My mom and I had bought land and built two houses on it. Her house if considered a grannie house. The deed was in my husbands and my name as well as my mothers. In 2014 we legally had her name taken off. Our houses are considered one house as far as mortgage and taxes are concerned. My husband and I have always paid the taxes and mortage ourselves. Mon did not contribute. Our house is paid for now. We really need some help with her but we are scared they will take her house which would include our house as well. As I said her name is off the deed but it's only been off a year and I read somewhere it has to be 5 or 7 years?
is NOT going to be eligible for Medicaid until either she or you pay the transfer penalty. The review date is based on the date of the Medicaid application, so that would mean anything from now back to 2010.
My experience is that you have multiple issues & you need to see an elder law attorney to get on all this so that she can possibly qualify. You could find, that mom now has a higher level review on her application, in which you have to recreate moms pattern of spending for 5 years prior to the application date. If not, she won't be eligible for Medicaid. If you can't account for other possibly questionable $, they will be added to the penalty amount.Its good that she has a grannie house because if you don't have the funds to private pay, she is going to move back into it.
Land is an asset; it has a value in & of itself apart from the house (improvements) If you & mom bought it as raw land, then it was an asset to both of you based on the inital price. Look at the tax assessor statement to get a sense of that amount that would be subject to penalty. Mom signed something releasing her share to you (let me guess, she did a quit claim, right? & it reads it was done for free?) This is gifting and has tax issues as well as future Medicaid issues and possible title issues if done via a QCD. If the QCD was recorded, it is established legally. Doing something now to change that is going to be viewed as medicaid avoidance other than you sign it back to her. BTW there are others on this site who have postings as to having to sign back to their parent the house they gifted them to get parent eligible for Medicaid. You can't get around real property issues as it's all recorded into the state's database.
Most county base assessment on the parcel whether it's 50' x 100' or 5 acres & just companionized the improvements upon the parcel - this is pretty common. It probably is going to have the gifting done at the whole improvement rate rather than the rate of just the smaller house too. It's not going to be simple to deal with.
Out of curiosity, who told you to or why did you get her name removed?
Really make that elder law appointment soon.
1. get her MD to write orders for a hospice evaluation. Then look about for one. Hospice is a Medicare benefit and not subject to MERP/estate recovery. Since its Medicare, it's self directed so you can choose the vendor to provide the service. Kinda like selecting a MD for mom to see. If you have several choices, I'd ask if any of them have a free-standing hospice unit. Mom won't qualify for that aspect now, but would be good to have as an option as her health declines. Larger cities do, in my mom's city VITAS has 2, 1 which is in the old WOmens' & Children's hospital, so its like 5 stories and is very end of life care for those that need more heavy duty pain meds (more restrictive access drugs), my aunt went to it from her IL after a fall & stroke & coma; the other unit is adjacent to a tiered facility and geared towards somewhat younger patient. If she can get on hospice, at least you will have some help coming in to lend a hand and when it gets towards the end and is bad due to her cancer she can transfer to the in unit hospice.
Being on hospice already approved will be a plus when looking for NH……
2. Get all the documents on the property, like copies of everything filed at the courthouse (you can do this as a cheap on-line download probably); the last few years of tax assessor forms; try to roughly figure out the amount you & hubs paid on the "constants" (taxes, insurance, stuff you have to pay every year) & then the "variables" (maintenance, utilities) for the past 3 years. You can do this and you need this to provide to the attorney. Listen either you do it or you pay for his paralegal to do this - you can do it and you want to to to get a realistic grip on what the costs are. Find all of mom & your late dad's will, codicil or dad's probate stuff. Again if you don't have his probate, you can go on-line to the courthouse to get this. Downloads are cheap too, like $ 6.00 for easement; $ 10 for warranty deed.
one you have this get an appointment with elder law. Your stuff is kinda a clusterF, I'd get one that is NAELA certified. Mom has income, and she can pay for this as it was her request to do the transfer.
Also you want to do a "face sheet" on mom, with all the details on her life: borsht marriages, all children (even if deceased); grandkids and ditto on your dad or her exhubbies. Then you want to be able to detail what her income is - she gets SS and maybe a retirement, you need to have the awards letters. These just got sent out like in Dec for 2015 amounts to be paid, and she just got the taxable income stuff in Jan or this week. Make a copy of all and you give a binder to legal and eke one for yourself. If your OCD on this, scan and put on a jump drive as well.
A good NAELA guy will be able to provide you some options as to what to do. But realize that if mom is at the brink of needing a facility, what you can do will be limited. The more background you can provide the better they can come up with possibilities. The more document getting you do, the less the costs.
About hospice, if she goes into a NH and is already on hospice the NH will be most happy as the hospice group will continue to come in & provide services and literally provide for extra hands that the NH doesn't have to pay for but still to do stuff that frees up the NH staff. Also the hospice can help smooth the way to get mom into one of the NH they have a working relationship with. Comprende?
Listen everybody on this site has had to deal with the panic and chaos of dealing with aging and dementia. It can seem overwhelming but break it down into smaller parts you can get done. Good luck.
$ 118 a day for NH!!!- where are you? That is super low cheap rate. Most nh runs 5k - 10k a month.