The Situation At Home

Things have been awfully crazy around here over the last year or so.  Let me give you a little background on what's going on.

Back in 2006 my father passed away from lung cancer.  Obviously it was an awful time in my life.  He found out he had cancer and a month later he passed.  It was so quick.  We were left with a big gaping hole.  At the same time my grandmother was suffering from cancer.   My sister and brother-in-law moved in to live with my grandmother and help her out.  They were allowed to live there rent-free just so long as they helped my grandmother out.  They had just been evicted from their apartment and needed help.  We were both in the same neighborhood so we weren't too far away.  October of the same year, my grandmother passed away.  We saw it coming so it wasn't as tough as when my dad died but it was still a tough thing to deal with.  My sister had a larger family then mine at the time.  She has two wonderful kids who I love to death.  We decided to pull a switch.  Since my grandmothers house was smaller, we figured we'd take our smaller family, just my mother and my little sister and move into her home.  Then my sister and brother-in-law could live our old house and they could pay rent.

So we did the move.  It was working out for a while.  They paid rent... most months.  Over the next few years they started to take advantage of my mom's leniency towards rent.  It's not like their rent was expensive.  A large three bedroom two bathroom house and they were only paying $500 per month split with my brother who was living there at the time.  All they had to do was pay utilities.  That is the sweetest deal I ever heard of.  Despite that kindness, they took advantage of a great situation.  They stopped paying rent and they let the house become trashed.  By that time my mom had remarried and there were both not very pleased with the situation.

A couple months ago we went over their house to take the trash out while they were away visiting family in Oregon.  The house was a complete disaster.  There were literally maggots in the sink from dishes not washed in ages.  It was an absolutely disgusting sight to behold.  I don't even want to tell you about the garbage that hadn't been taken out in what must have been months.  My mom had enough.  I don't blame her.  So she decided they either needed to clean up their act or they are getting kicked out.  They promised they would take care of the house but that was nothing but lies.  My mom finally decided she's kicking them out at the end of the year.  My brother, his girlfriend, her little boy and I are going to move in there and get it all cleaned up.  I'd like to think we'd take better care of it then my sister and her husband did.

Of course my brother-in-law is furious.  He had it coming though.  This is what happens when people rely too much on the generosity of others and become entitled.    We'll just have to wait and see how this all unfolds.

UPDATE:

So my mom, stepdad and I took a trip to visit my brother-in-law to discuss the housing situation.  My stepdad asked him if he would need any help finding a new place and he insisted that he would be fine and that he really didn't want to talk about it right now.  My mom said that if he had something he needed to say he should say it now.  So he goes and says this: "You promised that you were giving us this house for free if we helped your mother out and now you are kicking us out."  Obviously, that absolutely never happened.  My mom says "No, we told you you could stay in the other house rent free if you helped her out.  We had an agreement when you moved in here that you would pay rent and you haven't been."  He replied by saying "My mom and dad heard you say it. Are you calling us liars?  You call yourselves Christians?  You're going to have to stand in front of your God!"  The conversation went on like that for about a half-hour.  Here we are on the front porch and he's yelling and screaming.  He said "You think I'm moving out of this house, you're crazy.  I'm going to call my lawyers and we are going to sue you." My sister is also in complete agreement with him on this.

I can explain, in simple terms, why he is acting like this.  He had a free ride and the train is coming into the station.  This is what happens when you have everything handed to you.  You can't figure out how to function on your own.  My position on this is to not give in to his BS.  If he wants to go to court, then let him go in with no case and completely embarrass himself.   It's been a long time coming for this guy.  I just feel bad that he's dragging my sister down with him.  The bad news for me is this may delay my plans to move out.  We'll just have to wait and see what happens.