My father is incapacitated from a stroke and is in a long term care facility. The stroke came suddenly and I was not involved with his personal or financial affairs. I only found out that I was on the personal care power of attorney when my brother showed it to the hospital. I asked my brother if there was a financial power of attorney, and he said he "didn't know". I tried tracking down the financial POA myself by contacting the law office that prepared the personal care POA. They said that they had my father's file, and that they could only release it with his permission. Obviously this isn't possible given his mental state. Now this week, I found out my father's house was sold. I suspect that a financial POA exists, and that my brother used it to sell the house. My concern is that my name might be on it, and my brother made the decision without consulting me. The other possibility is that he got permission from my father to sell the house, which is a decision he can't make in his mental state. I'm wondering what I should do.
If your fathers house was in his name, it's highly unlikely the house sale would have occurred without your brother having the POA authority to put it on the market. Both the real estate agent and any title company would have required seeing it.
If you had been the financial POA the lawyer likely would have shown you the document- as that is what the document does - allowed the person to legally act as your father.
Lastly, it seem fairly common that parents name one child medical POA and another financial POA - spreading out authority and not favoring one child.
Of course it's entirely possible that I'm wrong on these points. Have you talked to the real estate agent in charge of selling the house? That may be a good place to start by challenging the legality of selling the house. You may be able to bluff and/or rattle the agent enough to get them to tell you how the authority to sell came about - with your father in the condition that he is in.
Can your father not shed any light at all on what's been going on? I'm not suggesting you interrogate him, or necessarily rely on what he says without verifying the information first, but it's worth asking him, surely?
In every case, the POA had to be on file with county clerks office.
This is scrutinized heavily. I even had to sign a reaffirmation in one case.
Your brother couldn't have sold the house without that level of authority. The title company would have found your Dad the owner...and would have stopped the sale until the POA was validated.
BTW, the lawyer is lying to you.
Would I be right to guess that you are not on easy speaking terms with your brother? Because the other obvious step is to ask him about the house sale. A house can't just be sold 'look no hands' and if you believe that he sold it using a financial power of attorney then why would you not call him and ask what's going on?
You can't just leave this, because you have a responsibility to concern yourself with your father's welfare and paying for his care is integral to that - it *is* your business, even if it turns out not to be your decision.
Come to that, how is his care being paid for? What about asking the facility how the bills are being handled?
How long has your father been in long term care?
It's certainly a way to see the POA, if in fact it was used to sell the house. If it wasn't used, you can review the deeds and releases that were filed for signature issues. If it was a conservatorship sale, again, the recorder's office would have that information.
Best wishes.
I will contact the law office again about the financial POA, but if there's a newer one that overrides it then there isn't much point.
My father's been in long term care for 3 months. My extended family have all pitched in to pay for his care. Most of the funds are coming from my father's bank account, controlled by my sister. My brother and I are not on speaking terms. He doesn't have any money of his own, has borrowed large sums of money from my parents in the past without repaying, and has been hounding the family inheritance for a long time. A few years ago he convinced my father to sell off some farmland, and pocketed the money for himself under the pretense of watching the money for my father. This caused a lot of friction within the family, as we all knew he was using the money to fund his own lifestyle. This recent house sale is in line with his past behavior.