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I did 90% of the work of sorting, cleaning out and fixing up my grandmother's house for sale after she died. I was not in her will so the attorney says I get paid nothing. How do I ask my family for some compensation for my time and the mental anguish that I went through for months dealing with her estate while they did practically nothing?

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Jesszand, you would have to have something in writing between you and your Grandmother regarding caregiving and work getting her house ready to sell, similar to an employment contract. Without it, it is extremely difficult to have the estate pay you after the fact :(  Unless the family has a change of heart.
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If done after her death, seems you would have had at least a verbal agreement with the administrator of the estate. I'd have a conversation with that person now so that perhaps you could submit a claim against the estate, if it hasn't been settled yet. If it has been settled, there's nothing that precludes the heir(s) from simply doing the right thing.
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Legally, they owe you nothing unless you had an agreement before the work was performed. Morally, they owe you a lot.
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thanks for some answers. Unfortunately everything was a verbal agreement with my mom who is executer of the estate. She gave a 'bill' to the attorney for me to be paid but he did not agree to paying it? Now the estate has been settled and I assumed that my payment was included in the payout, but just found out it was not. So now I guess I'm just left with the hope that my family members do the right thing and compensate me for it. Really frustrating that they spent only a few hours claiming the possessions they wanted, are collecting five and six figures and yet I'm not paid for the months of my time. My poor Gran is probably rolling in her grave at the injustice from a greedy, unethical lawyer.
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I don't understand - if your mom is executor, then doesn't she have the say so on reasonable debts to be paid? How can an non-executor attorney make that decision?
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We had someone clean out Mils house and run a tag sale. The money raised was split I think 60/40 or 70/30. We then paid her $300 to clean the house. I Can't see where a lawyer would go against an executor. Maybe Mom should give you something.
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We had been staying at the house and did a lot of the cleaning out. All the lady really had to do is run the sale.
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Your mom’s executor? Right? So it should have been within her position to place your debt for estate work as a debt against the estate which is payable upon distribution of the estate. It’s not solely up to the atty. as they are not the administrator of the estate, the executor is.  The executor can determine what’s done with claims but within state laws for probate. Atty should act as a conduit between executor/ heirs and probate court. 

This is what Rovanas post is getting at.

If probate was still opened, you could file a claim against the estate on your own. Now there’s a specific format & filing sequence that must be done but you can DIY this. 

If probate atty failed to include a properly done claim, you can file a complaint against the atty. You contact the State Bar Association as to how it’s done. They will have a detailed step by step system to do this. 
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