Unprobated deeds, and deaths, and taxes, oh my!

This one is a hum-zinger. I'm hoping that someone here might know what actions I can take.

We have a property that has been in my family for over fifty years. It was owned by my grandparents originally. My grandfather's will deemed that the property would go to my father, but my grandmother's will said that it would go to four specific children. Since my grandfather died first, I was told by a lawyer that my grandmother's will must be honored. Problem is that my grandmother's will wasn't probated since at the time of death, she wasn't of right mind to make decisions, so we assumed that she had no will. So basically what we were told about five years ago was that the property would belong to all of her dependents or their children should the dependent be dead.

This creates a HUGE problem! Our family doesn't really speak to each other and I want this property to build a house on so it'll stay in the family. I've tried to buy the other family members out, but they won't respond to me at all. I've even tried sending them letters written out by a lawyer for them to just sign it off, and nothing there either. My sister ended up moving into the house, despite everyone's protests (seems the only thing they'd react to was that), and has made the house unlivable. About a year ago, the county sent me a subpoena saying that they were taking the house since I stopped paying the taxes when my sister moved in (to date, I'm the only one who paid anything), but I found out a week ago that the property is still in my grandparent's names. Talked to the tax assessor and they said that if I paid the back taxes, they'd drop the suit.

So my question is this...

How in the world do I get this property in my name!? I want to pay it off, but I want the ability to kick my sister off of the property and tear the old house down. I'm not about to pay for that drug addict's free home, you know? I want to keep the house in the family and pass it on to my future children! I just want it.

Any suggestions?

[randalljd]

If two or more potential or even disputed owners cannot agree on what to do with a piece of property they may petition the court and the court will order a sale or refinancing etc. so that the one or more may get out of the property obligation and/or the other(s) may keep it etc.--it is often done-- (This is true in some cases even for equitable owners that have paid various amounts etc., but for various reasons, may not be on title.)

You also may want to have a title company review title and make sure you understand all that is there.

Well.. the house is completely paid off, so there's no refinancing to arrange with it. And the other owners don't want out - they refuse completely to have anything to do with it, to the point that they even refuse to talk to us about signing it over. They want absolutely nothing to do with this, even if it means that we're having problems with it because of it. So I guess it's not that we're disagreeing.. we just completely aren't communicating and they're too stubborn to either help me or hurt me. I'm talking completely no communication between us whatsoever, despite what I've tried.

Does that help? I'm not sure if that'll clarify or not, but I don't want the courts selling the property (that would completely undo everything I've been working towards) and there's no mortgage on it to refinance.

[msg]

The court can force all parties with any interest to come to some solution. Or impose a solution.