How Can You Stop an Eviction by Relatives Who Own the Home

[MadBlader]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Texas

My elderly grandparents (80+ years old) are being forced out by one of my uncles from their home.

Here is a little backstory: Two years ago said uncle's daughter died (17 years old) from an a sudden cardiac event, natural causes, she was living with my grandparents for school purposes. My aunt and uncle live out of State. Because of this, they turned to abusing prescription anti-depressants and who know what else, and they want to sell the house without regard to my grandparents wishes nor financial situation, they basically don't care, and have said as much to all of us. If you're wondering if they need the money, no, they're literally millionaires.

As far as the house, it's in his wife's name (aunt-in-law) but 3 of my uncles paid for the house and my grandparents don't want to leave, they have been there for 16 years. My other aunts and uncles, and grandchildren chip in with my grandparent's needs as best we can, but they're still pretty self-sufficient.

So basically, said uncle has already put the house for sale. What should we do? It's not fair to my grandparents, nor my other family members that paid towards the house.

TIA.

[Taxing Matters]

The wife of your uncle, according to you, is the sole owner of the home (the sole person on the title to the property). That means the home is hers to do with as she likes. Unless your grandparents have a long term lease with the owner the owner can give them the proper notice to get out under the applicable state law and once the time period of that notice is gone the owner may start eviction proceedings if they have not moved out.

Why in the world did the other family members contribute to pay for a home that they have no ownership interest in, especially a home owned by the wife of their brother, if they wanted some say in what happened with the house? That was foolish indeed. I’m going to guess that they didn’t any written agreement with their sister-in-law about the use of the home in exchange for that cash either, right? If that’s correct, all the cards are held by the sister-in-law and your uncles are left with really no recourse for the cash they chipped in for this. There are lots of better ways they could have done this. They could have had the home owned by a family partnership in which every sibling that contributed the cash would be a partner and thus all would have a say in what happened to the home, for example. There, the partnership agreement would spell out exactly what the arrangement was and how decisions would be made. Or they could have created a trust to own the home. Or even set up the home ownership with your grandparents having a life estate with the sister-in-law as the remainderman if they wanted to have her get it after the grandparents died. Your husband and the other brothers that don’t want to kick out the grandparents might want to consult a real estate attorney in the state where the property is located to look over the deed and any other documents that relate to this property and see if there is anything they can do to keep their parents in the house. But just from what you have said, it doesn’t look good.

[adjusterjack]

So basically, said uncle has already put the house for sale. What should we do? It's not fair to my grandparents, nor my other family members that paid towards the house.

Sorry, I don't know how to sugar coat this, but the reality is that the owner has a right to sell the property.

Whatever your family members paid towards the house is likely to be deemed rent for your grandparents to stay there.

Your grandparents will need to find another place to live and the sooner they (and the family) accept that reality, the more flexibility they will have in finding one.