My father is in an AFC, with dementia, I am his legal guardian, As his home is 45 miles round trip from my home, with heat and electric kept on minimally (water is off, pipes are drained), can I be reimbursed for Mileage to care for this home, and check on it 2 or 3 days per week?
Carol
To crazy8 - Maybe it's time to think about selling the house, if you don't think your father will ever be able to move back home. An empty house doesn't "keep" well.
We aren't supposed to be judgmental here, just to give helpful answers. Elders make choices that impact their children. I would not expect my children to look after my home for nothing especially if I weren't living in it.
Now crazy 8 - We kept my mother's home for the past 5 years that she's been living with us. It has gone down a lot even though we pay a neighbor to look after the lawn and minor upkeep. The roof is now starting to go so that is a major expense. My mother's home is 3 hours away from us. renting it out is out of the question with this kind of drive, we are selling it. Think about that now rather than later when it could cost lots in fix up money.
As far as reimbursement, who would be reimbursing you? If your father has funds, there is no reason why he can't pay you mileage for your trips. If Medicaid will be likely in his future, you should carefully document each trip so that it will be treated as reimbursement, and not a gift. A service contract written up by a lawyer would be an added layer of proof. If you father is already receiving help from Medicaid or some other program, I don't believe that any of these programs will pay you mileage. I reimburse myself from my mother's funds for any purchases I make for her (I keep receipts) and also for mileage to run errands and take her to appointments. My father wanted whoever did the work to be paid for their out-of-pocket expenses and I have been assured by an attorney that this will not be a problem as long as there is good documentation. I am not paid for my time.
Make sure your Dad's home insurance has been notified that the house is vacant... the insurance company might tack on an extra fee because the house is more of risk being empty..... otherwise if something did happen to the house and the insurance company wasn't notified the insurance company might not pay for full damage.
I finally became more and more unavailable. She began turning to others: many times her needs are just excuses for people to entertain her. She's also a bottomless well in that respect. She never gets enough attention. I am so DONE!
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