Hi there. It sounds like you have been having a difficult time.

Because you are renting the house you have rights as a tenant to use of the house without fear of being evicted without cause or notice no matter who the house belonged to before. Your siblings must treat you as a tenant and respect those rights.

If you had an oral agreement with your siblings you will still be considered to have a tenancy agreement. In QLD a tenancy agreement is defined as an agreement under which a person gives to someone else a right to occupy residential premises as a residence. The Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 (“RTA”) applies to all tenancy agreements in QLD and protects the rights of those it applies to. The RTA provides for the minimum rights and obligations that tenants and landlords have to one another. These apply when there is an agreement, regardless of whether it is written or oral or simply implied through conduct. Because you have been given the right to occupy the house, it can be implied that you have a rental agreement with your siblings. By presenting you with a Form 11 your siblings have acknowledged that there is a rental agreement between you.

In addition, the purpose of a “Form 11” is to tell a tenant that they have breached their agreement with the landlord and to instruct them how to remedy the breach within 7 days. Typical breaches here include failure to pay rent or damaging the property. The purpose of a Form 11 is not to evict a tenant, and eviction can not be achieved with a Form 11. If the breach is not remedied within the time frame (7 days) your siblings will have the right to ask you to leave the premises. However, if you do remedy the breach they do not have the right to ask you to leave the house.

In addition it is not entirely clear from your question who has legal possession of the home. If it is still your mother than your siblings have no right to dictate the use of the house as “landlords” because they do not have any ownership over the property. We recommend you seek further information regarding this because it will effect who you deal with concerning the lease.

Further to this, your sibling as executor does not have control over what is written in the will or its terms. The executor’s job is to ensure that the terms of the will are performed, and all assets are distributed to the people or entities nominated in the will. Your mother is not deceased, so they have no power regarding distribution of her property at the present time.