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It is always nice when you can help a family member out in their time of need, but there is always a limit on what you can do.

What would you do if your grandparents owned an investment property 5 hours away, and now that they are getting older, they can’t make the regular trips to perform the maintenance on it, so they keep asking you?

That is what is happening to the grandson in this story, and while he is happy to help sometimes, he is having to make the trip several times per month, which is just too much. When he tried to tell his family that he couldn’t do it all the time, they got upset and said that family should help family.

While it is certainly nice to help out where you can, driving 5+ hours several times a month is excessive. They need to hire a local contractor to maintain this home. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.

AITA for refusing to keep helping maintain my grandparents’ house in Las Vegas?

I’m an adult and live in Los Angeles. My grandparents (on my mom’s side) own a house in Las Vegas that they bought years ago as an investment.

My grandparents themselves live in LA, so whenever something goes wrong with the house, someone has to drive about 5 hours to Vegas to deal with it.

The problem is that this house constantly seems to have issues. There are recurring plumbing and irrigation problems, including pipes bursting in the yard.

They are getting too old to handle this type of thing.

My grandfather has Ring cameras installed and sometimes notices problems remotely, but if something serious happens, someone still has to physically drive out there to shut off water, buy supplies, and make repairs.

For years my grandparents handled most of this themselves. However, my grandmother has gotten older and is no longer up for making the trip regularly.

Over the last few months, my mom has started asking me to come along with her, my dad, and my grandfather to help.

The issue is that these trips happen a lot. Sometimes 2-3 times per month, and I’m often told about them only a day beforehand. When I say I don’t want to go, my mom guilt-trips me by talking about how much my grandparents need help and how hard it is on them.

His feelings on this issue are justified.

I understand that my grandparents are getting older, and I genuinely feel bad for them. I also appreciate that they’re trying to maintain an investment they own.

But at the same time, this isn’t my house. I didn’t choose to buy it, and I wasn’t involved in the decision to own property five hours away.

The trips are exhausting, especially during the Vegas summer heat, and I’ve had to cancel my own plans multiple times because I’m expected to drop everything and go.

Yes, helping family is good. But not this much.

I feel like helping occasionally is reasonable, but I’m starting to resent being treated as if I’m responsible for maintaining someone else’s investment property.

My mom thinks I’m being selfish and that family should help family.

I think there should be limits, especially when it’s becoming a regular obligation rather than an occasional favor.

An investment property should pay for itself, including the maintenance. If you have a property like this in another city, you should have a budget for maintenance work to be done locally.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit think of this situation.

This isn’t his house, he shouldn’t be maintaining it.

It is past time to sell this house.

I think this commenter is right.

This property isn’t a good investment anymore.

Why don’t they have a local management company?

It isn’t a good investment if you need family members to spend countless hours and lots of money maintaining it. Especially if you aren’t even offering to pay them for their time.

The grandson is right to say that he can’t keep helping with this. They need to hire someone locally, sell the property, or even offer to pay him for his efforts.