Posted on: 01st Nov, 2009 10:11 am
my husband and i motgaged a summer camp in ma. with my inlaws 22 years ago. a few years after we did that we ran into some financial trouble and signed it back to them because we were going to file bankruptcy. we did not file because we found out the house could still be lost because they could have considered it favoring a creditor.we did not have anything in writing but we were always led to believe that we would end up with house so we put a lot of time and money into it, including paying the taxes. we took it from a 1 room summer camp and built it into a 2 story 4 bedroom house with a basement. the camp was originally valued at approx $25,000 and now the house is valued at approx $200,000. my father-in-law passed away a year ago so my mother-in-law had the house in her name. we just found out that she signed a quit claim deed with a life estate to my brother-in-law 2 months ago. he has never lived in the house or helped pay for any of the building of it. do we have any legal recourse to get the house back without having to pay him or have we wasted 20 years and $100,000.00
I'm afraid you hardly have any recourse to this as your mother-in-law had transferred the property to your brother-in-law. She was the owner of the property and had all the rights to transfer it to anyone she liked. However, you can always consult an attorney and check out if he can help you with any recourse to this situation.