My siblings and I were left property by our aunt subject to a life estate for my uncle.  What are our rights with respect to this property and do we have to continue to own it after my uncle passes away?

The legal consequence of your aunt's will is that each of you and your siblings own the property as tenant in common.  The rights of a tenant in common are to occupy the property, together with the other tenants.  The life estate of your uncle, however, assuming that it was correctly provided for in the will, supersedes your rights to occupy the property and/or to sell it.  Once your uncle passes away, then you and your siblings shall have a right to sell the property.

If one of you decided that he or she did not want to sell the property, any of the others have an absolute right to cause the property to be sold by filing a petition for partition in the Probate and Family Court.  The court will then set off to each owner a portion of the property or appoint a commissioner to have it sold and divide the proceeds.  The only time, practically, a property can be set off is if, for instance, it was a four-family dwelling and there were four of you and the court could order the creation of a condominium and convey a unit to each of you.  Practically speaking that rarely happens and the property is generally sold. 

You could seek a petition for partition to have the property sold subject to the life estate which no doubt would greatly reduce the price that you could sell it for.

You could also discuss with your uncle selling the property and providing him with some portion of the sales proceeds in order to enable your uncle to live elsewhere.

If you have questions about this or any other real estate matter, please contact Tom Bennett at (617) 531-6574 or tvb@barronstad.com.