Save our house

Hi angels,

If you know me you probably already know that my partner's mother died mid last year. She owned the house we live in and an empty plot of land. She wanted her assets to go to her son (she has no other children or partner) but her sister, who had power of attorney over her, tricked her into signing a will giving the sister half of the estate.

She was schizophrenic and declared "medically incompetent" decades ago, so she had zero control over her finances; her sister was in charge of everything. Because of this, the bogus will is invalid and by law here her son is entitled to everything, siblings (his aunt's and uncle/his mother's sisters and brother) have no legal entitlement. The case is pretty clear cut but we need a lawyer to prove it. No doubt the sister, who's trying to scam her dead sister and nephew, was relying on us not having the money to challenge it.

The cost is extremely variable depending on how far we have to take this. If she's smart the aunt will drop this once the bogus will is thrown out, if she's not we could end up in a trial which would run into tens of thousands of dollars (we were told up to $50,000).
For now I'm hoping to raise $5,000. This is half of what my mother spent in a similar situation (no, she can't/won't help us) before the other party settled so it seems like a good place to start.

I have another fundraiser for my teeth which has saved me a lot of pain and complications by enabling me to have urgent work done. If we succeed here we will be able to pay for the rest of the work ourselves. In fact, this would set us up for life.

If we lose we'll still have the roof over our head but the house itself is literally falling apart and borderline uninhabitable. The roof and ceiling have major water damage, I don't know if it can even be repaired or if it needs to be torn down. Additionally, the house was bought with the help of the public housing office, meaning they own a portion of it. Because of that we won't even own the house and could own as little as half, which would mean the aunt is trying to steal more than 3/4 of Chris's inheritance. We don't know how much the public housing office owns because the aunt has refused to provide us with all the relevant documents.

Without the full inheritance there's absolutely no way we can afford any repairs whatsoever and we could end up with nowhere to live or struggling with a mortgage (if we could even get one). The place we live is worth less than the block the aunt is trying to steal and the public housing office owns a portion, and since she spent all her sister's money on herself (despite being rich and owning multiple properties) there's no money in the inheritance at all. She was meant to use the money her mother left Chris's mother (Chris grandmother) to build a house on the empty plot but she spent that money on herself instead.

Unfortunately this kind of behaviour, our lawyer tells us, is common. He charges $400 per hour which is less than most other lawyers in our area who charge over $500. We also have to pay for phone calls, letters sent, documents read etc. it's a huge expense and we can't even loan against the house because we don't own it yet.

Any and all help is very much appreciated ? if this succeeds we won't have to ask for help online anymore and will be able to help others instead the way you have been so generous towards us.

P.S
To give you an idea of how Chris's aunt and extended family have treated him;

- when his father died when he was 12 and he was left to care for his mother who had schizophrenia, they completely bailed and provided no support of any kind

- seeing that her sister and nephew where living in poverty, the aunt (who's trying to steal the inheritance) forced him to work in the restaurant she owned despite him being too young to legally work, and paid him pennies under the table. She could have just given him the money or paid him minimum wage but she used this opportunity to exploit him, a child, her own family

- when I was visiting Chris, his family barged in without notice or consent, verbally abused us and accused me of using his mother for money and a place to live. I wasn't even living there, I had my own private rental and I was not only helping Chris care for her and buying groceries but I also cleared out her hoarding. Before I came into the picture the living room was so full of stuff you couldn't even walk through it. I fixed all of this with no help from these "people". They claimed they were there to help and all they did was open the curtains and plant 3 roses bushes. Then they left us to do everything again, like always.

- when my father was dying, Chris was still caring for his mother alone with no help besides myself. He asked his aunt's and uncle to step in for a week or two while we were helping my family while my dad was in hospice. After 3 days they started calling him constantly and demanding he go back home because they didn't want to deal with his mother. They went through the belongings I left there without my knowledge or consent and called me a satanist (they're Catholic). They asked for my legal name "to send condolences" then used it to stalk me, allege I was neglecting his mother (I wasn't even living there, I had my own private rental) and slander me all over Facebook

- and now they're trying to steal his inheritance knowing she wanted her only son to have it, knowing she couldn't understand the will. I have no doubt they simply told her to sign it without even explaining what it was. (We're looking into filing a complaint against the lawyer who drew up the illegal document as well.)

These people have been terrorizing Chris his entire life and he's still dealing with the consequences in his 30s. His family are all wealthy and have been exploiting him and his mother for decades, and of course they targeted me because I stepped in to help and they didn't want anyone outside the situation to see their deplorable behaviour.

I hope this context goes some ways towards explaining our situation and how important it is that they don't succeed in stealing the only chance for financial stability we have