Ok here's the thing, my dad lives in america, he married a woman over there and then divorced her, she still lives with him in his house, but what i need to know is, (from americans) when he passes away, he leaves me and my older sister his house which is worth roughly about £95.000, what i need to know is, will me and my sister be able to sell the house, with his ex wife stll living there? and also what is the rate of inheritance tax in America?

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Ok here's the thing, my dad lives in america, he married a woman over there and then divorced her, she still lives with him in his house, but what i need to know is, (from americans) when he passes away, he leaves me and my older sister his house which is worth roughly about £95.000, what i need to know is, will me and my sister be able to sell the house, with his ex wife stll living there? and also what is the rate of inheritance tax in America?


OT: Since the house is in the states, how many dollars is 95,000 pounds?

And yes, if he explicitly leaves that house to you and your sister in a legal binding will, the house belongs to you and your sister. After that, you can do what you want. Your stepmom will have to move. If it goes to court, you will probably win and the courts will evict her anyway.
Do you envision her not readily moving out if such situation happens?

The estate tax rate is graduated like the rest of our income tax system. The maximum rate is 45% but I have no idea how large the estate must be to put you into that bracket. These days the pound sterling is equal to very roughly two dollars.

Your biggest headache is going to be putting the will through probate. First off, you will have to engage an attorney to do this. My wife and I are currently in the process of filing probate on a very simple estate by ourselves, and the entire American legal system is determined to make an example of us and thwart us even though we are doing everything correctly, just to discourage anyone else from doing it. So don't make our mistake, get a lawyer. In most states his fee is fixed by law at 3% of the value of the estate. So you're looking at a $6,000 legal fee. BTW they calculate it on the value of the house, not the equity, so even if your father has a mortgage for $190,000, your fee will be based on $200,000, not the $10,000 you stand to inherit. Yes, it is possible for legal fees to eat up a small estate, it happens all the time, welcome to America.

Next thing is that his wife can contest the will. Even if she has no legitimate claim, she'll find a lawyer who thinks he can devise one and he will take her case either by charging her money up front or waiting to take a percentage of what she wins in court. She can claim that you were putting pressure on him when he made out his will, or that he was mentally incompetent, or that he didn't understand how much the house was worth, or that aliens were shooting ray guns at him. She can claim that while they were married he tyrannized her and browbeat her into abandoning her lucrative professional career to be his sex slave, and now she has no way to make a living. She can claim that he liquidated all of her assets and spent the money on drugs, gambling, and floozies.

Once the will is successfully probated and you've paid all your fees and taxes, the house is yours and you can sell it if you want. If there's a cranky lady living in it who refuses to move, your real estate agent must "disclose" that fact to all prospective buyers, and she can even make it difficult for him to show the house to them by leaving her garbage on the floor and answering the door in her US Marine Corps underwear. Depending on what state this is in, it can take up to a year to evict a relative (even an ex-in-law or "out-law") from a home they were living in peacefully and rent-free as a companion to the deceased owner. And that's for an American heir who can talk in person to all the authorities.

If your father is terminally ill and all of this is not idle speculation, you need to engage an attorney who specializes in probate cases involving foreign heirs right away. Even if he's not, you seem to be worried about it so it wouldn't hurt to do the investigation now. There may be things that you can do now to expedite the process later.

The best thing would be to get your father to put the legal title to the house in trust for you and your sister. That way when he dies, it instantly and automatically becomes your property regardless of the terms of his will and the success of their enforcement.

Any parents reading this, please be kind to your children and do this for them. You can always change your mind and revoke the trust until the moment you die, so you've got nothing to lose.