Inheriting a house with siblings? Here’s everything that can go wrong

If you and your siblings are on track to one day inherit your parents’ house, consider this cautionary tale.

In a Reddit thread on AmITheA—le, one poster shares how when his mother died in 2018, she left him and his two siblings her home.

“My siblings wanted to sell the house and split the money,” says the anonymous poster. “I wanted to keep the house. I asked them if I could buy them.â€

They agreed. So the siblings were appraised of the property and he paid them both a third of the current value of the house.

His brother spent his share on sports cars, nights out and exotic vacations; his sister jumped into a boat.

In 2023, the husband and his wife decided to move to be closer to her family and they sold the house. By then, the price of the house had tripled.

“Now, both of my siblings feel that I owe it to them to share the profit I’ve made,” he writes. “This has gotten really toxic and most of my family is on their side. My mom’s sister says it would have broken her heart to see her kids fight like this and I have to split the money with my siblings. My father’s sister thinks I should buy them so they shut up.â€

Does this man owe his brothers and sisters anything more? We asked for the opinion of experts on the situation.

What the lawyers say

“The brother is under no obligation to give them anything,” says Jessa Gary, an attorney in the estate planning, trust and probate practice at Isaac Wiles in Columbus, OH. “His siblings are not property owners” and have no legal right to anything” because he has already purchased them.

When their brother bought the house, he also assumed all the risk, notes Jonathan Ross, managing attorney at Texas Probate Pros in San Antonio, TX.

“This house became his investment,” explains Ross. “His siblings, if they were smart, should have invested the money he paid them to buy them. Unfortunately, they went and promptly spent that money. The bottom line is that they had every opportunity to do smart things with the money and invest.â€

In short: They didn’t.

“If the value went down, I don’t think the siblings would offer to pay him for the loss. He just did better, and legally, I don’t see any basis for complaint,” says Robert Steele, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus. Reich Greenberg Atlas in Manhattan, where he heads the trusts and estates department.

It’s a matter of perspective.

“It’s no different than selling property to a stranger and then asking for a share of the profit later when the stranger sells the property for more than they paid for the property,” the lawyer says. Don Worleyby McDonald Worley in Houston. “The siblings were more than happy to take the money when their brother offered to buy them, but then their greed took over when he did something with the property and sold it for a profit later.”