Husband Is Furious That His Wife Wants To Loan Her Sister $30K To Continue Living In The House That Was Supposed To Go To All Of The Siblings
"My wife doesn’t want her sister to lose the house that they were raised in."
Ewelina W / Shutterstock Arguments within families are nearly impossible to avoid. When an argument turns into a full-on dispute, though, things can get tricky.
One family experienced this after a house that was supposed to be sold and split evenly between a set of siblings was instead left to only one of the sisters.
A man and his wife put money into her parents’ house, believing they would be given an equal share of it when her parents passed away.
"Years ago, my wife and I moved back to live near her elderly parents," the angry Redditor shared. "We bought a house a couple of streets over from them for about $300,000. When we moved back, we helped them with the maintenance of their house."
"In all, we spent about $75,000 to make their house more comfortable in their remaining years with the understanding that once they pass, the house will be sold so that we get our money back, then split the rest of the money evenly between the siblings," he continued.
This sounded like a perfectly reasonable way of handling who got the house. It would ensure they got their money back while also giving all of the woman’s siblings something to fall back on. That’s not quite how it worked out, though.
“When they both passed, we found out they left the house to my wife’s youngest sister. The parents wrote a letter explaining to the siblings that the parents wanted to make sure that sister [has] a house because she would never be able to buy a house without their help,” he said.
Part of the problem was that the man seemed to be the only one who was upset over this.
"The rest of the siblings all had houses and were doing OK, so they understood and accepted the situation," he added. "I was livid because we poured money into that house, and now we’re not going to get it back. My wife and I argued for weeks until I realized I had to accept the money as gone, or else my marriage would be ruined.
Now, the woman’s sister is unable to keep up with payments for the house.
“Over the years, the price of houses increased dramatically in our neighborhood and now our house is worth $1.75 million. [Sister-in-law’s] house is also worth over $1 million and her property tax is over $30,000 which she struggled [to pay] every year,” the husband shared.
Then, the sister-in-law's husband lost his job, leaving the pair unable to pay the taxes altogether. So, they turned to their family for help.
While the rest of their siblings are not in a position to be able to help their sister, the Reddit couple has the finances to do so.
“We’re doing OK so my wife asked me the other day if we could loan her sister the money,” he wrote. “I said we poured enough of our money into that pit and refused her request. Our arguments have gotten to the point we’re both shouting at each other.”
This husband is dead set against doing anything to help his sister-in-law out after they already contributed so much money to the house, and believes the sister-in-law already "stole $75,000 from us." His wife, on the other hand, feels differently, as she doesn't want her sister to lose their childhood home.
However, offering a loan of this size may not be in their best interest. There are a lot of hoops they would have to jump through just to reach their intended goal.
According to Charles Schwab, “Before you extend a loan to family, however, be aware that it’s not as simple as just writing a check. The IRS mandates that any loan between family members be made with a signed written agreement, a fixed repayment schedule, and a minimum interest rate.”
Giving a loan to family seems like it should be simple, but the IRS actually makes it quite a big deal. Plus, if there’s a low likelihood of the family paying the money back, that will only make things worse for them.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.