Cairo, GA Estate Planning Law Firms & Lawyers

First it is important to determine how the property was titled at the time of your grandfather's death. If it was in joint tenancy with your uncle, or your uncle was a Pay on Death beneficiary it would pass to him by operation of law regardless of what the Will says. If the asset was only in your grandfather's name then it would be necessary to go through probate. If it is/went through probate you should receive notice of the petitions, etc. You should probably review the title information available on line for the county where the property is located and determine the ownership status and history. You may want to seek legal counsel to address the specifics of your situation.

Not knowing who the third party is makes answering your question difficult.  It could be that the third party is the administrator of the estate.  If so, he has a right to bring an eviction proceeding. If it is the administrator of the estate, he is not a third party.  He actually is the only person with authority to deal with the property. Presumably you have been paying rent to someone during the time that you have lived in the property? In any eviction proceeding, the party bringing the claim will have to prove that he has the legal right to dispossess you.

Depending upon the level of your father's capacity, it may be too late to obtain authority under a Power of Attorney. If your father has lost the ability to understand the effect of these sorts of estate planning documents, if he has lost the ability to enter into contracts and if he is "90% of the time" incoherent, that avenue might well be closed to him. Your alternative to affirmative incapacity planning by your father is often found in the guardianship and conservatorship proceedings of the jurisdiction that he resides in. Sounds like you'd have a pretty easy case to prove. Think of it this way: A POA is something that your father could have signed to provide for his own incapacity. Guardianships and conservatorships work like Court-initiated POAs the Court steps in to provide for your father largely because your father did not address this possibility in his own planning.