Mother lives 500 miles away from me in another state. She fell four weeks ago and was placed in a hospital. She was then transferred to a rehab facility to get her strength back. Once the Medicare ran out she was placed into an assisted living facility and was diagnosed with dementia, Afib and malnutrition. She was overmedicating herself with doctor prescribed Xanax and tramadol for depression and back pain. It is quite obvious she cannot go back home by herself and is unable to care for herself properly. Last week she was placed in an assisted living facility. She is currently self paying using most of her pension and Social Security income, minus about 100 dollars. I have had financial power of attorney for several years now and used it to add my name to her bank account to handle her bills for her. Since the assisted living facility is taking most of her income, I have had to pay her other bills such as property tax, home owners insurance, utilities, supplemental health care insurance, prior purchases, and whatever other suprises that have been showing up, while trying to maintain her home from far away. She has been financially irresponsible all her life and if she somehow gets into her bank account, she will spend all her income that has to go for her care. How do I prevent this from happening? I'm already out three thousand dollars and growing and it's killing me financially. She has no mortgage and years ago, without my knowledge, added me to the deed to the house as a joint tenant. I have no interest in the home and would like to sell it, putting the money into some type of account to pay for her future care and medical needs. She was a hoarder and its been a nightmere trying to get through all this. Trying to limit my financial involvement and protect my family from all this
I am curious how did your Mom add you name onto her Deed without you knowing it? I would think you would be required to sign some legal document saying that this is being done. You might want to check with the County offices, maybe Mom didn't do this if her memory is no longer sharp.
Anywho, with your name on the Deed that means you and Mom own 50-50 of the house. I would contact an Elder Law Attorney to get advice on what to do now regarding this situation. When you sell the house, you would get 50% of the equity, and the bases for capital gain taxes would be when your Mom had bought the house. Oops. Since you don't live in the house, the IRS may consider this 50% as an investment property, thus it becomes more complicated. And what if Mom needs Medicaid down the road to pay for her care, there is that 5 year look back.
If everything is solid for selling the house, in today's real estate market people are looking for fixer-uppers. Thus don't sink any major money into the house. Sell the house "as is". I did that with my Dad's house and it sold quickly. In fact, the Buyer said it was ok if I wanted to leave stuff in the house, he would clear it out. But I didn't, I had Salvation Army out, plus a hauler who does donate usable things and sends you the donation receipt.
What does your mother want to do? Since she has little money, hiring caregivers 24/7 would be out of her financial reach and would drive you broke, too. The idea on selling the house sounds more feasible. I know it's a huge albatross to get it done from such a distance. I don't envy the chore you have ahead of you. I hope you can find the right help to get it done quickly.