Life Estate Laws in Illinois

**confused22** · 05-17-2007, 02:53 PM

I have two questions concerning life estates in Illinois....

The first one is my grandmother left farm ground and storage buildings ect. to my brother and myself, but my father has life estate of it. But it also states in the will that during my fathers life of use of the property that he must maintain the ground and building in a suitable way.

Which he not doing, two of the farm houses the roof is about to or has already caved in, the storage sheds all need roof repair and several of the barns have fallen down!

Is there anything my brother and I can do since he has intentionally voided the will on his end of the deal?

The second question is that I have built a home in a private sub-division. The Owner has set forth a contract that each person that builds there does not actually own the ground that the house is built on but they have life estate of the lot, which is fine I guess but also in the contract is that the person building the house must pay all taxes and insurance on the property for thier life use of the property and that when the person passes on or decides to leave the property that the house MUST be sold back to him and a considerable percentage less that what I paid for it.

Is this legal?

I would greatly appreciate any opppinions in these matters!

**seniorjudge** · 05-17-2007, 03:09 PM

Q: Is there anything my brother and I can do since he has intentionally voided the will on his end of the deal?

A: Yes, you can sue him for waste. Or go in there, clean it up and send him the bill.

Q: Is this legal?

A: Yes; although why you would agree to something like that is beyond my understanding.