Probate and Estate's responsibility for the making the house sellable?

[robinb]

Hello all DIS attorneys and lawyer-wanna-bes.

First, a little background. I have a friend, Kim, who lives in Illinois. She's in her mid-60's and moved back into her family home 35 years ago when she was divorced. I believe that Kim is on social security now. She has 3 sisters who live in the area and a brother who also lives in the family home. Kim's mom was a hoarder and the house is full of stuff and antiques. Kim was her father's caregiver before he died and was her mother's caregiver after that. Her mom died in May 2022 and one of the sisters is the executor for the estate.

The sister, quite understandably, wants to sell the house and close the probate. She gave Kim and her brother basically 30 days notice to clean the house and get out. Her sisters have told her that, since they live there, she and the brother need to do all the work to clean the hoard and prepare the house to be sold. So, Kim now needs to go through all of her 35-years of stuff PLUS all her mother's stuff. The sister told her that they already had a year to do all of this but they were not actually given a deadline until last month. It's not clear if the expectation that they clean the mom's stuff up was expressed to them before that.

I had a similar thing happen to me, except it was my sister who was the caregiver for my mom in the family hoardy-home and I was the executor. My sister was unable to help and I knew that I could not get the house ready to sell alone. I hired a company to clean the home when my sister moved out and that expense was paid back immediately out of the sale of the house at closing so the expense was shared equally even though I had not lived there in over 30 years.

Kim's sisters believe that Kim and her brother have the sole responsibility to ready the house for sale. Kim is struggling to clean up her own 35 years worth of stuff. She has never been in the best of health and she's working through joint pain and back spasms to do her best. It's pretty clear that she won't have the house sales ready by the end of the month. The sister had told them that if they need to hire a company to finish the job the cost of the clean-up will be deducted from their portion of the estate. Can she legally do that? Can she deduct the cost of cleaning from the estate proceeds of only 2 of the siblings? It's my opinion that if all of the siblings are participating in the proceeds of the house then all of them should also participate in the expenses to make it ready to sell. If Kim's sister goes through with the threat to deduct the costs from her share of the estate, what recourse does she have? It's a little fuzzy, but I think that my sister had to sign off on the distribution and I also seem to recall a point in my mom's probate where there was a time that someone can object to the distribution of the estate. I know that she *should* probably hire an attorney but she's on a very fixed income and probably can't afford one. Any ideas I can pass on to her?

 

[tvguy]

I don't know the laws of Illinois. But I would expect that the Executor of the Estate can ask the sister that has lived there 35 years rent free to clean up. If they don't that cost would be paid out of the total estate, not just their share. However, as far as I can tell an Executor can do just about anything they want to get the estate settled in a reasonable time frame. A year is more than enough time. Too long in fact. My MIL's estate was not set up properly so it had to be Probated. But my wife could sell the house and car in that time, the money just had to be held in a Probate account until probate closed.
My mom's estate WAS properly set up, so everything she owned became mine the second she passed away. I didn't have any constraints.
My wife's step-mother passed away a year ago, and as far as I know nothing as been done to settle the estate. Her step-sister is the executor and has been overwhelmed by it all. But as far as I know, there is no law saying an estate has to be settled within any time frame.

 

[robinb]

I don't know the laws of Illinois. But I would expect that the Executor of the Estate can ask the sister that has lived there 35 years rent free to clean up. If they don't that cost would be paid out of the total estate, not just their share. However, as far as I can tell an Executor can do just about anything they want to get the estate settled in a reasonable time frame. A year is more than enough time. Too long in fact. My MIL's estate was not set up properly so it had to be Probated. But my wife could sell the house and car in that time, the money just had to be held in a Probate account until probate closed.
My mom's estate WAS properly set up, so everything she owned became mine the second she passed away. I didn't have any constraints.
My wife's step-mother passed away a year ago, and as far as I know nothing as been done to settle the estate. Her step-sister is the executor and has been overwhelmed by it all. But as far as I know, there is no law saying an estate has to be settled within any time frame.

I feel for your wife's step-sister. It can be very overwhelming! When I settled my mom's estate, her creditors were paid and I sold her house. All of the money was kept in a special account. Her estate had to go through probate because the only will that was found was so old that all the executors had all died. I was actually an "administrator" which made it even more of a PITB. I had to come up with an estate distribution and that was approved by the judge before the probate was closed.

