[justford]

A newbie here with a urgent question. I live in KY and am thinking about buying my Mother's farm on a land contract. My question is if she has to enter a nursing home before it is paid off, will the nursing home have any ownership claims to the property? I was told they could only get the payment she was receiving each month. My mother is elderly and not in good health but she wanted me to have the farm and this is the only way I know to get it. In KY if you enter a Nursing home, and have money or property, they charge you a monthly fee until you have no more money and then they put a lien on your property to stand good for the remaining funds due them. She also looked into giving me the farm but if she entered a nursing home within 5 years, they would still be able to put a claim on the property. Any help appreciated.:)
Thanks

[rockinmommy]

What about instead of a land contract, she sells it to you outright (the deed is transferred out of her name immediately) and she carries the financing. Your financing terms can be whatever you and she agree to. For example, you could simply pay nothing up front, nothing per month and have a balloon payment due in 20 years. Ok, that may be a little extreme, but you get the idea.

Have you consulted with a estate planning / elder care attorney? I think in this instance some legal advice would definitely be worth the cost. You don't want something to come back and bite you down the road where you wind up in a situation of having to sell the place you tried so desparately to keep or something.

[smearcase]

Good advice to see an elder law attorney. The lien will be against any asset she has, the value of the house, or any financial interest of any description she still holds in the house. The attorney may have a good suggestion.
Medicaid has some pretty ironclad restrictions.

[justford]

Thanks for the quality replies. Seems like a visit to an attorney is the best option.
Thanks

[John WA]

Another issue here that you might want to look at now and address with your lawyer:

At your Mom's age & health, it's possible that should she deed the house to you now, some other potential legal heir might have some questions about your Mom's mental health and her legal "capacity" to deed the property to anybody.

i.e. if she's in beginning throes of senility (or even if she's not) any deed she'd sign now might be questioned in court later as being done when she wasn't mentally competent or capable.

And if there were to be such a claim, a judge or jury might find that she wasn't mentally capable or competent so such deed was invalid.

I've been involved as a lawyer in such suits and they're ugly affairs because some heir is accusing some other heir of exerting pressure to get the deed in question, or in some way defruading your Mom or the other heirs, etc. This kind of thing sure tears a family asunder and sometimes can never be undone or smoothed over.

Whenever I'm asked how to possibly avoid such family dissension I advise to get 2 or 3 independent witnesses to "Mom's" mental good health and capacity... and such independent witnesses will probably never have to testify, once their existence is known and the adversarial party can see that you're really prepared.

Here are some professionals who'd be good witnesses for you... HER lawyer (not yours), her accountant or her Doctor... any judge or jury is going to listen very carefully when these pros take the witness stand and testify that she absolutely DID know what she was doing and the consequences of it, etc.

So if you'll take care of this business now you can likely avoid and divert the ugly family fight that might ensue later on.

[justford]

John WA: Very valid points I hadn't thought of. Will take this into consideration as I proceed. Thank you very much.