Mom didnt need money both houses paid for and w/her incoming and our rent she had plenty of money (we didnt pay rent since my husband got leg amputated but now we are paying again but even w/out rent she has enough money coming in to cover her care. she came over (we live in moms house in basement apt. over 20 yrs) and said she is buying the house in catskill for moms care when she found out the house was being left to her brother. her brother said NO if we need to sell anything we will sell this house, well she chose to disregard what his wishes were and w/in 2 weeks there was 200k in his moms account but the house is worth between 200 and 399k i am thinking 245k but then she got everything in it also tractors and a barn full of tools and sooooooo much more so she totally ripped her mom off but she got her brother good. all cause she hates me! and doesnt want me to have the house she should only know i would have sold it to whoever wanted it i would not have wanted it. i would have taken the lot by the road and sold them the rest but whatever.... anything can be done? also the mother b4 she lost all reasoning skills wanted her removed from everything and in fact tried to remove her from her bank account as co owner but could not so she added my husband she forgot about the POA which is sad. but she had given that way back in 2008
SIL as DPOA has quite a good bit of authority to do things on her moms behalf and is probably doing whatever now to streamline moms assets to make things easier to manage whether or not mom supposedly has “plenty of money”. DPOA can do things to make the future less cumbersome. Maintenance of 2 properties does add up; could be running negative to keep properties that mom will never live in again. Selling before next years taxes come due in 2021 can make sense to do. 200k may be fair market value based on condition of property. If it was sold for 200k and 200k deposited into elders bank account there wasn’t skimming by DPOA; your hubs can see the bank account so DPOA isn’t being secretive.
Did SIL get a usually good deal on the farm?, sounds like it, but proving it will mean you have to on your own dime hire an Real Estate attorney to look into the sale in detail and they will need to get appraisals or comps run on similar farms sold and on assets like equipment at the farm. You’d need to clearly discuss with the atty just what your & your hubs standing is in relation to the assets of your MIL and if this is about getting guardianship or a civil action against the DPOA. If old DPOA did wrong, someone new would have to be appointed to take over MIL affairs.... if you want to be appointed then you’d have to hire an atty to file for guardianship. Otherwise the court will appoint one.
DPOAs are not supposed to do things that could be considered “self dealing” but proving it isn’t easy. If you & your hubs are not paying FMV rent now & this in addition to being rent free for a period of time, the DPOA could use this to show what she did was equitable.
Complaining that mom really wanted to change her DPOA but didn’t, isn’t - imho - a good strategy. DPOA done in 2008, mom had way over a decade to change it.
Whatever terms in moms will doesn’t matter for the present. Will is about whatever asset she dies with that then becomes her estate.
Please please think if the next step of the DPOA will be to sell the house your living in now. If your rent isn’t covering all property costs, and mom isn’t ever moving back, it probably doesn’t make sense to keep it. You might have rights as a tenant to stay there & pay FMV rent, it’s something to discuss with the RE atty as tenant laws really are city / county dependent.
You certainly can see an elder law attorney if you have questions, but this would be on your own dime. Or your brother, who expected to get this home eventually in a will can do so. But I doubt that the law would question this decision of hers unless I am missing some information. Do see a lawyer to get your questions answered. Wishing you good luck.