I totally agree that it's time to move things along and settle the estate. Selling the house and asking the siblings to move out after a year is perfectly reasonable. What I find unreasonable is requiring 2 of the 5 siblings to bear the sole physical and financial responsibly to ready the house for sale. I guess if there was an understanding that they could remain in the home for a year rent free if they cleaned it, that would be one thing. But as far as I know, there was no such understanding. Springing the new requirement on them last month is bogus even if they had lived there rent free. As for Kim living rent free for 35 years, I'm not so sure of that. Maybe she did and maybe she helped with a small rent and/or bills. I really don't know. Even if she did, she was her parents' caregiver for 5-10 years of that time which meant that the other sisters didn't have the burden of taking care of their parents or spending money on a nursing home.

 

[HopperFan]

I don't think there are clear answers unless there is more information.

- Was the Executor also the Executor for Dad and did she do what she needed to do to clear his things and begin the process of addressing his hoarding?
- Was there a formal notice to the brother and sister that they had "one year" to clear the house and prepare it for sale?
- Does sister have a copy of will where it directs how everything is to be handled?
- My guess is the will says all expenses come out of the entire estate and once all bills paid then the estate is split. I think executor is trying to get a bigger share with less work.
- I do lots of thrifting/reselling/estate sales. How most those companies work is they take their fees out of the money that they collect at sale. Unless it is different there the companies take their cut, then you get the rest.

Flip side -

- Did brother and sister do nothing the last year and just expected to stay there forever?
- Were they paying rent the last year (no longer providing caregiver job) and hoped it continue?
- Were they given a place to live for free as long as they were preparing the home for sale?
- Was there any formal agreement regarding them living in the house?
I can't believe at Mom's death the Executor just said nothing or did nothing for the last year. There had to be conversations to move this along.

Either way I would focus on finding a place to live, luckily with two of them they might have more options AND I would be having someone look over the will to determine if her unusual threats regarding them paying for the removal could come to fruition. If they physically and economically (dumpsters etc) are too much for them, and they don't want to fight it, they might end up with a smaller share.

UNFORTUNATELY in situations like this we hear the stories all the time. Your caregiving no matter how long basically has no value unless the deceased had created their will in a way to pay for this help post death. The mother could have changed the will after Dad died being well aware of their help and provided for them. She didn't and like many estate settlements hard feelings will be had. Raising my hand three times on this one. I had more control on the last situation and did my best to keep everyone happy including giving my siblings a share of money left to me by my Mom so we all received the same.

I don't know the laws of Illinois. But I would expect that the Executor of the Estate can ask the sister that has lived there 35 years rent free to clean up. If they don't that cost would be paid out of the total estate, not just their share. However, as far as I can tell an Executor can do just about anything they want to get the estate settled in a reasonable time frame. A year is more than enough time. Too long in fact. My MIL's estate was not set up properly so it had to be Probated. But my wife could sell the house and car in that time, the money just had to be held in a Probate account until probate closed.
My mom's estate WAS properly set up, so everything she owned became mine the second she passed away. I didn't have any constraints.
My wife's step-mother passed away a year ago, and as far as I know nothing as been done to settle the estate. Her step-sister is the executor and has been overwhelmed by it all. But as far as I know, there is no law saying an estate has to be settled within any time frame.

This might vary state to state. My Mom passed end of 2020 (mostly unexpected) and sadly had not signed her new will making me Executor with her husband of 20 years. It was still my brother who was clueless as was my SD because when his first wife passed his DS took care of it all (he's a lawyer). Time was ticking because the tax implications and other legal issues in our state. My sister was going nuts, and I had to step in and work with them both to push this faster. We literally cleared a major deadline within days and after a lawyer filed an extension of some kind. Part of it had to be done in one year and the other by the end of the second year or taxes would be due. It could be the Executor is aware of some deadlines and unfortunately waited to the last minute, purposeful or not.

 

[tvguy]

Settling estates can get sticky. A friend is executor of an estimate of a friend of his who died a year ago. The deceased was executor of his partner's estate. The partner died in 2019, but the deceased never finished settling the partner's estate. 100% of the partners estate went to the deceased. The Probate court has assigned my friend to also finish settling the partner's estate. But the investment company that controls the partners investments won't talk to my friend, let alone let him finish settling the estate. So far they are unresponsive to the Probate courts order making my friend the excecutor.

