My father and stepmother have been separated for over ten years and have had no contact with each other in that time. Neither believed in divorce and refused to even discuss it. Alimony was never an issue because they each had equal income. They live in different states with my dad residing in Florida. Both are on the title to the Florida home as well as a home in TN. A relative just informed us that stepmother is in a nursing home, has Alzheimer's and is on Medicaid. I have no idea how she got Medicaid with owning two homes. Her family refuses to give us any info. Dad (90) moved in with my husband and I about a year ago and we recently got him to agree to sell both houses. He hoped she would agree to sell the homes, split the money and he could use his half of the equity to pay for his long term care. This new development puts a kink in the plans. Can anyone tell me if a spouse must be notified, required to sign the Medicaid application or must supply evidence of income/assets? Also, is it possible to receive Medicaid without the spouses knowledge? My concern is that he won't be able to sell the homes because of MERP and will have no assets for a nursing home if needed.
Really only warranty deeds ensure full legal ownership. Mortgage companies don't like to do any lending on QCD properties nowadays because of this. It's good you are looking into this now cause the QCD will likely be an issue for a future sale.....What seems to be required often now ( in the post real estate /mortgage meltdown era), is for a valid & recorded QCD property to get a Quiet Title Action done. Quiet needs about 3 -6 mos to run its course, so this usually queers any pending sale. So better doing whatever now than a couple of years from now when dad is at immediate need for a NH.
About Quiet, it's called various things dependent on state law, but needs a real estate atty to do. It's a series of notifications in the paper over several months on the property that requires anyone with valid interest to notify the atty. It "quiets" or tamps down any future claim. Quiet is done all the time for tax sale properties to kill any future claims. Often the real estate atty will be one who just does this sort of work for site selection property clearance for big developers but does little individual owner ones as well. It's specialty legal but not expensive if no litigation is involved as its a set series of actions & filings on a set timeframe (kinda like probate).
I'd try to find out what is required for a QCD to be valid in both states. You need to get the chain of documents for ach property - these should be a low-cost on-line down load from the courthouse in each state. I'd try to be this done in advance of the arty apptment. For items over maybe a decade or so, this will have to be pulled by hand by the courthouse staff so takes a few days. So get on this ASAP. I'd bet you can go to FL courthouse and walk this through -take small bills cash and go about 9:30 (courts in session so its down time)and be nice to courthouse ladies as they can get this done tout suite. If QCD wasn't written correcrtly or recorded it could be invalid.
QCDs have all sorts of issues for selling property to start with as there is NO guarantee of ownership. That is only by a warranty deed. QCD can work like when they are accompanied by a judges order -like in a divorce when spouse QCDs home to other spouse & it's included in the divorce decree. But otherwise QCDs have issues as it only conveys what the person thinks they own & it has to be properly written & recorded. I'd bet a decent mad-dog level divorce atty could get the QCDs invalidated so they are totally dads assets.
Now for her family....well they know she was married, so somebody filed a fraudulent Medicaid application on her in her state. If she has been on medicaid beyond a year, they have filed fraudulent renewals as well. Bad..very bad for them. Good...very good for you. This is leverage for dads divorce atty to use in all this. Let us know what happens too!
Definitely talk to an attorney who knows about Medicaid and property. It will be money well spent. I am sure your father doesn't want to make things difficult for your stepmother, but he does need to handle the properties.
Too bad they didn't go ahead and get a divorce, this would be much simpler.
As Jeannegibbs and CarolC had mentioned above, see an Elder Law attorney... each State has their own rules and regulations.
I agree with Jeanne, this is a situation for an attorney.
Good luck and keep us posted...