Help

Me and my brother inherited a cabin in northern mn in 84' fom my dad. But my dad gave
life estate to his girlfriend. She moved out in 95' but still had life
estate. My brother wanted out but we could not sell because of the life
estate so I had it appraised for $150,000 (in 96')in a an verbal agreement
that I would pay him off. Since then I have made 2 payments of $31,000 and
$10,000 last july he died his wife now wants half of the money for the
cabin. Since 96' my family and I have renovated it completey and maitained the
cabin. they have not paid any uitilitys, assesments, mantanince
construction costs or help with the labor. And the value of the cabin is
now 480,000. How can she reep the benefits of me and my familys sweet
equity and money that we have out into this? can I file for eminent domain
since the have NOT helped financialy or labor or shown interest? They have paid 1/3 of the taxes each year for 5 of the last 13 years.

Sorry to hear about this mess. I read everything you posted, and obviously this is a complicated situation. Truthfully, you are not going to get this resolved with intervention of legal counsel. This is especially true due to the lack of written contracts. Eminent domain is not an option available to you here, but adverse possession may be. The only way to know your chances of success is to speak with a lawyer. WLD has attorneys all over, so if you go to their main page you could get a referral to one in your local area. It would cost a very modest sum to schedule an initial consult, and it would be money very well spent given the current value of the cabin. Hope everything gets resolved properly. AJJ