 

[darnheather]

I don't know the laws of Illinois. But I would expect that the Executor of the Estate can ask the sister that has lived there 35 years rent free to clean up. If they don't that cost would be paid out of the total estate, not just their share. However, as far as I can tell an Executor can do just about anything they want to get the estate settled in a reasonable time frame. A year is more than enough time. Too long in fact. My MIL's estate was not set up properly so it had to be Probated. But my wife could sell the house and car in that time, the money just had to be held in a Probate account until probate closed.
My mom's estate WAS properly set up, so everything she owned became mine the second she passed away. I didn't have any constraints.
My wife's step-mother passed away a year ago, and as far as I know nothing as been done to settle the estate. Her step-sister is the executor and has been overwhelmed by it all. But as far as I know, there is no law saying an estate has to be settled within any time frame.

I am not a lawyer and not allowed to give legal advice so this is not legal advice but an opinion of a third year law student. To the best of my knowledge the above is correct. Asking is ok, demanding is not going to work. At this point it would better for the executor to pay to have the house cleaned, keeping all receipts, and be reimbursed once the house is sold.

For goodness sakes people have a will! In many areas you can have one drafted by legal aid if you meet the income guidelines, otherwise they start at about $250 and are absolutely priceless.

 

[robinb]

I don't think there are clear answers unless there is more information.

- Was the Executor also the Executor for Dad and did she do what she needed to do to clear his things and begin the process of addressing his hoarding?
- Was there a formal notice to the brother and sister that they had "one year" to clear the house and prepare it for sale?
- Does sister have a copy of will where it directs how everything is to be handled?
- My guess is the will says all expenses come out of the entire estate and once all bills paid then the estate is split. I think executor is trying to get a bigger share with less work.
- I do lots of thrifting/reselling/estate sales. How most those companies work is they take their fees out of the money that they collect at sale. Unless it is different there the companies take their cut, then you get the rest.

Flip side -

- Did brother and sister do nothing the last year and just expected to stay there forever?
- Were they paying rent the last year (no longer providing caregiver job) and hoped it continue?
- Were they given a place to live for free as long as they were preparing the home for sale?
- Was there any formal agreement regarding them living in the house?
I can't believe at Mom's death the Executor just said nothing or did nothing for the last year. There had to be conversations to move this along.

Either way I would focus on finding a place to live, luckily with two of them they might have more options AND I would be having someone look over the will to determine if her unusual threats regarding them paying for the removal could come to fruition. If they physically and economically (dumpsters etc) are too much for them, and they don't want to fight it, they might end up with a smaller share.

UNFORTUNATELY in situations like this we hear the stories all the time. Your caregiving no matter how long basically has no value unless the deceased had created their will in a way to pay for this help post death. The mother could have changed the will after Dad died being well aware of their help and provided for them. She didn't and like many estate settlements hard feelings will be had. Raising my hand three times on this one. I had more control on the last situation and did my best to keep everyone happy including giving my siblings a share of money left to me by my Mom so we all received the same.




This might vary state to state. My Mom passed end of 2020 (mostly unexpected) and sadly had not signed her new will making me Executor with her husband of 20 years. It was still my brother who was clueless as was my SD because when his first wife passed his DS took care of it all (he's a lawyer). Time was ticking because the tax implications and other legal issues in our state. My sister was going nuts, and I had to step in and work with them both to push this faster. We literally cleared a major deadline within days and after a lawyer filed an extension of some kind. Part of it had to be done in one year and the other by the end of the second year or taxes would be due. It could be the Executor is aware of some deadlines and unfortunately waited to the last minute, purposeful or not.

Thanks.

As far as I know, there was no mention of their responsibility to clean the house for sale until last month. Maybe Kim's sisters were thinking it real loud ... it does make sense that Kim and her brother clean the house that they are living in so it could be sold. But, AFAIK, there was no agreement to clean it for sale, written or verbal. I have no idea if they had an agreement in place to continue to live there or if it was just allowed to continue to happen. I know with my sister, I simply allowed her to remain while I worked through things until she moved out. It's difficult kicking family out of the family home, especially family with limited resources.

I think it all comes down to what agreements were made with Kim and her brother. Did they agree to clean the house in return for staying in the home? Did they agree to pay rent or do other things in kind to continue to stay in the home? Anything else has no bearing. As far as I know, there were no agreements. The sister can't retroactively charge them for things they did not agree to.

You have a good point about the will. I will ask Kim if she has a copy of it and see what it says. In my mind, cleaning the house is an expense for the estate.

You're right on the money with caregivers.

 

[robinb]

I am not a lawyer and not allowed to give legal advice so this is not legal advice but an opinion of a third year law student. To the best of my knowledge the above is correct. Asking is ok, demanding is not going to work. At this point it would better for the executor to pay to have the house cleaned, keeping all receipts, and be reimbursed once the house is sold.

