How long does Medicaid have to take possession of a house?

You have gotten bad advice from a scam attorney.

You should have never paid against her debt.

Medicaid doesn't take a house, they place a lien and get paid when the house is sold by the heir(s).

This is why I always recommend using a CELA and not just a self proclaimed elder law attorney.

Julesy, I agree with Isthisrealyreal, the Attorney gave you wrong advice.

Immediately put the townhouse up for sale, good time to sell as the real estate is moving quickly with higher prices. Monies from the equity will go to cover Medicaid, and the rest [hopefully enough to cover what you have paid into the mortgage/HOA] will go to you, since you are the heir.

Keep us up to date.

Fire that attorney! And sell the townhouse. Sorry you got bad advice

List the home tomorrow.

That’s an odd answer from your elder care attorney. Please find another elder care attorney who is CERTIFIED. Not all attorneys are competent and can handle elder care matters. Elder care laws are a complicated field that one needs to specialize in to do it right.

Medicaid NEVER takes a house. I never paid the taxes on my Moms house after she was placed on Medicaid. Once no one was living in the house, my DH unplugged everything. I put a timer on a lamp in the livingroom so it came on at dusk and off at 11pm. The house, in bad condition, had been up for sale before her death. Wintertime I set the thermostate at 55. I was ready to shut off everything when the house sold. The Medicaid lien was satisfied as was the tax lean. My out of pocket I got back at closing.

Now with an HOA things maybe different. You may have to keep the Mortgage going and the fees or the HOA takes possession.
Did you ever receive a recovery letter from Medicaid. If not, call ur local office and get the number of Medicaid Recovery dept. Tell them the house is being sold and you need to know how much is owed and they need to put a lien on the property if they want their money back. For me Mom only owed 3 months, $6000. Proceeds from the house covered all the debts. If the recovery is more than the Market Value of the house, you will do all the work selling it, but Medicaid will get the proceeds. And that is all they get. You are not responsible for what they can't recover.

If Moms house had not sold, it would still be standing there rotting away. It may go up for Sheriffs sale because of unpaid taxes but Medicaid would never had taken it.

Get rid of that attorney immediately and find a qualified estate attorney to help you.

Why oh why are you dealing with an elder law attorney at this - after death - stage? You need a probate attorney with some degree of expertise in MERP aka Medicaid Estate Recovery and expertise or affiliation with real estate attorney.

You mention an “Estate” so a will has been filed, probate opened and executor named, correct? If so, you need to be filing your own claims against the estate for every penny you are paying on the mortgage, maintenance, HOA fees, taxes, etc. Every frickin’ penny. If you are having to come in from out of town or state to do estate stuff, you should also be filing MIE /mileage and incidental expenses as a claim as well. If that attorney of yours has never ever mentioned doing this, they are imo beyond inept.

Without you yourself filing claims for costs you have paid, you have no “standing” to ever be paid from the sale of the property if there should actually be money left after that mortgage is paid off. If you are the Executor, in my not an atty but been an executor x3, you definitely should be filing all this as administrative expenses claim against the estate and it may be a priority or higher level of claim than Medicaid MERP will be (this is a ? to ask the probate atty as it varies by state).

on the “taking the house”, Medicaid is not going to waltz in & start paying the mortgage, HOA, utilities, taxes, etc. LOL! Medicaid reimbursed a NH or an inhome care service at a preset $ amount. Thats what Medicaid will pay for. The tally of all those costs paid is what MERP is required to attempt a recovery of from the estate but the regulations as to how MERP runs is interdependent on your states Probate and property laws. They are not gonna pay the mortgage, etc.

On the mortgage, are they aware she died almost 2 years ago? Usually once a person with a mortgage dies, the mortgage holder becomes aware and they send out a “call in” letter to whatever address mortgage co has on file. Its a formal Notice that the balance of the mortgage is due in full within 120 days or whatever the mortgage paperwork reads as. The loan is “called-in”. Now usually when they die the regular payments stop so the mortgage gets a red flag so mortgage co knows somethings amiss. But it might be as you have been paying mortgage on time regularly that her mortgage co is unaware of her death. Mortgage can do an extension if it’s current but there will be paperwork needed and they probable will be especially concerned about property insurance as the old homeowners policy is now voided….. they are going to want vacant dwelling type of policy with them listed as a lienholder.

This is a sticky situation to begin with and then extra sticky due to Medicaid claim against the state filed…. So….
- right now IF the house sold at FMV (assuming someone like an executor legally has the power to sell the property) how much money would be left AFTER the mortgage is paid off?
- how much money left after all taxes & utilities paid to be current at the Act of Sale?
- & after the 2 above, is there enough $ to repay all the $ you have sunk into the house (which you will file as a claim), reimburse any other executor claims (like for funeral costs or legal costs) AND pay off the MERP claim?

On another tangent….
- has the HOA placed any lein or encumbrances onto the property?
- does HOA have covenants as to whom a property can be sold to?
- is there an assessment looming for 2022 from the HOA? Like HOA decided in 2021 that new roofs would be done and an assessment will be placed of $6789 onto all condos. If there is assessment scheduled, deduct that from the sale price as assessment usually come out of the sellers side on Act of Sale. HOAs are the devil imo.

Realize if you run the #’s and there’s no way for you to ever ever ever get repaid and you haven’t sign onto being responsible for any of this, you can just walk away. State, HOA and city / county (due to property taxes) can slug it out.

Have you been living there in a caregiving role?
My sister was caretaking my mom and living in my mom's townhome for several years. Mom went into skilled nursing home after we put her in Medicaid, she was there 5 years. When we lost mom Medicaid allowed my sister to keep the townhome since she was living there as caregiver for several years, and still there. Similar to a spouse, it's not counted as a medicaid asset in this case.
States run their Medicaid differently but sounds like you need to find a better Medicaid attorney.

Julesy: Seek the services of another elder law attorney posthaste. You should not be using YOUR financials on the mortgage of your late mother's house.