My mom owns the house, mortgage is in her name but I have power of attorney. She is going into an assisted living facility, can the deed on the house be put in my name?
2007-10-27 11:15:53 · 7 answers · asked by Y N 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
I don't think so. Consult and attorney on this matter.
2007-10-27 11:19:09 · answer #1 · answered by WC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. You cannot use your power of attorney for that purpose.
What you would have to do is dissolve the POA, she would quitclaim your name ON, but the mortgage company WILL NOT allow her name to be removed while the loan is in her name.
Then you re-do the POA.
That will allow you to sell the property if you need to, and you can sign for yourself and her.
Keep in mind a POA is dissolved once someone dies, so if you have siblings, they still get a share of the property.
If your mother is of diminished mental capacity (and that's why you have a POA), then she CANNOT sign any contracts, and you will be stuck with the title the way it is until her dimise, and if she doesn't have a will, it will go through probate.
2007-10-27 12:01:33 · answer #2 · answered by Expert8675309 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
She can add you to title. But if the mortgage company finds out that she is no longer on title at all there is a clause in the mortgage that will allow them to call for the mortgage to be paid in full right away. So the best thing to do is just have your name added and that way if anything happens you can go refinance it yourself or you will have the authority and sell it without having to go through probate.
2007-10-27 11:20:27 · answer #3 · answered by GEE-GEE 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There are several considerations here. First and foremost is what is your motivation for doing this? Simply transferring the property to your name because you have a Power of Attorney would on the surface be an abuse of your fiduciary responsibility to look after your mother's affairs. At the least she could reverse the change and at worst it's a criminal offense.
If your reasoning is to protect the property from being attached to pay for her care, forget about it! If she eventually needs to depend upon public funds for her care, any transfer of property within 5 years of the need for public assistance will be presumed to have been done to shield the property. You'll have to come up with an equivalent amount of funds to pay for her care before public funds will kick in OR the state will place a lien on the property for the amount of funds expended in her hame. Either way, you lose out.
Another consideration is the tax treatment of the transfer. That would be considered a gift to you and could trigger a Gift Tax return requirement for your mother. Whether any Gift Tax was due would depend upon the amount of equity in volved and your mother's lifetime gifting history. On top of that, your basis in the property would be her pass-through basis on the property. That could have a MAJOR impact on your tax liability when you went to sell the property.
Lastly, as one other respondent pointed out, transferring the property to your name could trigger any Due on Sale clause in her mortgage. You'd have to pay off the mortgage immediately and in full.
A much smarter way to proceed would be to consult with an attorney with estate planning experience. At the very least your mother needs to make a will while she is still of sound mind. If the home is left to you in her will, you'd receive the stepped up basis on the date of her death, not the pass-through basis on a gift. Additionally any taxable gain to you would be treated as long term as long as her ownership period and yours combined exceeded one year. With a gift, you don't get the benefit of her ownership period and the gain would be short term until you owned it for over one full year.
Transferring the deed to yourself simply because you can would open a can of worms that you'll wish you'd never picked up in the first place!
2007-10-27 11:39:42 · answer #4 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Get a real estate attorney. The mortgage is the tricky issue. See if itis assumable. If it is you may be able to get it all transfered but get legal advice
2007-10-27 11:48:00 · answer #5 · answered by Bob D 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I'm pretty sure you can do that, but you really should check with an attorney or with the tax assessor's office for that municipality.
2007-10-27 11:19:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
never heard of that being done. talk to a lawyer.
2007-10-27 11:19:27 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