My mother in law just passed away and left the house to my wife and 2 sisters. My wife and children want to live in the home and the sisters...

Question

My mother in law just passed away and left the house to my wife and 2 sisters. My wife and children want to live in the home and the sisters want to sell it. Is it illegal to reside in the home? If they call the police can we be arrested?

Answer

Any owner of a jointly held property can force a sale of the property in an action for partition. If the two sisters want to sell the property and they actually take your wife to court over this, she will definitely lose. It's best to cooperate and to sell the home unless your wife is willing and able to buy out her sisters.

Answer

While Mr. Tillem's answer is legally correct, it doesn't seem to answer your question. The answer is that it is perfectly legal for you to reside in the home as long as your wife owns a share of it. One of the slightly odd quirks of property law is that co-owners of property each have the full rights of ownership as if they were the sole owner when it comes to use and occupancy of the property. So technically all three sisters have a full legal right to occupy or even rent out the house. As you can imagine, this sometimes causes a huge mess if there is not a contract in place among the owners governing how the property will be used.

The solution the legal system has come up with to deal with that kind of mess is the partition action. In old feudal England, the judge would actually divide up the land when co-owners could not agree on how to manage it. That is why it is called "partition." In modern times, with modern subdivision, zoning and land use laws, the courts can't really partition the property, so they order it sold and then the proceeds are partitioned. This is what will eventually happen if your wife and her sisters can't reach an agreement on what to do with the house.

Until then, however, you cannot be arrested for occupying the property.