Could we lose our home, because the money made form the sale of my parents home is gone?
My husband and I and My Father and Mother decided that we would move in together. We put both of our houses up for sale, and whichever one sold first, then the other one would move in, and make the necessary additions, be it bathrooms, bedrooms, whatever, with the money made.............well, all has been fine.......(well, not exactly a bed of roses, but you know what I mean! lol)....we've put in a handicap bathroom for them, and constructed a third bathroom, in our basement, where my husband and I have moved our bedroom, in order to make room for them....they wanted to pay off our house, so that when they were 'gone', that financially, we wouldn't be burdened with a house payment any longer, because neither me nor my husband are in the greatest of health......so now, all of this info brings me to what has happened.....my Father has ended up in the hospital, which we thought he had done something to his back, but he has an infection on his heart valve, which no one seems to know how that has happened, it has gone to his blood and it's in his brain. The doctors think it has caused him to have another stroke.......he is 'in and out' of consciousness, in that, some days he knows us, and some days he does not...he's pretty much bedfast, and at our care plan meeting today, will require a medical lift, if we choose for him to come home, when they stop his IV antibiotics. We can choose for him to go to a continuous care facility as long as they can 'prove' he's 'improving' from any kind of therapy, but if not, then decisions will have to be made, as of 'what' we're going to do......my Dad worked his job for many years and recieves a decent check, my Mother recieves a check because of him working as well.....the social worker told us today, that we could potentially lose our home, because the sale of their home, and the money made from it, was put towards the pay off of oursand the improvements to make it safe for them???? Even though my parents would be paying for their own stay if they would need to stay at a long term facility.....Does anyone know of any info regarding this??? Our realtor told us, that they could've gone to Las Vegas and gambled all of their money from the sale of their house away, for all anyone knew.....
law. Seek one out, many times they do not charge unless they actually work with you for estate planning. Good Luck.
Property (home, car, boat, etc) ownership information and transfers, transactions are recorded and are just keystrokes away from getting a history. The $ trail may not surface initially but eventually will and you could face a transfer penalty of the $ they gave you. The penalty varies by state, like for Texas it's about $ 145.00 a day as Texas NH reimbursement rate is kinda low.
The only thing I've heard about that is under the radar on assets & income are oil & gas revenues as they are often so small (we're not talking Spindletop here) that they get paid only after the amount meets a certain level (like you don't get a check for $ 1.34 but payment is not done till it reaches $100) or the ownership is so diluted percentage wise and the ownership gets keyed to whomever is the first name on the lease (like Adam Abraham) or they are in an assigned heirs payment system.
Get an attorney to start to sort this all out and before Dad get discharged.
Since your house seems to be paid off, you could re-fi if necessary to cover this amount (Perhaps with an equity line of credit - with this you would only need to withdraw funds as needed - and still only obligated as above.
You say your parents would be paying for their own stay. What I have found that is unless the individual has documented banking assets over 6 figures (not property but liquid assets) the long term care facility is expecting that the resident will need to go on Medicaid and that look at the residents resources to see if there is likely to be a problem with the Medicaid application. (It sounds like your dad will need a pretty high level of care, that could run 10 - 12K a month so 100K in savings is vaporized pretty fast.) The transferring of $, sale of house, etc are all red flags for a Medicaid application. No matter how well intentioned your parents were in giving or "gifting" you the $, it will be lots of paperwork to get through. As others have said, you need good legal on this. Find an elder care attorney to go over all this with you - preferably one who has a practice in the same county in which your home is located as there will be many trips to the courthouse.
What "TheFixer" is referring to is MERP - Medicaid Estate Recovery Program.
Every state is required to do MERP in order to participate in Medicaid but how it's run really is unique to each state as it depends on each state's approach to death/estate laws and probate. For example, my mom is in Texas and under TX MERP it is a Class 7 claim against the estate, so other claims are paid first and foremost (class 1 - class 6) before MERP, so it's lower in TX than in other states where MERP is a lien on the estate.
As Jane B said, more details on your situation would be helpful.
If my understanding is correct, then the social worker is completely wrong. I suggest that you have another chat with her, tell her that her comments were upsetting to you and you want to make sure that she understood your families circumstances correctly. Maybe she didn't understand that your parents do not need government assistance.
It never hurts to meet with an attorney that specializes in elder care. It will answer a number of questions you may have now and in the future.
Good luck, Cattails.
Lose the house to whom? You say that your father would be private pay? And the social worker says some agency will come in and claim your house?
As everyone else has said, check with a specialist who knows the law -- a lawyer!
I assume you saved the paperwork on the construction and renovation of your home, and that you can show that the improvements were made to be able to accommodate your parents, so they could live in the home with you. Gather all that. Then talk to an attorney who specializes in this.
Something is missing here, either in terms of what was told you, or what you retained and explained here. An attorney will be able you to sort out the true situation in short order, especially if you gather the reno paperwork ahead of time. Good luck!
How is the house titled? Is their name on deed, etc