Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Estate Never Settled

My father died in 2001 without a will. He was married at the time of his death, and our mom received the Letters of Administration and an Estate Checking Account. The only asset besides the money in the checking account (approx $30,000) was a house on a lake that my dad bought for cash in his name only. (Deed is in my Dad's name alone.) As I understand it, my mom owns 50% of the house, and my 3 brothers and I each own 12.5%.

My mom has ignored my requests to settle the estate and sell the house on the lake and distribute the proceeds to herself, my 3 brothers and me. She used the money from the estate checking account to pay the property taxes on dad's camp until the account was empty. The house was appraised at $150,000 in 2001; it may be worth half of that now since it hasn't been kept up or had repairs made for the last 10 years.

I just found out that the property taxes haven't been paid in 2-3 years, and the house is going to be auctioned off in a tax auction. I'm trying to get the funds together to pay the back property taxes and get the property removed from the auction.

How then do I go about forcing the sale of this house? I called the Surrogate Court and the estate is still open. The deed still has my dad's name on it. If I can get her to agree, can my mother sell the house since she's the administrator or does everyone involved need to sign the listing agreement? Can she sign a Power of Attorney over to me authorizing me to sell it? If it sells, will I receive the amount I paid in back taxes off the top or just get my 1/8th of the sale?

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