Inherited “tenants in common” property—Help!

[Kam Jefferson]

Greetings!

When my mother passed away, she was a co-owner of an office space condo property. Because it was a “tenants in common” property in Virginia, I became co-owner of the property as her sole heir.

This was in 2013, and my uncle (the other owner, her brother) has been less than forthcoming with information concerning the property. Looking through my mother’s tax records, she got roughly $10k/year in revenue from rental income on the property. I have only ever received $1,000 once in 2014 & once in 2016. My uncle recently informed me that he is going to take a “salary” from the property since he is handling everything. However, I offered to help take care of things, pay taxes, necessary renovations, etc. He has not allowed for me to do any of this. He also has never provided me with documents such as financial information, deed, etc. even though I have asked several times throughout the years.

All of this being said, I am wondering if anyone can advise on my rights and responsibilities concerning this property. Because my mother had a will & trust, it stayed out of probate upon her death. Which also means that the property deed is still in her name, nearly 6yrs later.

I never fought any of this with him in order to “keep the peace” in our family (he felt entitled to the entire property and was gravely disappointed when he found out my mother’s portion did not legally go to him). However, he is also the trustee of my mother’s estate (I am the sole beneficiary) and I have discovered recently that he has been mismanaging that as well. For this reason, I would like to gather more information on what my next steps should be as co-owner of this property.

Step one that I have already taken is obtaining a copy of the deed and title for the property. From here, however, I am lost. What—if any—responsibility does he have to report financials to me as co-owner? Do I need to file paperwork to have the deed placed in my name (rather than my mother’s name)? And is it even possible to do so this many years later?

Ideally, I would like to sell my share (50%) to him. Or, I would like to help contribute to costs as well as collect revenue from the property (there are tenants in there now & have been for the last 6yrs). If that were to be the case, however, I would like copies of the lease agreements, financials, tax information, etc. He has been refusing to provide me with this information though, so I would also need to know what legal right I have to this information and/or how to find it myself.

Any advice or help on this would be greatly appreciated. I’ve done quite a bit of research on it myself, but google has only been able to tell me that I am indeed the rightful co-owner (which I was already informed about at the time of her death), but nothing beyond that.

Likewise, if anyone has advice on whether I should sell my portion to him or keep it as an investment property, I would appreciate that as well.

I hope this wasn’t too confusing! Please let me know if I need to provide any further information about it.