For goodness sakes people have a will! In many areas you can have one drafted by legal aid if you meet the income guidelines, otherwise they start at about $250 and are absolutely priceless.

Thanks.

That's what I think too. I will have her check the will and see what it says.

If the sister attempts to distribute the proceeds unequally, will the sister's lawyer put the breaks on it? Illinois probate law is nearly impossible to deal with on your own. My mom died in Illinois and I tried to do a do it yourself probate and I was nearly laughed out of court. A lawyer is, for all intents and purposes, a requirement in Illinois so I am 99% certain the sister has one.

 

[starry_solo]

Thanks.

That's what I think too. I will have her check the will and see what it says.

If the sister attempts to distribute the proceeds unequally, will the sister's lawyer put the breaks on it? Illinois probate law is nearly impossible to deal with on your own. My mom died in Illinois and I tried to do a do it yourself probate and I was nearly laughed out of court. A lawyer is, for all intents and purposes, a requirement in Illinois so I am 99% certain the sister has one.

the court should put the brakes on it, but it all depends on what the will says.

 

[Imzadi]

- Does sister have a copy of will where it directs how everything is to be handled?
- My guess is the will says all expenses come out of the entire estate and once all bills paid then the estate is split. I think executor is trying to get a bigger share with less work.

Estate disputes are the worst. That's when you find out what one's sibling's character truly is.

Not a lawyer, but went through a couple nasty estate/inheritance battles. I think the bolding is correct. But, it depends on what the will states.

BTW, the executor usually gets some money for being the executor. So, yeah, she is trying to make out with more money than she may be entitled. It's not like it would be some hardship if SHE hires a cleaning crew, dumpster, and some movers to toss out all the furniture. As executor of the estate that may be HER job.

Question: Who paid the taxes on the house for the past year? And who paid for all the utilities? Did the brother & sister pay it since they were living there? Or is that coming out of the estate?

If the brother & sister didn't pay for anything, then they were truly living rent free there. The other two siblings may be taking that into account when they say those two should pay for the clean up.

Also, your friend really should look to see if there are some free or low cost legal aid groups in your area if she can't afford an attorney.

For one: it legally may be required for written notice to evict someone.

In most states, "Possession is nine-tenths of the law," that means the brother & sister have "squater's rights," which means they must be served with written legal notice of when to vacate. And say, they were given 30 days notice, even so, they and their possessions can't just be turned out onto the street on the 31st day. The executor must file for legal eviction and go through the whole eviction process - which can take 6 MONTHS or more and lots of notices before a sheriff comes and truly evicts them. (This law goes all the way back to our forefathers, from the time in England when King George III would toss people out into the street at any time for any reason, and why the first settlers came to live here, where people created laws so this can't happen.)

I'm not saying the brother & sister should stay. They should be looking for another place to live or stay. While quite stressful knowing they should be out by a given date, this gives them some breathing room if they can't make it out on the 30th day. The executor can't simply put them and their belonging out on the street. (Unless the new owners are ready to move into the house the next day. But, houses usually don't sell that fast. Again they need to consult a lawyer about this.)

 

[NannyBeBe]

Kim and the brother should box up anything they want to keep and move out. The Executor can then prepare the house for sale. Any expenditures of the estate, which would include the cleaning and preparation of the house, would be deducted from the estate before the proceeds are distributed equally to the beneficiaries, or whatever the Will states.

 

[HopperFan]

Kim and the brother should box up anything they want to keep and move out. The Executor can then prepare the house for sale. Any expenditures of the estate, which would include the cleaning and preparation of the house, would be deducted from the estate before the proceeds are distributed equally to the beneficiaries, or whatever the Will states.

What is sad, after being through this 3 times in recent years, is that there is really NO ONE supervising an Executor. The deceased has trusted this one person to do the right thing for all beneficiaries. In the event of situations like this unless a beneficiary of the estate is willing to contest decisions or take legal action to intervene (which is costly) in to what is happening, they likely can easily be taken advantage of.

I know it was suggested by a couple lawyers we have worked with to NOT have CO-Executors, and it was a pain with my Mom because the two were not working in sync and I had to join in to push both ... maybe it's best there are two to have a checks and balance.

 

[mom2rtk]

I feel like Kim and her husband need to be shown some grace because they were willing to be caregivers in the parent's final days. Whether the past year living rent free in the house is enough grace is the question. There's so much we don't know here. But expecting Kim to do all the heavy lifting of preparing the house seems quite unreasonable. They should gather their things and leave in a reasonable and agreed upon period of time. Then both siblings should do the work or share the cost (from the estate) of cleaning and liquidating the items from the home.

