A house to split between two children, should all the children split the furniture?

Question:

My mother is reaching 80´s she unfortunatelly is not bat daat anymore.
Years ago, when she was 100% of her mental health she put her apartment in my name and my sister´s.
A month ago my sister put her in a old age house near me and the other siblings.
In order to pay for the high expenses my brother, with is not amongst the heirs, arranged a sale of the apartment and the amount to be split between me and my sister. I agreed to that.
What I did not know was that they two sold many of the items of the apartment to pay mom´s debts and the rest they split between them, including expensive paintings and a sort of valuable things.
I asked my brother to tell me what exactly was remained in the apartment and that the valuable items should be divided between my sister and me as we both figured in the contract. He replied very agressively and said he ows me no explanation and that his share is due to the fact he supported mom all those years, with is truth (I could not), but even thou what was in the house should belong to those who were subscribed to it. What is the din in this case?

Answer:

This sounds like it needs to go to a Bais Din to be sorted out. It is not possible to answer this correctly without first hearing what your brother has to say. Besides, there are a number of questions here. Why is your brother not a heir, because your mother didn’t want it or because he isn’t related to her? Also did your mother make a will, or did she actually give you the apartment already? The fact that he took money, because he supported her, would be correct. As stated, this is something that should go to Bais Din.

It is very important that you try your utmost to keep peace in the family, and not make a fight over the inheritance. It is not worth dividing up the family, (it is the inheritance that has to get divided, not the family!) and it isn’t worthwhile. I would suggest that you or your sister talk to your brother that you want to stay close to each other and you don’t want, any ill feelings between yourselves. Therefore you should pick a Bais Din or a rov that you both choose, so that both of you can do what is the halacha, and there should be emes and shalom between you.