My mother in law has a home which she purchased with a man she was not married to.
They have one child together (my husband) he has two other children. He is now deceased.
My mother in law is 75 and having serious health and financial issues. She would like my husband and i to take over the propery by signing over the deed. However I am not sure how to proceed. I do not believe she can just sign it over and we certainly do not want to buy anyone out. Very uncertain about how to move forward here. This property is paid for no longer has a mortgage but is in real bad shape and in need of repairs. We have bailed her out of foreclosure twice for not paying the taxes. Is there any legal way we can have this home transferred out of there name and into ours?

AK lawyer

Why not?

Fr_Chuck

well first buy it out from who ?

the children of her dead boyfriend would have no interest in anything unless they got it upon his death.

Only the mom's heirs have any claim to her estate.

If there is a loan, you would have to buy the MOM out and get a new loan to pay off the old loan, and then get a new deed.

Also one could do a contract for deed.

But you have not listed anyone that you have to buy out besides MOM

sunshine01

Well thank you FR Chuck for your information. Just to clarify what i meant. I was uncertain since her deceased boyfriend was on the deed would his children be entitled to his portion of the home. so when i discussed a possible buy out i was questioning there possible entitlement as his children. I have checked with a number of sources and it seems this won't be as difficult as i thought. thank you! for your response and information.

ScottGem

How is the deed recorded? If it was Joint Tenent with right of survivorship, then title passed to your mom so his kids have no claim. If it wasn't JTROS, then yes, his children have a half share of the property.

Another issue here is mom's age and health. If she is on medicare, then transferring the property now, may be seen as hiding assets. Medicare can go back 5 years (I believe) to look for transfers of assets that may be an attempt to protect them from medicare.

So, yes, you are correct that this is not as simple as her signing the property to you.

sunshine01

I have hired an attorney an he will sort through all of this! I have no worries of Medicare it is well documentated she cannot afford this home and it is going down fast! my biggest concern is the best way to have the family hang on to the property!

ScottGem

I'm afraid you may not understand the medicare issue. Medicare can seize a home to repay for a person's care. If they do so, that person has a life estate, meaning she can continue to live in the property until she is moved into a care facility or dies.

So if you transferred the property, that could be considered fraud and hiding assets.

So getting an attorney to unravel this is probably your best option.