A selection of your property queries answered.

Can my cousin take the property?

I have heard that my uncle (a bachelor farmer) died without making a will. My cousin who lived local to my uncle appears to have taken over the farm and the house. It was originally my mother's family home before it was left to her brother, the now deceased uncle. As he died without a will, I feel I have as much right to the property has my cousin. Do I?

This column has more sense than to attempt to advise on the nitty gritty of what might be happening in your family as regards the farm - echoes of The Field spring to mind. These matters are invariably horribly complicated and require particular legal advice. However, the following information might be useful to you. Your uncle died intestate, so the rules for division of property in such a situation are as follows: if the deceased is survived by a spouse but no children - the spouse gets entire estate; spouse and children - spouse gets two-thirds, one-third is divided equally between children (if a child has already died his/her children take a share); parents, no spouse or children - divided equally or entirely to one parent if only one survives; children, no spouse - divided equally between children (as above); brothers and sisters only - shared equally, the children of a deceased brother or sister take the share; nieces and nephews only - divided equally between those surviving; other relatives - divided equally between nearest equal relationship; no relatives - the state. It would therefore seem that your mother (if she is alive) is entitled to a share. If she is deceased then you could be entitled to her share. This all presupposes that your uncle did not in fact make a will.

Agent got size of house wrong

When we bought our present house four years ago the estate agent had it listed as 195sq m (2,100sq ft). We will be selling the house soon and the agent we are going with has measured it at 177sq m (1,900sq ft). She double checked her measurements and we took out a measuring tape and she is right. The house is smaller than we originally thought. Does this happen often? We feel a bit cheated by this.

You should read estate agent details with a wry eye - after all, every estate agent's brochure contains a disclaimer in rather small print buried below the glowing description of the house. This disclaimer covers such matters as the size of the property. It's up to all buyers to check the details for themselves - or to ensure that basic details such as size is included in the survey. In the commercial property world, the size of a property tends to be all important and the price is often worked out on a price per square metre (or square foot) basis. In the second-hand residential property market, buyers usually don't price the house per square metre, being more interested in number of bedrooms, gardens, location etcetera. That being said, agents shouldn't of course get it wrong about something as basic as size. Where it really matters is in new developments where buyers are comparing apartments of differing sizes and really need to have accurate information. There has been controversy over people buying new developments off the plans where they ended up with an apartment different in size to the one they originally imagined.

Send your queries to Property Questions, The Irish Times, 10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail propertyquestions@irish-times.ie.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.