Advice needed

[Ric]

Hi, I just sorta stumbled upon this place while looking for help to my problem, and I figured I might as well give this a try. I'm a 19 year old college student, full time, and I live at home with my mom and brother, along with my sister. The house itself used to belong to my mother, but about 3 years ago my dad was laid off of work and my parents couldn't afford the house anymore (it was refinanced about 2 or 3 times, I'm not sure) so they had to put it up for sale. My sister bought it (she's 34 and has a well paying job) and moved in with us about a year and a half ago.

For the first 6 or 7 months things were fine. Now things obviously aren't workng out between my sister and the 3 of us, and quite honestly, we don't trust her at this point.

Basically, the situation is like this: my mother and myself pay ALL of the utilities (electric, water, gas + oil, phone, cable, internet, etc) which is quite a bit and just about equal to what she pays on the mortgage per month. My brother and myself also do whatever needs to get done around the house, no complaints, but if things aren't done EXACTLY as she likes, she gets abusive to everyone. She expects my mother to cook dinner and have it ready when she gets home every night. Anything that goes wrong around the house (like 3 weeks ago, all of the plumbing in the entire house had to be replaced) she has my mother pay for it all (I helped!). She says she'll move out (to where, I honestly don't know...) and leave us with everything to pay, which we obviously can't (she makes more than both of us combined). It doesn't make sense either, because EVERYTHINGs in her name. I can't live like that.

So I've been trying to save up some money to move out, because one way or another we're gonna get screwed over anyways, and I figure that m mom and myself could pay for an apartment no problem.

I'm just wondering - is it legal to just move out? Like, if we tell her we're gonna move out in like 2 weeks because we found another place, can she do anything? Just about everything in the house right now is ours, besides the living room furniture... is it legal to take what was ours in the first place? Is there anything we need to know before we do this?

Thanks for any help you guys can give! :)

[Agent 007]

I will try and help you on this. Do not take my advice as legal advice as I am not an attorney.

If your sister owns the home and it is solely in her name, then she would be the responsible party to make her mortgage payments. First, if she bought the home to get your family out of trouble, I would say that she was an angel to come along and bail all of you out of your mess. She still has no right to treat you like crap though. Does your family have a lease agreement with her? If not, then you don't have any responsibilty at the home. If the bills are in your mom's name, she is obviously responsible for those, but that's it. You should just be able to get up and leave without any legal problems.

Like I said, if your sister is the sole owner of the property, then nobody else should be responsible for the mortgage. You should also have no problem taking what you own out of them home. If it becomes a battle, call an attorney. If she gets crazy on you, call the police. Tell her that you are thinking about leaving and see if maybe she changes her attitude about everything. Hope this helps a little. Let me know how it worked out. Good luck!

[Ric]

Thanks for your reply! :)

Yes, her name is on the mortgage and most of the bills and stuff, but my mom and I pay for pretty much everything else (other than the mortgage). I agree, it was very nice of her to help us out at that time, and we all appreciated it very much. I mean, everything was going fine for awhile, but recently we've been getting the impression that she doesn't want us here anymore (for no reason that I can see, other than "we're in the way"). It's not like we bother her or anything, and we pretty much mind our own business when we're at home. Basically, she has it made. :P

As far as I know, we haven't signed a lease or anything and now that I think of it, I remember her saying that we were "guests" here.