So I live in the state of Maine and my father died without a will now I'm being told my option is to go to probate court and if I prior one type of probate things will go faster and I won't have to go in front of a judge or go to court and the property would be split evenly. I have another relative.
So here's the question what are my options here? Some of my family members they're trying to force me to live with my sister who lived in another state. She was not up here. She never paid any bills here. She came one time, lasted a few months and then disappeared and paid. Maybe $100 here and there.
Now I feel like she's here and she's more than likely expecting to get money which there is no money here. The estate really had nothing except for the property. Now I feel like she's going to wait to try to get some of the property. If not try to get a free place to live.
She does work once in awhile but she's not steady at any job. She could be working part-time today and then winter could come and maybe not work at all or might have a job for a couple of months and then not want to work there anymore and be looking for another one.
I've been living on the property for 25 years and paying bills. I've been paying $400 a month for at least 20 of those years. At first I paid $300 and I have proof of all this.
Then someone shows up and there are friend a friend that kind of knew of my father and he's kind of suggesting or telling me that I shouldn't be charging anybody $400 a month to live somewhere because I'm not a landlord so I'm supposed to move a relative in and have them pay nothing that doesn't even make any sense. They just showed up. I didn't even ask them to come here and because they were told that my father was going to leave his part of the estate to them. Now all the sudden they're here and magically they're automatically entitled. I mean I'm not really sure how that works. I feel like people are trying to force me to allow people to stay with me and control me and run all over me and not allow me to fix the place up or do anything and I won't be able to get them out if they start going crazy or drinking too much or doing something that I don't like and then now I'm supposed to wait till court comes and not fight for my rights and allow them to magically inherit 50% of an estate that they did nothing for it. I mean it sounds kind of crazy.
I mean I get it. Yeah I'm not a landlord but neither was my father. He wasn't a landlord. He just charged me a certain amount every month and I tried to tell this other guy. I just so the person I said you know whether one month all the bills total $500 in the next month they're $800. I still paid the same amount of rent essentially regardless. And he's telling me that I should be splitting the bills in half so if a bill happens to only be $100 One month and that's the only bill that there is. I shouldn't be collecting the $400 from them. What happens if the furnace breaks? What happens if plumbing explodes? What happens if the heater runs out of oil? How do I save for those expenses if I don't get any money from anybody?.
Do I have any options here? Do I have a leg to stand on? Should I go to court and fight to take over more of the estate? Try to get 60 or 70 or 80% of the estate. Is there anything that I can do?
I'd like to be able to buy them out and just keep the place going myself as long as I can.
I was basically told if I pick a certain type of non-contested probate type of court then things would go smoother and I wouldn't have to see a judge and go to actual court but I feel like if I don't agree with how things are going here, why would I want to do that.
Location: Maine