Anyone have an elderly parent that put your name on their house deed?

[npmommie]

my mom put mine and my siblings names on her deed, she took her own name off.
I am thinking this is an issue with homeowners insurance?
does she need to tell the insurance company? does the insurance need to be in one or all of our names?
I think she should have also left her name on the deed. she told me she was thinking of doing this, I told her to consult a lawyer before doing anything.
she is 400 miles away from me and rarely takes my advice on anything

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Can she fax/mail you a copy of the deed so you can see it firsthand? I would think you need to see some proof that she did this first before you could do anything.

Wow, if something happens to the house you guys are liable. I would certainly not let this go until you get your ducks in a row.

 

[npmommie]

Can she fax/mail you a copy of the deed so you can see it firsthand? I would think you need to see some proof that she did this first before you could do anything.

Wow, if something happens to the house you guys are liable. I would certainly not let this go until you get your ducks in a row.

she definitely did it.
the real estate tax bill came to my brothers address with all our names on it.
I am thinking she should put her name back on it.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

she definitely did it.
the real estate tax bill came to my brothers address with all our names on it.
I am thinking she should put her name back on it.

You still need a copy of the paperwork in hand. Get the paperwork.

Then after that if you do not want a share in the property maybe a sibling will buy you out?

 

[NHdisneylover]

I would check with a lawyer if I were you. I think this could possbily be a tax liability for you (as in your part of the house being income this year). Also, if your nother becomes sick and needs nursing hom care in the next few years (7 maybe) the government can go back and see if she did anything (like giving her house to her kids) to get rid of assets and I think they may be able to make you sell it to help pay for her care. I am fuzzy about this but I think it could be tat stuff like this which directly affects YOU might happen so YOU need to talk to someone who knows.

 

[npmommie]

I would check with a lawyer if I were you. I think this could possbily be a tax liability for you (as in your part of the house being income this year). Also, if your nother becomes sick and needs nursing hom care in the next few years (7 maybe) the government can go back and see if she did anything (like giving her house to her kids) to get rid of assets and I think they may be able to make you sell it to help pay for her care. I am fuzzy about this but I think it could be tat stuff like this which directly affects YOU might happen so YOU need to talk to someone who knows.

Yes this is exactly why I told her to consult an attorney about what she wanted to do and why.
I wonder if she can just go back and reverse what she did, take my name off and put hers back on.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Yes this is exactly why I told her to consult an attorney about what she wanted to do and why.
I wonder if she can just go back and reverse what she did, take my name off and put hers back on.

I don't know if she can or not. However, at this point I think YOU need to consult an attorney to protect your interests. It is frustrating that you have been put in this position but there is not much you can do now other than damage control.

 

[DizBelle]

Can someone just make you owner or part owner of property without your consent? How can someone be made responsible for something they didn't agree to?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Can someone just make you owner or part owner of property without your consent? How can someone be made responsible for something they didn't agree to?

That was my first thought as well. However it appears that it is possible.

 

[RitaZ.]

my mom put mine and my siblings names on her deed, she took her own name off.
I am thinking this is an issue with homeowners insurance?
does she need to tell the insurance company? does the insurance need to be in one or all of our names?
I think she should have also left her name on the deed. she told me she was thinking of doing this, I told her to consult a lawyer before doing anything.
she is 400 miles away from me and rarely takes my advice on anything

Did she tell you how she did it? I thought that you had to pay a fee and sign documents to turn over a deed to someone else.

 

[golfgal]

That was a BAD move. If she had remained owner of the house the house could have passed to you but you would have received a step up in basis-meaning, if she paid $20,000 for the house and it is now worth $800,000, if she sold it she would be taxed on the gains. If she died and the house was worth $800,000 on the day she died and you sold it for $800,000-no tax. I agree, get with an estate planning attorney to set this up properly.

 

[clh2]

OMG - this happened to one of my neighbors. It wasn't good.

Her parents changed the deed over to her and her two brothers. The parents thought they would eventually die in this house - so "no big deal." My neighbor and her brothers owned this house for 10 years, and then the parents health declinced so rapidlym and so fast that they opted to sell the house.

Lo and behold..when the title search was being done, it came out that the kids owned the house. And then the problems started:

1. One of the brothers had passed away from a brain tumor, so his "third of the house" passed on to his wife, who was living in Texas (the house was in Wisconsin.) So - everything had to be approved by the wife. (not a big deal, but the amount of money spent fed-exing stuff back and forth was HUGE.)

2. My nieghbor, her brother, and the sister-in-law each owed a ton of taxes on the proceeds of the house, since it wasn't any of their primary residences for at least 20 years. This was a house that had been purchased for about $20,000, and was sold for about $250,000.

