First, I am probably not licensed to practice law in your state and, even if I was, I am not your attorney and this must not be considered legal advice. GO GET AN ATTORNEY DO NOT DO THIS YOURSELF. Second, it is highly unlikely someone is "trouble" in the sense that they broke a criminal law... these disputes are over money. That said, if one has a right in a property it seems silly to give it to someone else to keep them out of a trouble that they aren't in - people should take what is theirs (unless the mortgage exceeds that value of the house). Okay, so your father died without a will, that means he died intestate. Generally, laws of intestacy have property passing to the spouse of the decedent by operation of law and, if spouse cannot take (I.e., there isn't one, divorced, or the spouse disclaimed), to children and so on. However, in real property law there are different ways that people can own... like two people can own a property together as joint tenants or tenants in common (note tenant here doesn't mean the rental property kind)... joint tenants have a right of survivorship whereby if one tenant dies the property passes to the other tenant in full and without regard to wills or inteatacy. Your not being of age may or may not affect the discussion here too... often a trust should be created to hold an heirs property until he or she reaches the age of majority and can care for it him or her self... but im unsure if that occurs in all the possible scenarios you could have taken and whether or not it did occur. However, also, some states may treat the age 17 as the age of majority. That's it for now... going into the law of mortgages or secured transactions is a bit much here, but some states have a buffer/tolling in the event of a death of the mortgagee of a primary residence. The above said, YOU MUST GET AN ATTORNEY! Decisions you make here absolutely can affect your rights in property.