I have been her POA for 4 years. A Guardian has been appointed, now they are coming for the condo she and I bought last year when she went into an Alzheimers home and we had to move out of the large home she had with her late husband. They are claiming I did not have the right to buy the condo when my POA and my lawyer says I do. What can I do other than wait for the lawyers to go back and forth with this?
You say your mother and you decided to buy the condo to provide you with a place to live when she moved into the memory care facility. But here is your problem: your mother's Alzheimers Disease, underlined by the fact that she needed to move into memory care, means that she was unable to make this decision. Which leaves just you. You decided to use your mother's money to buy yourself a place to live. And that is misappropriation of your mother's funds. You used her money for your own benefit. That puts you in a terribly false position legally. That's the bad news.
But none of this makes you a bad person. For one thing, you are being very straightforward and clear about what has happened: you're obviously not trying to cheat anyone out of anything; you certainly didn't deprive your mother of assets she needed for herself. For another, I don't doubt that your mother did want you to be decently housed and financially secure after the years that you had devoted to her and her husband's care; that would be only natural. The trouble is, she didn't and couldn't put those wishes in writing, and at the time the decisions were made she was not competent to make them.
I don't like the sound of your lawyer. It could be that he's charging you a lot of money to tell you what you want to hear; and it could cost you worse than money in the end. Can you get a second legal opinion?
This is horrible! Thanks for answering questions, certainly helps to get a clearer picture, but a sad picture it is. What a spiteful, greedy little so & so! I am so sorry you are going through this and there should be laws in place preventing this sort of thing to even occur. I wouldn't be surprised if one of my brothers pulled something like this, it's always about the money, no consideration that it was you who sacrificed your life taking care of them. I hope you win this nightmare court battle and then counter sue him for your lawyers fees fighting him, caregiving wages, social security you lost, not to forget extra for the pain and suffering and whatever else you can hit him for. Counter suit!
The reason I am firing all the questions at you is this is how you need to build your case. For instance, Mom named me DPOA before she ever began showing signs of dementia. She had always told me she wanted to find a place so she could be with me. I would seek out the eldercare attorney that you went to see (that created the will or trust) if by law your brother can do this. Get all your facts in place prior to that. Lawyers aren't cheap!
It never ceases to amaze me how many jealous and greedy siblings will go to such lengths to try and get what they think is "their cut" when many of them had little or nothing to do with caring for the parent. Families are torn apart all in the name of the almighty dollar that was never earned or contributed by them.
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