"Parent/In-Law" unit above garage
We moved to Florida at the encouragement of our son in law (I‘ll call him Jay). Jay and our daughter made a verbal agreement with myself and my wife to build a three car garage on their property, at our expense, with a two- bedroom unit above the garage and consider the money we put in as one-third of the value of the property. We invested $70,000, which was almost all our money. The garage was built by the son in law with help from myself, our other adult children (unpaid volunteer labor) and hired friends of my son in law. Our son in law claimed that the cost of the garage was $147,000, but I doubt that and I have no way of knowing, since he didn’t provide any records of the costs as he worked. He just came to use periodically and asked for x amount of money. I did an estimate on an online service and I got a figure of $85,000, but I don’t know.
We have been here for five years now, and we have paid one-third of all taxes and insurance on the whole property every year we‘ve been here. I have all the cancelled checks for this.
The problem is, our son in law and daughter promised at the outset to get paperwork worked up by their attorney, giving us a legal interest, but this has never happened, and since we were stuck here, we didn't make an issue of it because we didn't want it to get ugly.
I'm afraid though, that when they sell the house, we may be out in the cold. Do my wife and I have any rights here? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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