[WSBAPT] Life Estate

[Dalynne Singleton]

I have a client whose father passed away in 2010.  His stepmother was provided a life estate in the Will.  She was placed in a nursing home in 2012 and the home is vacant and becoming dilapidated.  Contact with her son gets nowhere - promises mom is going to pay RE taxes...  Real estate taxes have not been paid since 2012 when she moved out.

My research tells me that the life estate tenant is responsible for taxes, maintenance, insurance and costs related to the property.  WA Probate Deskbook & WA Probate Procedure and Tax Manual don't address this situation.

If the house is rented, the life estate owner gets the rents.  But what if the life estate owner leaves to never return and doesn't maintain the property or the taxes?

Question:  What can my 3 sons do as they are to inherit the property when stepmother dies and don't want to see the home in such disrepair and foreclosed for taxes which are now more than $11,000?

Dalynne Singleton

Gourley Law Group
Snohomish Escrow
The Exchange Connection
1002 10th Street / PO Box 1091
Snohomish, WA 98291

360.568.5065
360.329.4079
360.568.8092  fax
dalynne at glgmail.com<mailto:dalynne at glgmail.com>

LICENSED IN WASHINGTON AND OREGON
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