Using my mom's funds to finance a new lease for her.

It sounds like you don’t have any money or sufficient credit score to lease an apartment by yourself? You can’t refuse to pay her bills to save up cash for an apartment, whether she’s going to be your roommate or not.

If I’ve missed something then you may save yourself legal trouble by paying the bills (as is your legal duty as her POA) and renting your own place. You could then move her in a figure out a proper shared expenses plan.

So mom is private pay in a AL and owes 2 months rent? (She is not in the AL on a Medicaid waiver, right?) Your mom did a legally binding contract. She owes rent. Pay the bill as you could be setting yourself up for a quicksand of problems & run risk that mom will be made a Ward of the State so removed from your input. Mom’s funds are for her needs. Her funds are for her needs not yours. That is what it seems you are doing, so it appears to be exploitation and taking advantage of a vulnerable adult.

AL can do whatever to get paid. They are saying they will call DCF / APS; it is something they certainly can do. They are mandated reporters for anything that whiffs of exploitation. BUT this is so not their first choice of action, it’s more to get you to snap out of your misguided actions and get moms bill paid AND whatever necessary to have her existing lease cancelled as per the terms she moved in under. If this place has a 30 Day Notice for a move out, then mom has to do that otherwise they can continue to bill her even after mom has left. She has a binding contract. As her POA, you have a duty to pay her debts.

if you have concerns on how AL operates, that is a separate issue.

If mom actually moves out, & AL wants to, this is likely:
1. turn her account over to collections plus fees and interest so debt balloons; collections will hound mom to pay,
2. Collections contacts new property manager office under the guise of trying to find her. So they are now aware y’all don’t pay your bills.
3. debt collection will file a lawsuit. Mom will be served. Process server will hang around to get this done…. not a good look for a tenant.
4. Mom has to show up at the hearing and provide documentation as why debt isn’t valid and answer ?’s. That you have complaints or you needed her money to put down a deposit on another apt, will not work. If she is unsuccessful, She will get a judgement WITH a garnishment order placed. Garnishment will file to her bank account. If mom keeps her account 100% separate with nothing but SS deposited, they can still go after it less - I think - 2.5 months of her SSA income. SSA is protected income from garnishing but not entirely. If bank account is commingled with you, all money subject to garnishment order. Banks have no choice if they get an order, they have to comply.
3. AL can also write off the debt with 1099-C issued. 100% taxable income. Taxes owed. IRS strict on this and place 15% IRS levy on her SSA income to get tax debt paid. IRS can be dealt with somewhat if CPA does moms tax filings for year 1099 received so b4 levy placed.
Fwiw Any legit biz who has an unpaid over $600 can issue a 1099-C to whomever won’t pay their bills. And the biz files it to the IRS in their annual tax filings. So if you / mom fail to pay other bills of hers, each can issue their own 1099-C.

Now if AL wants to be aggressive, they contact DCF / APS to have an emergency ward of the State review done. This AL has already warned you on this. Their position will be that it appears you as POA are not doing your required fiduciary duty, so POA is jeopardizing a vunerable adult care and housing, etc. APS almost always to be on the safe side so will lean into asking the court for a temporary Ward placement done with an interim guardian named while it’s investigation done. If this happens, You have no say till the hearing with your own attorney to try to explain why you as POA not paying bills your mom owed, why you planned to removed her from safe & secure established AL housing, etc. If her SSA money was commingled with any $ of yours that is an issue for SSA; they will want a representative payee done. Commingled $ shows misunderstanding of SSA rules

This stuff quicksands. It’s serious stuff. It could end up awful for your mom. Pay those past due bills or do a payment plan so the AL is finished with your mom & you.

If you are withholding payment due to problems with service, the appropriate legal action is to open an escrow account at a bank and put the payment money in there so that the recipient knows you have the money to pay and intend to pay once things are rectified. This is after you've first gone through channels of communication (in writing, like emails) with the facility informing them of the problems and discussing ways and expectations of how to fix what is going wrong. If I were in your shoes I would consider paying them in full asap since this may be less money than hiring a lawyer. Even if you "win" you will still need to pay the lawyer.

You held up this facilities payment? You can't do that.

You need to see an elder lawyer.

Time to discuss with an Elder Law Attorney. We can't know all the details involved here.

You do need to pay them. If you have issues with the facility, you could/can take it up with the ombudsman or state licensing authority. So they are probably threatening this to get you to pay.

There are considerations with the Medicaid look-back policy, which the facility administrators are probably very familiar with. If you are using her money to pay for yourself or your expenses, you may be jeopardizing her ability to quality for Medicaid in the future, which may be part of their concern.

I suggest meeting with an Elder Law attorney -- the one who wrote the POA document, if possible -- to go over both what you can and cannot do with her money, just to make sure you are following the law in your state. We get anguished posts here occasionally from adult children who have gotten into bad financial situations because they didn't realize how to properly manage the parent's money.

I hope the new arrangement works out well. You might want to read some of the discussions here about moving in with a parent to provide care, to make sure it's the right decision for you and your mother.

1. “Held the funds for two months” you cannot withhold payment for her current living place even with safety concerns. Did you pay her current lease obligations?
2. Are you being personally enriched? Is your mother paying rent for both of you? Many POAs forbid this.