 

[tvguy]

I feel like Kim and her husband need to be shown some grace because they were willing to be caregivers in the parent's final days. Whether the past year living rent free in the house is enough grace is the question. There's so much we don't know here. But expecting Kim to do all the heavy lifting of preparing the house seems quite unreasonable. They should gather their things and leave in a reasonable and agreed upon period of time. Then both siblings should do the work or share the cost (from the estate) of cleaning and liquidating the items from the home.

OP indicated the sister lived rent free for 35 YEARS.
However, at least in California, Probate sales of homes are exempt from disclosures because the seller, the executor did not live in the house in recent history to know what issues may exist.
My wife ran into that when selling her mom's house. She has not lived there in 20 years. The buyer wanted some sheet rock inspected and replaced because "he was concerned it was not the proper thickness for a wall between a garage and the interior". My wife had no idea, she didn't live there when the work was done, and her response to that noted that. The buyer was the next door neighbor, and he did not know that my wife knew who had done the work. Him. He was a contractor, did the job on the side without a permit, using sheetrock that was too thin, but if he had pursued the situation further he could have lost his contractors license.

 

[GreatLakes]

My suspicion is, legally, any cost of cleanup has to come out of the estate. If the executor takes it out of just the one sister and brother's are they willing to go to court?

The first thing that came to mind for me was what the heck has the sister been doing for the past year? The three sisters should have set expectations much earlier but at the same time they may have dropped a few hints or said things they thought was clear that the sister who lives in the house didn't pick up on.

 

[disykat]

Like others said, those living in the house should separate out what they want to keep and prepare to move out. Then they (with the agreement of all the heirs) can contract an estate sale dealer to sell all the stuff left for a percentage of the sale. (Our estate sale person took 30% and it was the best money we spent. We would have been happy to donate it all.) The proceeds of that sale can help prep the house for sale with anything remaining being taken before the proceeds of the home sale are divided.

I did most of the work on my parent's house with siblings pitching in as the deadlines approached. Some people just don't see the need until the deadline hits. The hardest part was getting family memorabilia dealt with, photos and paperwork digitized, disposed of, or shredded. We also threw out underwear, etc. - anything we didn't want put out, because they will try to sell EVERTHING. The estate sale people took care of the rest. It was such a relief to let someone else handle that small portion of it at I time when I just didn't have the bandwidth.

No experience but personal so I understand her irritation, but I doubt her irritation has any basis legally if they have all inherited the property. As the executor though, I'm pretty sure she can set reasonable deadlines. I've known of several people with siblings who still live for free in a now jointly owned home. In those cases the people weren't in NEED and they have been oblivious to the fact that it is hard on their siblings. People who own a home that has other people living in it really need to address that issue in their wills!

I see both sides of this argument. On my side we are splitting everything equitably and I get no payment for doing the majority of the work and it is a bit of an irritation. I regret now not standing up for myself in the beginning and asking for some fairness on the fact that I gave up employment, spent lots of money traveling, and of dealt with all their affairs without what would have been perfectly fair remuneration from the estate. It seems weird that money matters in this, but it does. On the other side of the family, we disclaimed DH's portion of his childhood home so his sister, who lived with and cared for their parents and didn't have a lot of assets herself, could keep her home. We know how hard caregiving is and it seemed fair for her to come out with the home. We addressed this long BEFORE my in-laws passed so everyone would know what to expect. Each situation is different and these things really need to be hashed out.

 

[barkley]

i'm just going to put this out there, having dealt with a sibling who lived rent free/largely by choice jobless (provided no care for mom) for over 30 years- it may be that there have been discussions that kim/brother have had with their siblings, discussions on multiple occasions, individually and as a group over and over for a year that kim is not sharing with the o/p. i know this was the case with my sibling and our mother's, my sibling's/myself's attempts to remove him from mom's home-years of promises on his part, ignoring us, beligerence.... but none of his defenders (friends, legal aide, anyone he could solicit support from) ever learned this from him. in our case mom ended up selling her home to be rid of him......................until she relented and let him sneak stay at her assisted living apartment for the last years of her life

it may be that the executor sister has finally drawn a line in the sand to keep the estate from bleeding whatever expenses retaining the home costs-even absent a mortgage there are the carrying costs and god knows how much damage could be hidden under/behind that hoard.

yeah, kim could get legal aid involved and fight an evicion but what will happen? delays, further court costs, money bleeding from the estate which will lessen kim's share so she would do better to get her stuff and get out-then let the pieces fall into place on the house selling at which point in time she might want to look into legal aide to review the final disposition.

