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My mother-in-law lives in an independent living facility in Delray Beach, Florida. A new company took over last year, and today, they slipped a notice under her door raising her rent for next month to $4,000 from the current $2,100 with 7 days notice. Is this legal?

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Jayvogel - glad you figured it out. I agree with you that it's time for your wife or someone in the family (I don't know if there are other siblings) to "help" her with her bills now. The old checks should have been destroyed when the old account was closed - so I would ask your wife to start getting things organized and cleaned up for her so your wife or sibling would know how and where she needs help. Just don't push it too hard. I don't know how old your mother-in-law is either, but it also may be time to start thinking about someone getting Financial and Medical Power of Attorney too in case her "confusion" starts getting worse. Some elderly don't like it because they think they're losing their independence - which isn't true. But it ensures there's an advocate looking out for her if things go downhill. We did it through an elder attorney and it helped my mother-in-law in ensuring her money was only spent on her care and keeping siblings from wasting her money away. Good luck.
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Glad you solved it! One thing I did was set up her bank acct electronically where we could access the acct and pay bills electronically. We did auto bill pay set up for important things like insurance, monthly fees, etc. this made sure important things got paid and she continues to pay lesser bills. We monitor and can remind her when we see she is missing payments on electric, phone, etc.
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It turns out that my mother-in-law was using old checks from an obsolete account, so the bill was doubled because it was for 2 months rent. My mother-in-law has gotten to the point where she is getting confused about which checkbook to use. Time to gently take the function away from her.
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Why not ask someone why the jump in price? Maybe her care is being upped to more asst living, rather than the retirement end. Most independent/retirement living prices are much lower than the asst living option, which is why I'd be curious in whether she has been needing more care for some time, but wasn't being billed for it. The place where my mother-in-law lives (asst living) goes by a point system. 10 points is included in her $3500 month rent, but after that it's $70 per point, so the more care she needs the more points and the more money. Also, her place goes up in rent about 3 - 4% per year, so be prepared for that too.
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