Father 83, moved 800 miles to take homecare him. Living in home. Daughter built on property. Only child mother passed 1990, was grandparents. How do I protect loosing my grandparents property. Grandmother raised till 13 then had stroke. I am 62 now and had to move to care for legally blind, COPD and weak heart stepfather. Will gives me everything at his death. Concern about keeping it if he signings it to nursing home. Also my daughter built on property with grandsons and husband after being deeded 2 acres. We all arrived July 2013. Me, husband, daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons. Had to very our home in NC of 25 years residing. Need to know how to protect my family from this in the event Daddy is hospitalized for stroke, coma etc. and can not make decisions.
stargazer MERP & it should search up.
I'd ask legal exactly how caregiver property exemption gets done. If it can happen upon application that is better. Some states require it to be filed and transferred after death which is lots more cumbersome. You may need to delay grandpas application till you have the full 2 years or whatever # of months of documented caregiving period behind you. Try to get a clear detailed answer on caregiver exemption and the exact formula grandpas state uses for transfer penalty and how to go about having a conservative appraisal used for penalty # (substituted for the tax assessor value).
Also If the property is the sort that the home & it's land - which together has a homestead exemption- is 1 tax assessor parcel BUT there are other parcels that abut & those parcels get their own tax bill, those will not qualify as exempt property & will keep grandpa from qualifying for medicaid till sold & used in spend down on his care. He has to be impoverished.
The property value rules are hard & fast. States do allow for actively working family farms or ranches with their sections or acreage to be an exempt asset. You would have to document prior years of the farm or ranch as a business AND have some of the profit go towards their income copay to the NH. These can get pretty complex & call out for experienced legal & accounting to do the compliance needed both for the initial medicaid application and the annual renewals.
But if the property is under the max allowed, then gather up all the legal on grandpa, all his property and pay for an NAELA elder law attorney. You have all sorts of issues....the deeding in of the 2 acres means transfer penalty on that little nugget alone......and starting whenever grandpa submits his Medicaid application (like this year in 2015) and not back in 2013 when you all moved in. Out of curiosity, who's idea was the 2 acres gifting???
You may be able to get the caregiver exemption, the atty will let you know what is needed to get that done & how it works for property transfer in your state.
Btw grandpa doesn't sign over his house to a NH. NH aren't in the real estate business, they don't want a bunch of old houses with old folks stuff in them. What they want & require is to be paid for the services they as a NH do. Whether that means selling the propery to pay or having Medicaid pay or requiring family to sign a legally binding contract to pay for grandpa.
If family want to keep their qualified exempt elders home when the elder is in a NH & on medicaid, for whatever reason, it can be done. But family will need to pay for all costs on the property from now till they die and then through probate process and deal with estate recovery (MERP) within probate. But you have to have the funds personally to do this whether for a year or ten years. Grandpa once in a NH & on Medicaid will have no - none - nada -ziltch of his income (SS, pension) to ever again pay on the property that he owns as he is required to do a copay of his income (his SOC) to the NH. He gets a small allowance to cover personal needs - like barber shop. You will have to pay all taxes, utilities, insurance, etc on the property from day 1 of NH till whenever probate done or caregiver exemption allows for transfer of property.
Are there enough people to pool their time and resources to care for your father in his home so he doesn't require a nursing home?
If Daddy needs to apply for Medicaid to help pay for his care, then the state can pay themselves back from the sale of his house after he dies. There are exceptions, and one is the house may go to a person who has been the person's caregiver for at least 2 years and has thereby kept that person out of a nursing home.
I think it would be wise to consult an attorney who specializes in Elder Law to understand what Daddy's options are. Paying a consultation fee now can save you lots of heartache down the road.