Time for some family drama

NOTE: some details are intentionally obscured while some will be inaccurate due to the fact that I'm getting my information as 4th hand gossip.

I've got an aunt—let's call her Milly—who lives in a little, out-of-the-way place—we'll call it Ravenstit. Milly is about 90 years old; her husband's been dead for years and her children have grown up, moved away, and had children who have grown up and had children of their own. Milly wants to move into a retirement home (not at Ravenstit, because Ravenstit doesn't have a retirement home). If Milly had no money and no assets, she could get into a retirement home for free under a government provision. Well, Milly certainly has no money, unfortunately she does have one asset—the house and land where she lives at Ravenstit. Herein lies the problem.

In the days before bitumen roads, when steam-trains were the arteries of the nation and the country rode on the sheep's back, Ravenstit was a thriving country town; now it isn't a town at all. There is no commerce; no post office, no shops, no servo, NO PUB. If you want to buy food or petrol, the nearest place is 200k away. Nobody has sold land in Ravenstit for at least ten years—probably twenty. When residents leave—or die—their homes sit vacant until they eventually just rot away. Milly's children have said for years that they won't take over the property when she dies. Why? Why not accept a free house and land package, even if it's not worth anything? Well, firstly, the house is a rundown shack made of asbestos. Even if you wanted to live there, pulling it down and building a new house would cost hundreds of thousands. Secondly, even if you didn't want to live there, there's still rates that need to be paid. Effectively, the property is actually LESS than worthless.

The bureaucrat that Milly's family are dealing with has demanded they sell it for no less than 80 grand. Nothing can progress until it is sold.