People Ask Us To Be Unsuspicious In Reacting To Their "Am I The Jerk" Stories

"I had an ugly divorce in 2010/2011 (details not important).

So I ended up moving back to my childhood town. I bought an apartment but the people asked for 2 months to move out. I still needed a place for that time.

My mother told me that since I work from home, I could help out her mother as she fell on slippery stairs and was bound to a wheelchair.

Other relatives wanted to put her in a nursing home and sell the house to cover the costs as her home was heated with firewood, it meant she could not do half of the stuff by herself and I agreed to do it! (She has 4 daughters and a son)

The first two months went by quickly and we found out that my 75-year-old grandmother would not heal enough to get rid of her wheelchair she asked me if maybe I could just rent my new apartment out and stay with her - and I agreed to stay longer and decided that this house needs some renovation as keeping it warm was an effort itself - so I decided to build central heating system there and build new wheelchair accessible bathroom.

By 2015, I had spent so much money on the house that I had a 'what is going to happen if you are not here anymore' talk with my grandmother and asked if it would be okay if I bought out my other relatives (aunts and uncle) as they wanted to sell it anyway.

Grandmother thought that was a good idea and told me that we had to make some kind of plan, but we did not talk about it in detail. On her birthday when all the relatives were at the table she told everyone that she decided to give that house as a gift, but nobody seemed to care - but it sure was a surprise to me!

A few weeks later I found out she was serious, as she asked me to take her to the notary. The notary asked her if she was sure about it, and the answer was 'He has invested so much money in the house and has taken care of me for years, it must be worth something!' and so it happened - the house was in my name.

'I might be old, but not senile!'

That was when I owned the house and decided to sell my apartment and finish renovating the house (The asbestos-based roof needed to be changed, chimney leg, house insulation, electrical wiring, etc - the list was long!).

More years went by and it was 2023, one day at age 87 my grandmother did not wake up one morning.

A few months after the funeral youngest of my aunts appeared at my home with a real estate appraiser and this is the AITJ part: For some reason, they all thought that my grandmother was not serious years back and she was so sure that we should sell the place and my mother with her brother and sisters split the money.

My mother and her oldest sister agreed with my grandmother's decision, but others sued me for 'using an elderly person for financial gain' - like a week ago I got notice that they failed to provide any proof about my grandmother's inability to make decisions, the court can't change anything.

Now they don't talk to each other and I have so many messages calling me a greedy jerk.

AITJ?"

Another User Comments:

"NTJ. Let them not talk to each other and call you greedy all they want. That's how you see who is greedy. She gifted you her house because you were there for her even though you had your apartment.

She saw that you didn't have any ulterior motives and put the house in your name while she was alive for a good reason. She knew that inheritance could bring out the worst in people." Plenty_Metal_1304

Another User Comments:

"NTJ. She gifted it to you and you put time and effort into the house.

As well as being a live-in caretaker so she could stay in her home.

Also, depending on the math, I would be shocked if the house sale in the condition you first described would have lasted her 13 years. Not sure what country you’re in but she likely would have outlasted her money and your family would have been splitting the cost or someone would have had to take her into their home in the end anyway." Foodie_love17