My dad asked me if I would like to rent my grandma's house since she is in a nursing home. This would help him out to keep the house updated and lived in. My concern is when my grandma runs out of money for the nursing home will I have to move out of the house? I would like to buy the house but right now I am not financially able. Her money will run out in about two years so I don't know if there is a way to protect myself and my family from being evicted? I love this house and it has a lot of fond memories for me so I would like to keep it in the family. Any suggestions or help would be welcomed.
Do make sure the home is in a relatives name to save court fees, etc. when grandma passes. They will need a quitclaim deed. And the insurance coverage is definitely something to handle now. There are just so many details and loose ends that need knotting today with people living well into dementia and NH care. So sad to see years of scrimping and saving in the hopes of passing a small inheritance on to family sucked away in a heartbeat by care facilities and the government. There are days I am not so sure all our modern medicine and technology is doing us any favors. At a certain point, just shoot me!!! Or be kind enough to let me go instead of living on to be a burden, financial drain and have everyone not wanting grandma around anymore.
Good luck in your beautiful, new home filled with so many wonderful memories. I am sure it gives grandma tremendous peace and joy knowing the home she knew and loved will be overflowing with life, laughter and happiness once again. Will she be able to come for a visit and enjoy seeing you living there? Many years of continued happiness and cherished memories.
The state is not interested in owning the house or in evicting people. They just want the money they are entitled to. Would you be able to buy the house (take out a mortgage?) in the future? This would probably not be at the point GM's money runs out ... but at her death. Medicaid recipients are allowed to own a home.
This really isn't a do-it-yourself project. See a lawyer, and cover all the bases.
Spend some of her 120K on a elder care attorney and estate planner.
What you see and feel in your pocketbook is very much the same issue in how the same medical procedure or hospital stay can vary in cost depending on what insurance you do or don't carry or what part of the country or even part of the state are in. So the cost for your mom as private payer is 7.5K while the cost for the lady who shares her room but is on Medicaid is significantly less. Personally, I just don't see how the system can continue to do this especially as the first wave baby boomers hit the NH in the next decade.
There was a good OP ed piece - "the Medicaid Albatross" in the Washington Post on this just yesterday.
I know that doing Quit Claim Deeds seem like a simple & cheap way to change property ownership but there are issues with it especially as to guarantee. I've had to deal with QC deeded property (divorce & tax sale property) and QC can be sticky in that: you really have to have solid knowledge of the property history and the situation of the property owner as there could be liens or other clouds on the property. For property passed down generationally with no probate, there could be old heirs with judgements that affect ownership.
Remember a Quit Claim is not a Warranty Deed. A Warranty Deed establishes & guarantees that there is a clear and valid ownership on the property. With a QC property often if you should ever need to use it as collateral or get a mortgage on the property - say you want to build on it years from now and need a loan (mortgage) to do it - mortgage companies won't usually accept a QC as there is no assurance of good title. Also should you want to sell it later on and the buyer needs a mortgage to buy it, most banks will not loan on a QCD property as there is no warranty as to ownership. Some banks now are requiring that a QCD property to have a quiet title action run in order to do a mortgage. It may be that this will never be an issue for you and your property but it can be for others.
Personally if I had a QC property, I would go and get a real estate attorney to do a quiet title action on the property. Quiet should run about $1,500 for a non commercial property. Takes a bit of time because of the legal notifications needed and an attorney needs to do this. But well worth it as you don't want to find out years from now that in fact all the $$ spent on the property is in jeopardy as there wasn't a clean title to start with and in fact there are other owners with judgements on them which have or could affect the property. Just something to think about.
I'd just like to reiterate my simple answer: "This really isn't a do-it-yourself project. See a lawyer, and cover all the bases."
Oh, sorry about the spelling malfunction. I thought it looked wrong, but did look it up and the way I spelled quitclaim was valid. I do think Quit Claim is definitely the preferred of the two.
Good luck to everyone struggling with all these sticky messes our government and lawyers have made so complicated.