3. The parents then wanted the kids to "loan" them the house-sale money, so they could live off it while they were in assisted living. (Again - the parents hadn't palnned on the expense of assisted living.)

4. It was just a royal PITA.

The capital gains tax was a killer - once the house had greatly appreciated. All I can say is - paying a good estate planner even a couple of grand - to review the best way to handle this type of transaction probably would have been money well spent.

 

[Meriweather]

Quite a few years ago now, my parents did that when my mother got sick.
Took their names off and put just mine on.
It worked out fine for us, but like I said.....many years ago.

 

[LadyZolt]

Quite a few years ago now, my parents did that when my mother got sick.
Took their names off and put just mine on.
It worked out fine for us, but like I said.....many years ago.

I am glad that this is working out fine for you, but can you give us some more details so we can see why? Generally speaking, as others have posted, there's a tax situation when the title is changed. However, if you actually live in the house with your parents and you own it totally, that can be a help because you can exclude a certain amount of taxes if you sell your primary residence. Again, the problem really happens when you want to sell the house -- if you did not live in it as your primary residence, you have to pay capital gains on it, and your basis for the house becomes your parents' basis if they transfer the title to you before they die. In other words, say they paid $30,000 for it in 1960 and gave it to you in 1990 when the value was $100,000. Your basis is still theirs -- $30,000. So if you sell it today, at say a market value of $130,000, you'd have to pay capital gains on $100,000. Whereas if your parents left it to you upon the death of the last of them, you would get a "step-up" basis to the market value of the house on the date of the last one's death. So if they died today and you inherited it, your basis would be $130,000. If you did live in it as your primary residence, then you can exclude I believe up to $250,000, so that generally would work for most people. But I think most of the time, it is better for all if the house has the title "transfer on death" or otherwise not pass until the parents have died because of these legal and financial aspects.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[geffric]

there is another issue.. if one of the kids has a divorce the house is a martial asset and subject to the divorce courts..

 

[shelby2001]

You need to know how she did this. Is it in a trust? Does she have life tenancy? I would consult a lawyer ASAP you could be assuming alot of liabilities with this house that you are not even aware of.

 

[npmommie]

Thanks for all the replies. I am going to get more information. My brother is sending me copies of some paperwork he has.
I told my mom she should at the very least have her name put back on the deed.
She mentioned to me about putting all our names on the house because my aunt ( her sister ) did this with her kids.
So I assumed my mom would stay on the deed, I didn't realize she was taking herself off of it. I stressed to her at the time to talk to an attorney who specializes in this sort of thing. but apparently she didn't. although she did tell me she paid an attorney to do the "paperwork"
uggh what a mess.

 

[Sparx]

I'm a social work student and while I haven't taken a Geriatric SW class, we've touched on a few major issues (social security, long term care, insurance, etc) and I remember that some long term care facilities will sell the patients assets to pay for their care, including their house. Many elderly parents do exactly what your mother has done to prevent this from happening, however the deed has to be changed so many years in advance of the person entering long term care or the facility will claim the house anyway. I believe the laws vary from state to state so it may be a very good idea to check on this. I believe the number I heard was 5 years in advance, but like I said it wasn't a specialized class (I'm not specializing in geriatric social work) and we were just touching on the subject.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I'm a social work student and while I haven't taken a Geriatric SW class, we've touched on a few major issues (social security, long term care, insurance, etc) and I remember that some long term care facilities will sell the patients assets to pay for their care, including their house. Many elderly parents do exactly what your mother has done to prevent this from happening, however the deed has to be changed so many years in advance of the person entering long term care or the facility will claim the house anyway. I believe the laws vary from state to state so it may be a very good idea to check on this. I believe the number I heard was 5 years in advance, but like I said it wasn't a specialized class (I'm not specializing in geriatric social work) and we were just touching on the subject.

I think it is 7yrs.

 

[golfgal]

I'm a social work student and while I haven't taken a Geriatric SW class, we've touched on a few major issues (social security, long term care, insurance, etc) and I remember that some long term care facilities will sell the patients assets to pay for their care, including their house. Many elderly parents do exactly what your mother has done to prevent this from happening, however the deed has to be changed so many years in advance of the person entering long term care or the facility will claim the house anyway. I believe the laws vary from state to state so it may be a very good idea to check on this. I believe the number I heard was 5 years in advance, but like I said it wasn't a specialized class (I'm not specializing in geriatric social work) and we were just touching on the subject.

I think it is 7yrs.

The only time they will have you sell your house is if they are having Medicaid pay for their nursing home care, if you are paying for your own long term care it doesn't matter. The lookback period varies from state to state, some states are 3 years, most are 5, some are 7 and Florida is looking at going to 10 years.