How do I remain in my residence, which is in mother’s name?

If she can't assign POA someone will need to pursue guardianship to be able to make decisions and secure care.

Medicaid is a program that pays for necessary care for someone with no money or other assets. The court appointed guardian can apply for Medicaid.

You can not have her house. She isn't in a position to gift it to you and if she has no money to pay for her own care the house will have to either be sold to pay for care, or sold after her death to reimburse Medicaid for all the money they paid for her care.

If she goes om Medicaid and you can show you were her caregiver for at least 2 yrs, you maybe able to get a Caregiver Allowance which means you can remain in the home. But, you must be able to afford the utilities, taxes and upkeep. When Mom passes, Medicaid will put a lien on the house. You can probably stay there but if you sell the house or pass, the lien will need to be satisfied.

Your best bet is to talk to an Elder Lawyer.

Please seek legal advice from an elder care or estate attorney. You will get varied information here and you need accurate information for your location and situation

You could buy the house from her, but it would need to be at full market value as determined by a certified appraiser. Then whoever is handling her finances would need to set up an account and use the money solely for her use and care. However, if she's not competent to consent to this and no one else has authority to act on her behalf, it would have to wait until that authority is established.

There really is no other way to take over ownership, unless it's by inheritance after her death. However, if she needs to pay for nursing home or other care, the house will need to be sold first and the money used before she qualifies for Medicaid.

As mentioned, if she met the qualifications for needing full time care for the past two years and you can proved that you provided it, thereby keeping her out of a nursing home, you may be able to stay in the house, but it would still acquire a lien that you would have to pay off.

This is tricky stuff and there are more details and exceptions than what I just wrote, so you really need to see an attorney. I assume you have an attorney dealing with the current issues? He or she can probably advise you on these various scenarios or confer/refer to someone else who can.

It's a shame when a long-time situation goes south and gets complicated like this. But it happens, and you need some expertise to sort it out.

A lot of the upcoming decisions will not be yours to make, I’d suggest that you step back a bit, breathe & try to sort out those you can do vs those you cannot.

Going to guess that mom in a state of dementia / delirium/ UTI infection or vindictiveness said that you did something to hurt her…… so until that is deruffled by APS, you are out of the decision making process for her. Even if you had a bullet proof POA, if APS is doing an investigation that POA won’t mean squat. Quite honestly even if APS wasn’t going on, the health care system is going to be the one to determine what her care plan is going to be. If she’s now hospitalized or has been discharged from the hospital for rehabilitation in a Long Term Care facility, what happens for her timeline is determined by health care providers and her health insurance plan. Ideally you want her to be on her health insurance (MediCARE and a gap insurance like Blue Cross or her Medicare Advantage Plan) paying for her as long as feasible, as it gives you time to get what you & mom need to make decisions.

So let APS do their job & you be as helpful as possible to them. Let the health care providers do their job and you be as helpful as possible with them.

While she is gone, intensely clean that house up and have it looking nice, neat and very much ready for her to return. Stock cupboards, do laundry, have clear paths for her to walk around & not let garbage build up. If medications are expired, get rid of those. APS will do field inspection (can open refrigerator, pantry areas, bathroom shelves) so you want all to look as freshy fresh, safe and ready for her return.

Please pls pls keep in mind, everyday she is in a facility gives you a another day for you to research and find out if it actually will b feasible for your mom to continue to keep her home or for her to sell or transfer to you and for you to continue to stay living there.

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On the house, title status on the house is very VERY important. Does your mom have a mortgage? HELOC? other lien or judgement? If so, those will have to be paid off for her to ever legally change title to a new owner. Not current on her property taxes?…. those too have to be current / paid up for her to change title. If you don’t know what her property status is for these, you have got to do the research from courthouse records to find precisely what’s out there and how much $ she or you need to clear those debts. Totally something you can DIY. Or you pay Title company to do it. If there’s mortgage or other securitized by the property debt or delinquent taxes, house -HAS TO- be sold at a minimum that will pay off those debts. Does your mom have the $ to do this? Do you? If not, then the idea of you owning that house imho is not going to happen.