For goodness sakes people have a will! In many areas you can have one drafted by legal aid if you meet the income guidelines, otherwise they start at about $250 and are absolutely priceless.

absolutly-but also PLEASE put together a guide for the executor. we did 2 estates and while both had their challenges despite having wills in place (and one being a trust), the single most time consuming aspect was figuring out-

who are utilities through (which cell company, satellite provider-under whose name, maybe long deceased husband???), do you have deposits that can be applied to final bill

who were creditors (in one we found dozens and dozens of credit cards but no clue on who was owed)

what bills were on auto pay, are you subscribed to anything that will auto renew

who is insurance (renters, auto, LIFE...) through

what banks do you have accounts at

what are passwords to online accounts/bills

if there is a pension who do we notify


it is a NIGHTMARE to deal with-we liken it to dozens of puzzles, the pieces mixed together with no single picture to follow as a guide-and in our case, with others screaming for their share of the finished picture but providing no assistance (in the states we served in executors and trustees received no fees or extra compensation unless it was expressly stated in the will or trust-both parties wanted everything 'even steven' among their beneficiaries so over a year's intensive work on each estate absent so much as a 'thank you').

 

[QueenIsabella]

Too late for the OP/her friend, but they do sell books with catchy titles like, "Now That I'm Dead", that help you gather all the relevant documents/account numbers/etc. Of course, Suze Orman will sell you a similar product on HSN. I do recommend something like that--it will mention things you never thought of.

Going through a lifetime's worth of stuff is daunting, for sure. I can understand why the executor sister doesn't want anything to do with it. But, despite the 35 years issue, I don't think she can just foist off the work/expense on the two people living there. I don't know if it's worth the effort (time, cost) to fight her--I would recommend packing up their own stuff, and leaving the house and Mom's detritus for the estate to deal with.

 

[Imzadi]

it may be that there have been discussions that kim/brother have had with their siblings, discussions on multiple occasions, individually and as a group over and over for a year that kim is not sharing with the o/p. i know this was the case with my sibling and our mother's, my sibling's/myself's attempts to remove him from mom's home-years of promises on his part, ignoring us, beligerence.... but none of his defenders (friends, legal aide, anyone he could solicit support from) ever learned this from him.

Yes, I wonder this too. While it takes probate about a year before they can start doing things, I would think the siblings had a discussion about this at least once. So, the sister & brother living there had possibly been given an approximate time frame already. They haven't made any movement to move and given a final date to leave, they may now be playing the victim card.

 

[_19disnA]

Not a lawyer (even on the internet), but can comment on some of the other issues raised. Your friend and her siblings should have been having conversations about how to handle things long before the mom passed. If they waited until the mom was deceased to talk about these issues is a sure way to cause problems. Not clear to me why in the 35 yrs she has lived there some effort wasn't being made to get rid of unneeded things. Not like it was suddenly a surprise that one day they would probably be selling the house once both parents were gone. If there is nothing of value left in the house, then hiring someone to dispose of the things no one wants seems like the most straightforward way to handle that, but obviously would be a cost involved. My guess is there will likely be a lot of repairs needed to even prepare the house for sale, not clear what type of upkeep or improvements were made in the past 35 years. Someone will have to pay those costs.

As Kim's friend, you probably don't know what was discussed in the past, what sort of verbal agreements were made and perhaps are only getting Kim's side of the story. Did Kim contribute to any of the expenses of living there or did she pay rent? Did the other sister's have any role in being the mom's 'caregiver' and exactly what did that mean? Was Kim (and her brother) staying there rent-free in exchange for being a caregiver? Who actually owns the house? Obviously someone was paying the monthly bills (utilities, insurance, taxes, etc.). Were there any joint bank accounts being used for this purpose and how much is left in those accounts? Did the mom have any income/investments/savings being used to pay expenses? Exactly who paid for what and what agreements they had are certainly part of what needs to be considered. Since you likely don't know any of these things (or only hearing what Kim tells you), I really don't think you can provide much in the way of advice to her.

The issue of who pays to prepare the house for sale and how long Kim has to vacate the property seem like only a small piece of the total picture. From the descriptions provided I doubt any type of 'estate sale dealer' would have any interest in the contents of the home. Unlikely it contains valuable antiques, jewelry or other household items of significant value.