what happens with my dad's house if he dies while his wife hasn't come to the US

[phuong nguyen 0]

My dad is going to marry a girl in Vietnam soon. He owns a house and has the HELOC money taken out. What happens to the house if his wife hasn't come to the US yet? Will it come me or will it come to his wife?

Can I add my name to the house title (to keep the house to me) after he dies? Is it ok if the HELOC is not paid off yet?

[Inky 1,110]

That depends on your dad, and what it says in his will. No one here can tell you what happens to his house because we don't have his will.

If his will says the house is passed to you, then the mortgage payments would be yours to pay, same for the utility's etc.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

My dad is going to marry a girl in Vietnam soon. He owns a house and has the HELOC money taken out. What happens to the house if his wife hasn't come to the US yet? Will it come me or will it come to his wife?

Can I add my name to the house title (to keep the house to me) after he dies? Is it ok if the HELOC is not paid off yet?

Wow! I saw the name and I thought my wife was posting on VJ! Except my wife's dad died years ago!

If your dad dies then his estate will go into probate. If he's written a will then the will dictates how his property will be distributed, not withstanding claims against his estate by debtors, etc. If he doesn't have a will then the laws of the state will determine how his property is distributed. His wife may have a claim to property in his estate even if she is not a resident of the United States.

The HELOC lender almost certainly has a lien against the house. The terms of the loan may affect the probate process. The HELOC terms might not permit an inheritor to inherit the loan, and might require that the debt be paid within a certain window of time (e.g., the inheritor gets a new loan) or they might force the property into sale in order to resolve the debt, or they might seize the property in foreclosure.

There's no easy one-size-fits-all answer to your questions.

Why do you think your dad is going to die before his wife comes to the US? I'm just curious...

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

Just because his wife lives abroad, doesn't mean she cannot inherit- her claim is the same as if she was in the USA.

[ScottThuy 140]

What color is the house? How many bedrooms?

[justashooter 430]

individual state law trumps all that nonsense.

if you can't research it yourself then pay a local estate attourney $100 to explain it to you.

then talk to your dad about your concern. ask him to arrange for her to have a pre-nup wiht a probationary period such as "no interest in the house until married 3 years, then 10% per year till fully vested at percentage of the house as divided in equal shares between wife and all surviving children of first marriage" or something like that.