Now if mom owns her home outright, she can transfer ownership of her home to you if she is competent. She does not have to sell it to you, she can transfer ownership fully. But her doing this will be recorded in the State database. If she were to apply for any program that has financially “at need” requirements, her transfer of assets (her home) will be found…. and easily. If she were to file for LTC Medicaid before Sept 2032*, she will be ineligible as she gifted assets (her home) to another. She will have a transfer of assets penalty placed on her application. Transfer penalty is severe, like 250K home in a State that their LTC Medicaid pays NH $185 day = abt 1,350 days of ineligiblity plus a private pay NH bill that increases ever day (that will be turned over for collection). This gets real messy real fast & realistically neither you or mom want to go there. Ideally mom and you want to find an experienced in LTC Medicaid elder law atty to give you optuons. Also if you do need to file for guardianship, this atty can help you on that. Guardianship process is not a DIY, you need an atty.

Will do another post on home & LTC Medicaid.
* 5 yr lookback for LTC Medicaid for most States.

If it becomes situation that mom cannot continue to safely live in her home even with you as her full time caregiver and her needs are at the point of being done by skilled nursing staff, then she medically should be eligible for LTC Medicaid. However needs to be financially eligible….. which for most States is mo income(s) of under $2,980 & no more than 2K in nonexempt assets and has not gifted any assets within lookback period (5 yrs most States).

Transferring her home to you would be considered gifting.
You buying her home for under its FMV would be considered gifting.
((Unless your State allows for a 2 yr prior FT caregiver exemption to be done in tandem with her LTC application; fwiw other exclusions and exemptions to LTC Medicaid Estate Recovery exist BUT usually done after death & how your State looks at succession/heirship is very dependent on your State laws, so it’s atty work & not a DIY.))
Gifting means a penalty placed. Tend to be based on the last Tax Assessed value & whatever your State NH day rate reimbursement is. Like example I posted earlier = 1,350 days ineligible = 3.5+ years ineligible. Buttrash with penalty is applicant is living in a SNF so very much needs skilled care & has filed LTC application. Gifting found within 3 - 6 mo application review. Penalty placed. NH/SNF + elder + POA / family notified. NH bill due asap in order for her to ever stay at this NH. If not, NH will find legit way to get her exited. Bill will be turned over to collections and they will seek whomever they can find responsible. APS could get involved.

This is serious stuff. Mom really should meet with an atty so that she understands what might can happen,
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Something different to consider…. LTC Medicaid program by & large allows elder - now a custodial care resident in a NH on LTC Medicaid - to continue to own their titled in their name home and keep it as an exempt asset for their lifetime. Elder does a right of return document and then after death exemption goes away. House becomes asset of her Estate and Medicaid Estate recovery (MERP) will do required attempt and if exemptions, exclusions those get filed by family or their attorney &/or probate is opened.

Although house except sounds all fabulous, couple of issues:
1. LTC Medicaid requires her to do a copay or Share of Cost of almost all her mo income to the NH every mo. All she can keep is a small Allowance that is restricted spending. She cannot use it for anything “house” as Medicaid is paying her room and board.
So if you want to enable her to continue to keep her home, in her name, you will have to pay all property costs. You or other family members have to have the wallet to pay taxes, utilities, maintenance, etc. If there’s a mortgage, it requires full property insurance placed as well as the mortgage to be paid.

2. Elder could live another 6 mo or 6 years….. do you & family absolutely have $ to pay all property costs for indeterminate period of time and then maybe 1-2 years after her death? Is your own income and resources such that possibly paying for years is no big deal?

If not, mom is probably best off having that home sold soon rather than have it get sold for prop tax delinquency or have blight fines placed or goes onto abandoned property list.

3. Are you ok on risk? If something were to happen that messes up the plan are you OK with flat walking away from the house?

NH Elders on LTC Medicaid can retain their home. But imo they have to have family / heirs who will 100% cover all house costs indefinitely. If there are multiple heirs and they refuse to pay for whatever reason, can you cover it all and be OK on doing this? As you have a brother & if your mom did her will 50/50 you/brother, ask the atty as to what that means for MERP if only you have an exemption to MERP, and what it means if you have to do a partition.

Sometimes best to sell the house…. mom goes into care, uses house $ for it… you find rental based on your own income.

One option to “take over the house” is for your mother to gift it to you. The Medicare look-back period is 5 years, so if she outlives that, you won’t be up for the commercial value. If she doesn’t live that long, you are probably in no worse a position. You may know how this interacts with “comment that is under investigation”, but we can’t guess. But you will need a lawyer to sort it out.