property, she would have named people to receive everyday household items of no great value. These can be removed before her estate is settled.
9. I'm not sure about renting the house but if the executor has reason to believe that it will take some time to settle the estate it might not be a bad idea to have someone reliable living there. The rent money becomes part of the estate's assets.
10. Once all the duties are complete, the executor must distribute the assets according to your mother directions in her will. The will is then closed.
11. A trust is not the same as a will.
12. The house cannot be an asset in the will and an asset in the trust at the same time.
13. A will's executor and a trust's trustee both have a legal duty to follow your mother's directions.
14. Have you seen the trust document?
15. Who is the trustee of the trust?
15. Are you named as a beneficiary of the trust?
16. Are the trust's assets to be distributed upon your mother's death?
17. You can call the attorney your sister is referring to. They may or may not be able to talk to you.
18. Regardless of that, hire a trust and estate attorney who litigates in probate court.
19. Before you see this attorney, get all your documents together and clearly organize your thoughts. You have a lot going on that has to do with your relationships with your sisters so you'll have to separate that out before meeting with the attorney.
Best wishes.

I want to thank everyone that offered info and comments. After reading everyone's posts, I see how I made it confusing by posting irrelevant information. It only makes sense to the one living it. Our California family has always, been close till mom's passing in Dec 2021. It's true how money/tears family apart in 5 short months. My oldest sister is Executor and Successor after mom passed of Will and Revocable Trust. Sister had everything divided/sold/split by March 2022 but moms primary residence( All In Trust )( Pryor to becoming a rental, we all agreed to sale) is now the rental I had questions. I've aleady paid to have the Trust reviewed ( said everything looks good) , and filed Affidavit Death of Joint Tenant on a investment property that mom and I had. They both got other property by TOD.( Not in Trust or Will ) It's all gone down hill with sisters from there , and now refuses to communicate and turned home into rental instead of sale. I don't care if home is rented or sold, just want I'm intitled to 1/3 as beneficiary. I know now I need a Trust Attorney ( litigation).

In rereading Hello61 post, obvious long term hostility between the Sisters….. Executor Sis shut utilities off to get Hello61 out of house after mom died & where Hello lived 16 yrs. Now rented @ $ 2500 a mo.

$ 2,500 very deliberate $ amount, probably fair market value rent.

Here’s what I’d be worried might happen…. the OP/Hello61 is going to be surcharged for use and occupancy on moms house as her living there interfered with use of the property (an “ouster”). Use and occupancy is essentially rent. And her surcharge for the ouster is based on $2500 a mo as it’s now established FMV rent.

If Exec Sis does this, she can reduce Hello61 inheritance 1/3 share.
So if Hello61 lived at the house 14 months after mom died that’s $35,000 in “rent” that Exec Sis deducts from Hello61 1/3 inheritance.

Hello61, if you at all have heard that Executor Sis wants to reduce your share, you have got to, GOT TO, hire your own attorney to defend your interest in your mothers estate or Trust. None of this is a DIY or something you take advice from others. Those of us on this forum can share our experiences but to get anything done you have to have an attorney to do the whatevers for you & your interests.

I hope by renting Moms house there was a CO implemented. This is a certificate of occupancy and without it the house cannot be rented.

I think it comes down to your sister has no idea what it means to be an executor. I so hope she has gone to Probate to at least get a short certificate allowing her to handle Moms affairs. Sister has to abide by the Will. I don't know how Trusts are done but I would assume the terms have to be done the way it is written. I would get my own lawyer to make sure everything is on the up and up. Do not sign or agree to anything until a lawyer looks at it. You have the right to contest.

Like I said I know anything about Trusts other than they don't go thru Probate and assets are protected from Medicaid. But I have done probate. If Moms estate is sizeable outside the Trust, the Will needs to be probated. The Will gets filed with the Court and becomes public. All beneficiaries get a copy. There must be an accting done. Debts are paid before beneficiaries get anything. In my State you must wait 8 months to close probate to give debtors a chance to put claims in. Do not sign the accting if you contest anything.

I would think in the matter of a Will or trust, all beneficiaries have to be in agreement how things will be split. If the home is in a Trust does it say that the house is to be sold and proceeds split? If your investment with Mom is that you get her interest upon death, then ur sisters are not entitled to it. It has nothing to do with how her other assets are split.

Get a lawyer.

I did the initial work with Probate but had a lawyer for the sale of Moms house. He went on and finished probate for me. It was so nice.