As my mothers POA, I have applied for Medicaid to help care for my mother after having a stroke which has left her with a severe dementia. My mother and father, however, deeded back the house to me in April of 2005... 8 years ago... with a life use to the property. My mother medically and physically...according to the medical diagnosis MUST have 24/7 care for her safety due to the progressing dementia...AM i allowed to sell her property? and if I do..does Medicaid have any legal hold on the funds since it has been well over 5 years in the look back period?
If it was done by a warranty deed and was it recorded in the county courthouse back in 2005, then you own it. A Warranty Deed establishes & guarantees that there is a clear and valid ownership on the property. So your name is on the assessor's records, your name on the tax bill, etc. It's your's, you can do whatever
and it's more than 5 years so no Medicaid issues.
But if it was done as a Life estate, it could or could not be your ownership.You need to have someone legal (elder law attorney) review the document to see what's what and your options. I bet it's probably done so that your parents are the grantors with full revocation and you are the grantee and if it's done like this then you have no right to possession of the property until they die. They still own the property, it's a life estate for them whether they live to 80 or 100. The property will still show their names in the tax bill (& the taxes will be at their senior rate) etc.
back to your ?, if QCD is done and has a Medicaid MERP claim as a flaw then I imagine you are saddled with the claim till it is worked out & released.
I'm curious now what would happen if a house sold via warranty deed and MERP didn't show up in the title search, would the title insurance company pay off the MERP claim?
I think we are going to see the lookback extended to 8 years. The states that have contracted with HMS for MERP are going to see a easy revenue stream from MERP filings of claims & liens.HMS got awarded Michigan recently, so they now do about a 1/3 of the states and they are very good at what they do. I bet if you tracked MERP collection rates before and after (HMS) the increase if huge. So if a 5 year lookback can generate XX amount of $$ then 8 years can do double that with no fallout. Not going to require a change in laws that will be an issue for most elected officials as the better off (who donate to campaigns) can and already are private pay or buy into a CCRC or do the trusts and other advance planning to work around Medicaid compliance. The whole we're going to inherit momma's house will be a thing of the past. Plus there is the excuse (or fact) that you can't complain about MERP as you have the ability to file for an exemption(s) and don't have to apply for Medicaid to begin with. It's not going to be pretty.