property australia inheritance
Does my brother have a legal right to my parents home?
<p>My brother has always lived with my parents in the family home. He is in his 50s and has never moved out on his own.
Does he have a legal right to stay in or keep the house following the deaths of our parents?
He has not been a carer for either of them despite continuing to live in the same household as them.</p>

<p>If the parents left the brother, let's call him Bob, full or partial ownership of the house in a will, or a
long-term right of tenancy, then he has a right to live there. If they left no will, their property will be handled according to the local law on intestacy. The details vary from one Australian state to another, but if neither has a living spouse, their children will probably split the estate. This will probably include a share of the house, and so Bob will have a right to live there, unless a different division is made. Or the house could be sold and the proceeds split.</p>
<p>Bob would not have a right to live there merely because he had been living there for some years, or even all his life. Nor would Bob have such a right if he had been caring for his parents, not for that reason alone.</p>
<p>Everything depends on who winds up owning the house. Generally the owner or owners get to decide who may live in the house. A person could also be given or left a right of occupancy. A co-owner normally has a right to live in a house. But there is no automatic right of a child to live in his or her parents' house.</p>
