Thanks to everyone for reading my questions & responding. I’ve posted about my situation a few times in Aging Care. I’ll try to keep this short & concise.
My siblings managed to convince our mother to exclude me from inheriting from her estate in her Will. At the time they did this she was very ill due to UTI w septicemia. She had spent 12 days in the hospital. For a few of those days she was on hospice care. IV antibiotics were given while she was in the hospital & continued @ the NH for another 18 days. She had intermittent confusion, AMS, generalized weakness, needed assistance w all ADL, depression & more. I asked my brother that had been mom’s POA why/how the estate was exempt from MERP. He told me it was exempt because there is a balance on the mortgage & because I have an approximate $80,000 lien on the property. The story about the lien is long. I had to do it to protect my investment in the house & property. Siblings & their spouses convinced mom she didn’t need to repay this $$ so I had to take legal action to ensure that would happen.
I’m wondering if my brother that had POA used me as the excuse to get the house/estate exempt from MERP. I’m disabled & was also a child caregiver but in mom’s Will I’m disinherited from her estate. I don’t inherit anything. It’s not fair. I called Medicaid to find out if that was true. Medicaid told me they couldn’t share any info w me. This brother requested Medicaid only share info concerning mom with him. Anyone w questions about Mom & Medicaid have to go thru him. Medicaid can’t answer any of my questions. I’m wondering this: Can the fact that I’m disabled & also a child caregiver that has been disinherited from the estate be used by my siblings as an excuse to make the estate exempt from MERP. The mortgage balance is $65,000. My lien balance is about $80,000. The estate owes my dad approximately $85,000. There are no other debts. The house/property hasn’t been appraised yet, but a house in the next block just sold for $850,000. After those debts are paid there would be about $600,000 that MERP could recover from. I can’t figure out why Medicaid is not following thru w MERP. The lot size here is approximately 1/2 acre. It’s twice the size of the lot for the $850,000 house.
First, if this house was your residence before Mom went on Medicaid, as a disabled child you should be able to remain in it. If you can pay the bills. Second, if a Caregiver for 2 yrs or more, you can remain in the home. Again, you need to be able to pay the bills.
It does not matter if you aren't in the Will. To receive Medicaid all Moms assets had to be spent down to qualify. The house was exempt until Moms death. I think u need to see an elder lawyer to protect your interests.
Sounds a tad complicated.
MERP doesn't happen until after death.
its way complicated as you have more than a couple of issues.
- u have a lien on the property for 80K, your dad 85K. Are these actually recorded onto the property? Personally I find it hard to believe that mortgage companies will blithely ignore a 165K lien on a property with an outstanding mortgage. Usually crap like this gets attached, the mortgage co will call in the loan asap.
- is probate opened? And so these 80K & 85K filed as claims against the estate? if you are not in some way tracking filings at the courthouse you should be.
- if there is a mortgage on the property, NOBODY is going to inherit till that mortgage is paid. AND due to the Share of Cost requirements of the LTC Medicaid program, mom would have zero-nada-no $ of her own to pay the mortgage in her name. Ditto for mom paying for the require by mortgage companies homeowners and property taxes. So who in family has been paying all this$$$??? Because they can themselves find a way to place lien onto the property which further disrupts the property ever being inherit as per the will.
My point is there could be even more liens lurking.
- unless there is a Release of Deed of Trust recorded at the courthouse, that mortgage is till there. Mortgage co are not going to wait months or years for probate to weave through its process. They want it paid up & if not It’s going to be foreclosed on. It’s in the contract.
- on the house being “exempt”. It could be exempt for reasons totally unrelated to your being a caregiver for 2 years prior to your mom entering a facility and having LTC Medicaid paying for the custodial care bill. What precisely is the title on the property? It sounds big, so is there actually more than 1 tax parcel but it’s combined for the tax bill? More than 1 tax bill? Is the property in any way held as undivided interest? Because if it’s undivided interest for how an asset exists, those are a beast for Medicaid to ever deal with. So what Medicaid does is they get viewed as being inaccessible assets so exempt for LTC Medicaid eligibility. It exists but because of how owned, it is inaccessible and exempt. You see this for mineral rights stuff, for generationally passed down land, for large swaths of land bought by several. It stays this way as long as how it’s recorded at the courthouse or other State entity have it owned as being undivided interest. They basically get shunted off to exempt and dismissed.
fwiw the MERP forms I have seen all have the caregiver exemption documentation done after death. It is one of the questions in the NOI Notice of Intent correspondence and its questionnaire. Like if you are the heir filing it, you have to provide to MERP documentation in some way to clearly establish that you were a CG that was necessary. Like a on letterhead statement as to full time CG needed from the physician or social worker the now deceased saw 2 years prior to elder entering a facility and going onto LTC Medicaid. This might not be easy to get. If the elder was on PACE or on IHHS, the filings for these Community Medicaid programs will have a designed living in the home CG indicated, so this can be used.
Really you can’t DIY this. You need to find legal to represent you.
You can get a copy of the Will, its public once its filed with Probate. Hopefully, there is a reason why you were cut out. But you were and nothing you can do about that. Was Dad living in the house when Mom went on Medicaid? Are they legally married? If so, he may be considered a Community Spouse and maybe entitled to live there till he passes.
You have so much going on here. A lawyer is needed.
So there’s a dad who pays all property costs? Why does he do this?… is he still an owner on the place, is he a coborrower on the mortgage, does he have the ability to claim it as his address or even get a homestead exemption. Were they married and now Dad is the widow? Dads very own legal,opposition in all this could be why Bro thinks there’s an exemption.
I’ve got to ask this again…. have you actually placed a lien onto the property? Is there a document attached to the property filed at the courthouse for $60,000 for debts owed to you for costs that allowed use of the property as collateral? And you have a an agreement or memo btwn the property owner and you to allow for this?
& on the exemption, read what the others have posted….. exemption that exist and are allowed while the elder on LTC Medicaid is alive in the facility are NOT NECESSARILY exempt after death. MERP could lurk all subterranean till the Act fo Sale happens and surface during the title search and has to be dealt with for a clean title.
Also If your mom only just died in Feb, that really isn’t enough time for both MERP and probate to be wrapped up with assets distributed. And this is why you need your own legal representation for both and get all this in early in the process. We can give you our thoughts on what has happened for our own experience for LTC Medicaid, but ultimately it’s your own legal that will be what you need to deal with this. Ya need attorney & stat.