My grandmother is dying of cancer, and although her estate qualifies as a small estate, she has lots of nice furnishings that hold a lot of memories for me. My grandfather is completely nuts and has been very vocal, as my grandmother sits dying in the other room, about how he is going to fight for 100% of everything and sell it to buy things he wants and intends to tie up the entire estate so that after his death his children and grandchildren get nothing. Like I said, he is nuts.
Anyhow, my grandmother has a will that states, per Oklahoma state law, that he gets half of the house (his name isn’t on the deed and she doesn’t want him to have any of this, but in OK he gets it no matter what) and my mother gets the other half. This stops him from getting a reverse mortgage although it does open up room for his creditors to take his half.
What I am concerned about is the furniture. My grandfather is a heavy smoker and likes to smoke with his oxygen on. Not only am I worried about the effects of the smoke on the furniture but what if he blows the house up?! When he finds out that my grandma has not left him everything he will go nuts and likely destroy things that he knows meant something to her and to my family. To avoid this, I want to take out all the furniture that she is willing to me anyways before he finds out about what is in the will.
The only problem is that during probate all the inventory must be listed and possibly appraised. Could he show up to court saying we stole the furniture? Would the court make us return it until probate is done? Could my grandmother sell the furniture to me while she is still alive?
I can’t seem to find a straightforward answer to this.
