if mom is in nursing home there may be a Medicaid lien, see other post. You need to talk with an attorney to discuss how to help mom and what assets might have been ok for married couple may cause problem for single widow on Medicaid. Before you lay out money to keep a house that may have a debt on it, seek legal advice as you were told on other thread.
Depending on his estate you may have to Probate as an Administrator. The courts will determine who inherits. You can become an administraor to handle his finances. You will get a Short certificate too do this.
I turned off as much as I could. That would be telephone and cable. Electric I put a timer on a lamp to come on and go off. My husband unplugged the refrigerator and stove. The heat we set at 55 to keep cost down. Unplug any small appliance. To sell the house I kept on the water.
In NJ our taxes are high. 6k for my Moms house. Once she was on Medicaid I stopped paying them. The house was up for sale. When it sold the tax lean and Medicaid lean were satisfied. Keep records of out of pocket and you will be reimbursed at time u sell the house.
As in all cases, your Dad's assets stand to pay his debts. However that is done is often with some variation that makes things either more or less easy. I would consult with a lawyer regarding filing probate on your Dad's assets if he left no will.
If there are no liens against the house, you still have to decide what you want to do with it. Is it worth keeping for you or someone you want to be able to live in it? Do you plan to rent it out? Otherwise, it would just be a financial drain.
I have some cousins whose mother died 7 years ago, but they can't agree on what to do with house so the bills keep having to be paid. There was a neighbor who had expressed an interest in buying my parents' house (so he could use it as a rental property) a couple years ago, so when my sister and I moved them out when they could no longer live there, we sold the house to the neighbor, and added the funds to the trust account that covers the nursing home charges. I figured there was no point in liquidating stocks that generate dividends just to keep a house that incurs maintenance expenses, especially when no one in the family wanted to live in it, and we were all moving out of state anyway.
My mother occasionally asks about the house, and because I visit that area every year and am friends with the neighbor, I remind her that it is being cared for well, the neighbor screens renters thoroughly, so the house looks "happy".
Just a though but sometimes heirs want to leave property in probate so that heirs die or some terms in the will - like a Testamentary Trust - times out. Or need to leave in probate cause actually transferring property to heirs is a problem as one of the heirs could have judgements against them which attach onto home if they become an owner. So to sell, there’s all kinds of clouds on the title. They wait till the problem gets resolved.
Are you his Personal Rep, Executor or Executrix under his Will? Do you have his funds to make these payments?
Posters: See the following for additional information:
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/my-parents-had-a-joint-bank-account-and-my-mother-is-in-a-nursing-home-with-dementia-my-father-passe-456026.htm
I turned off as much as I could. That would be telephone and cable. Electric I put a timer on a lamp to come on and go off. My husband unplugged the refrigerator and stove. The heat we set at 55 to keep cost down. Unplug any small appliance. To sell the house I kept on the water.
In NJ our taxes are high. 6k for my Moms house. Once she was on Medicaid I stopped paying them. The house was up for sale. When it sold the tax lean and Medicaid lean were satisfied. Keep records of out of pocket and you will be reimbursed at time u sell the house.
I have some cousins whose mother died 7 years ago, but they can't agree on what to do with house so the bills keep having to be paid. There was a neighbor who had expressed an interest in buying my parents' house (so he could use it as a rental property) a couple years ago, so when my sister and I moved them out when they could no longer live there, we sold the house to the neighbor, and added the funds to the trust account that covers the nursing home charges. I figured there was no point in liquidating stocks that generate dividends just to keep a house that incurs maintenance expenses, especially when no one in the family wanted to live in it, and we were all moving out of state anyway.
My mother occasionally asks about the house, and because I visit that area every year and am friends with the neighbor, I remind her that it is being cared for well, the neighbor screens renters thoroughly, so the house looks "happy".
Or need to leave in probate cause actually transferring property to heirs is a problem as one of the heirs could have judgements against them which attach onto home if they become an owner. So to sell, there’s all kinds of clouds on the title. They wait till the problem gets resolved.