Thank you for your reply.

As you can imagine, the statutory law does not specify who is to pay the utilities in a property that is under probate until that property is rightfully distributed. Ergo, this falls under equity (fairness), i.e. the Court will rule as to whatever is fair.

Your brother is a tenant at sufferance. A tenant at sufferance is someone who has no right to occupy the premises, but is tolerated by the landlord and may be terminated at the will of the landlord. Once your father passed, the estate itself became the landlord.

Ordinarily, this can be terminated by a simple eviction. However, because this is part of probate, the Probate Court has jurisdiction (arguably).

The Court is likely to decide and the Executor is to assume the likely scenarios:

-if the individual has been living in the home under the agreement that they would pay or have been paying utilities, then the estate would have the right to continue this demand until the matter is probated and finalized.

-if the individual has lived in the home for free and had no such contractual duty to pay the utilities and has had the deceased paying it, then the Court likely will not impose such a duty.

Ergo, the Court may allow him to stay for free until the home is sold but to allow you to make the home presentable and order him to stay out of your way; but the final call is that of the Judge and it is subjective.

I hope this finds you well. If you still need information, hit reply so we can chat more until you are satisfied. If you are satisfied, please do not forget to conclude the question. You may always come back to it to ask a follow up free of charge. If you feel I went the extra mile, a bonus would be appreciated. You can always link to my profile for another question at a later time: www.justanswer.com/law/expert-elyJD/