She was put into the hospital in September then in rehab for three weeks, and doctors said she couldn’t go home. So I brought her home to my house .
I own the condo she was in. My problem is all of her furniture is still in there and I need to sell the unit.
Being the headstrong lady she is she had refused any kind of POA because ‘no one is going to tell me what to do’! But I managed a Medical POA, thank goodness. But I’m not sure what to do with her furniture. She can’t use it. My brother and I don’t want anything other than a piece or two that were our grandmothers.
can I sell or donate the furniture? I need it gone so we can make repairs and sell. It’s been 6 months.
thank you
fran
Tell your mother that you're selling the condo and her furniture has to be removed from it.
The choices are:
-The furniture gets sold and mom can have a few extra bucks.
-The furniture gets moved into a public storage facility (that mom pays for of course) where it will sit until it rots and will then be of no use to anyone
-The furniture gets donated to the Goodwill to help others less fortunate.
-The people who buy the condo you're selling throw it into a dumpster when they move in.
These are the choices being offered. Tell her to pick one.
How long do you plan on having her with you? At some point you will find you can no longer care for her.
Tell her the condo is going on the market - put it nicely, but remember that you're telling and not asking because this is your decision to make - and ask her what she'd like done with her possessions. Can she afford to store the furniture, if that's her preference? If so, include storage among the options you suggest and perhaps root out a few reputable service providers.
Legally
the furniture and anything else inside the condo that belongs to her is hers and you can not sell it or dispose of it without her permission.
What you can do is
Tell her you have to rent the condo or sell it and her belongings have to be removed.
They can be stored if she does not want to get rid of them.
She has to pay for storage.
(a bit of a quagmire here though...she can not rent a storage unit in her name since she has dementia and can not sign a contract...and if you are not POA for finances you can not use her funds to pay for the storage unit..)
Honestly though I doubt that anything would happen if you were to sell her furniture. Keep in mind most used furniture does not sell for a lot
A thought..
You might want to make a "deal" with her. If her room can be set up with some of her pieces she might feel better about letting some go.
How advanced is her dementia? If she is incompetent it is too late for her to confer POA on anyone. However, you can be her guardian.
If she says no then tell her you will be moving it out of YOUR condo to storage, so that you can rent YOUR condo, and she will be responsible for the storage move and future bills.
As this woman seems not particularly willing to give you POA, and it may in any case be too late, who will handle her expenses for her??? Or anything else (you may badly need in future).
I would attend a conference with her and an elder care attorney to make a shared living expenses CONTRACT. Also to assess if she has a level of competency and if he recommends guardianship.
She seems of a legal bent of mind and will understand this need. I suspect you will need this agreement in future.
I would stipulate in this contract that your willingness to share YOUR home with your mother is something that will be reviewed every six months; that if it is working to your MUTUAL satisfaction the living circumstances will continue, that if it is NOT working for one or the other of you your mother will move to her own living quarters in care within three months time.
Whether or not you need help with expenses, an agreement will prevent any accusations of gifting in future, and etc. and you can, if you like, simply pay the storage for her furniture out of it, bank the rest for her, against that time that you need respite and to hire someone to help you with mom or your mutual living space.
Short answer is that no, you cannot sell anyone's furniture against their wishes. Not unless you are POA or guardian. You can give them legal notification to remove, or you can remove and store with her permission and at her expense. Do allow her to keep some treasured pieces about her.
Much in your question depend upon the level of dementia you have here, as your Mom was recently living on her own and caring for herself. If she has severe dementia and is incompetent I think you will soon enough wish that she was in care rather than in your own home. You are in a dreadful position having taken in an elder who will need 24/7 care over whom you have no control of finances or anything else whatsoever. That will not work.
OP owns the condo. If she rented it to tenants who moved out and left furniture behind, OP would not be required to keep the furniture, to put it into storage, or to find the tenants and return it to them. She can dump it or sell it. OP has to get rid of this furniture so she can sell or let the condo, so it amounts to much the same thing (admittedly not quite the same).
I’d suggest that OP gives M notice to arrange for the furniture to be removed within a fortnight, or it will be considered to be abandoned. Put that in writing (including the fact that she can’t move back in), but make it ‘nicer’ when you talk. Then go ahead with the suggestions about keeping things with special meaning to you, your brother or M (and which could go into an AL room), and do the best you can with the rest. As MJ1929 said “Mom certainly isn't going to sue you, so who would cause you problems if you got rid of the furniture?”. You can’t wait indefinitely for ‘permission’ from someone with dementia.
Are you planning on a forever home deal with your mother? If so, sounds like you will have a handful, have you considered AL for her, she can then use some of her furniture.