GoF CH 1-3 post DH look/ Owner of the Riddle house

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 181753

> Carol responds:
> 
> First, it's extremely unlikely that Tom Sr. put Tom Jr., whom he
> wholly neglected and whose existence he ignored, in the will. Had he
> done so, it wouldn't have been bought and then sold by two families
> and then finally bought by a rich Muggle (taking the narrator at his
> or her word, for "tax purposes." The only question is what happens
to a house when the person to whom it's willed, in this case, Tom Sr.,
is killed along with the current owners, in this case, his parents.
Tom Sr. wasn't the current owner and could not have willed it to
anyone, even if he had anyone he wanted to will it to--certainly not
Merope's child, whom he essentially disowned.
> 

Pippin:
IIRC, when disinheriting people it's customary to leave them, and/or
unnamed descendants, a nominal amount, lest an heir materialize and 
claim to have been  omitted by mistake. If the Riddles neglected to do
this, it's possible that Tom could have made a claim, either as the
grandson or the son of the owner. If evidence at the scene allowed the
Muggle investigators to determine that Voldemort's father was the last
person killed, then he would have been the legal owner at the time of
his death, presuming he was the senior Riddles' heir.

Pippin 
agreeing that Voldemort would not see any reason to legally own the
house, but not that he couldn't have done so by inheritance.