Mom entered nursing home Long term care 2-13-14. Eligibility Worker informed me that my mom will have to liquidate her home. Both of us have been on the deed since 1985. Do I have to sell her property? If so, will I have to give up only half? Is she responsible for half of real estate taxes and utilities while she is in the nursing home?
The Medicaid caseworker cannot give you a specific legal directive; their role is to evaluate the applicants income & assets to see if they meet whatever the ceiling is in your state for that. They cannot tell you to "liquidate her home", they cannot force a sale of your mom's % of the property ownership. My guess is that the caseworker didn't even really look at your mom's documents as they would have known there was a joint ownership since forever too. Crappy caseworker
You can keep the house. You may have to be a diplomatic but firm bitch on this with Medicaid, so prepare yourself & get your documents on the property together
BUT there is another issue to all this. Although they can keep their home, they will no longer have any real income to pay for things on the home. Medicaid requires a co-pay or their "SOC" (share of cost) of all their income less a small personal needs allowance. The allowance runs from $ 35 -90 a month and depends on your state as to the amount. So say mom gets $ 1K in retirement & $ 800 in SS so every mo mom's income is $ 1800 and her allowance is 60, so every month the NH must be paid by mom $ 1,740.00 as her SOC. That 60 is just enough for mom's beauty shop & clothing replacement, there is no real $ for the home. All her income is @ the NH.
So for the rest of mom's lifetime, someone will need to pay for mom's 50% of the costs on the home (taxes, insurance, yard, etc.) If there is still a regular mortgage, this could be a lot of $$. Can you pay 100% for all these costs for the possibly many many years to come? If so, then what you need to do is to clearly start to document all the costs on the house divided by 50%. Why? because you are going to file for an exemption or exclusion to whatever claim or lien Medicaid may place on the home via MERP (Medicaid Estate Recovery Program) after mom dies. If the house is empty, then you can probably do 100% of the costs; if you live in the home then it will be only for her % of taxes & insurance as you benefit from the home and use it.
Now if you cannot pay for all the costs on the home from here to whatever, then you probably need to consider to sell the house. If you sell, mom's share of the proceeds from the sale will have to become a spend-down for her on Medicaid too.
Really look over the costs on the home for the past couple of years to see realistically what kind of $ you are looking at to maintain the home and then if it is reasonable to keep paying for years. Also make sure you keep mom's ID at the house and continue to file for her homestead exemption. You may need to also do an annual "right to return" letter by mom on the house too.