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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I get the impression that all of this has happened quite recently. If that's the case then the house isn't yours yet. When my grandfather died, my father, his only child, was the inheritor of the estate. It was not a complicated estate and there were no debts, but it still took over a year to settle everything and one of the reasons for the time involved was to ensure there were no liens against the estate. The amount of time will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as well as state to state. There will probably be some taxes (local) to be paid. All of that will have to be done before the house is transferred to your name. So you're not likely to be able to serve Mary with an eviction notice right away. So you need to be prepared to wait some time.

That aside, I would not be surprised of Roy and Mary go to court. You haven't answered some of the questions asked of you regarding the family dynamics or whether Mary knew of her mother's intentions. If the will was written five years ago and Mary lived in the family home with the expectation of inheriting it and Thelma did nothing to disregard the idea, then yes, what Thelma did indicates she was a bitchy mother a la Tony Soprano's mother (her lackluster relationship with her own children and grandchildren does support this notion, unfortunately). The time for tough love for Mary was 30 years ago, even 10 years ago, but now Mary is 50 years old and a woman of limited abilities and means. You, as a young woman on the threshold of adulthood, don't really understand how difficult or challenging it can be for a late middle aged woman to suddenly have to face the harsh world without support or real resources, and Thelma did allow this situation to emerge. Further, you didn't answer the question whether Thelma's estate primarily derived from her husband (and Mary's father) and if that's the case, would Mary's father have supported leaving the house and assets away from his daughter?

Those are moral issues, of course, and the law is not the same as morality. From an ethical perspective I would argue the morally right thing to do would be to agree to a settlement with Mary that involves selling the house and splitting the proceeds between the two of you. If the house is sold for 400k, Mary will have a nest egg of 300k which will allow her to settle in a modest condo or apartment and provide some financial footings for the remainder of her life without having to become a burden on the state, and you will still walk away with a more than tidy sum of money to cover your education and a nice down payment on your own house. Above all, you walk away with a clean conscience. Approaching Roy and Mary with a settlement offer will most likely prevent an expensive legal battle that will drain the estate of its resources.

By the way, there was a case last year in the British courts. A mother died and explicitly cut out her only child from her will. In the will she made clear that not only was she of sound mind and body, but she had been long estranged from the daughter, attempts at reconciliations had not worked out and as such, she did not feel it necessary to leave anything to the daughter and left her estate to a charity. The daughter challenged the will and the court actually found in the daughter's favor and ordered the estate to be divided between the charity and the daughter. The reasoning was that the daughter had very limited means and the estate was valuable enough that giving some of it to her greatly reduced the likelihood that the daughter would be a burden on the state. It was an interesting ruling but I can see the reasoning behind it. Of course, this is the United States and not the UK, but it's still intriguing.

By the way, if I were Roy I'd be supporting Mary in any litigation over the house because if Mary is left with only the 100k, no place to live, no job or future prospects, who do you think is going to support Mary in the future? Roy, of course (and another reason for why Thelma was really very inconsiderate and bitchy with how she set up her will). [/quote]

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