In April 2012, I discovered my Uncle was living in his current residence under a life estate agreement. My Uncle wasn’t feeling well so he called me to his home to go over his estate. When I arrived at his home we worked our way through his assets, the beneficiaries, and personal possessions. The amount of personal possessions amazed me. My Uncle had so many personal possessions that he had to rent an additional garage from the association just to store them.

The Life Estate

After the tour of the complex he then discussed the home. He explained that his late wife set up a life estate that allowed him to live in the home until he passed away. Upon his death, the ownership of the home would revert back to the daughter of his late wife; his step daughter. Therefore, the rental property was the only remaining real property on the estate since my Uncle’s home was the property of the stepdaughter. At this point, the only concern I had about personal possessions was where to store all those possessions if the new owner wanted to move into the home right away.

The Personal Possessions

The day after my Uncle’s funeral, in September 2012, my concern about the personal possessions subsided. On that day, I went over to my Uncle’s former home with permission from the step daughter (the new owner) to get a few things from my Uncle’s office. After I retrieved the items from the office, I stopped and chatted with the step daughter for a few minutes. During the conversation the step daughter gave me a copy of the keys to the home and the garage. She said, “Tomorrow I am leaving so you’re going to need access to this home to administer the estate. You can use the home office anytime for as long as you need.“ I was relieved and thanked the step daughter. Identifying all the possessions and moving them to a storage facility would have been a costly and daunting task.

Conclusion

The arrangement worked out great. I took the rest of the week to organize my Uncle’s personal possessions by moving them to each garage. In the main garage went the possessions with some value. The remaining possessions, with little of no value, went to the rented garage. This freed up a lot of space in the home. As a result, the new owners were able to set up their new home without tripping over clutter. At this point, the personal possessions were under control.

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