Mom was not paying all of her bills and after the sale of her home we used the money to pay for her monthly care and her unpaid bills and to reimburse my husband and I for the repairs we did on her home in order to make it sellable. The money is quickly dwindling and she must go to a county facility.
The Realtors commission is paid and not considered gifting as mom/ dpoa signed a contract with commission % indicated for the listing. If there was a mortgage or heloc, that too would have had a lending agreement that has to be cleared (paid) for clean title to happen. If work was done by a licensed business they could have placed a workman’s lien on the house & gotten paid at closing.
My understanding is that you would have to had some sort of Promissory Note or Memo of Understanding done way, waaayyyy in advance between you & mom for your fronting cost$ & that it’s a lending that’s securitized by the house and repaid upon its eventual sale, plus it’s notarized with witnesses that can be used to show to Medicaid. House could have been sold truly “as is” and sold for less; could have been sold not code current; property taxes could not have been paid & would have been taken out of the proceeds of the sale to clear the title. I’m not trying to be harsh on the decisions you made but one can go completely hardball on selling an old house and you find a Realtor who will take a distressed or “motivated” listing. Realtor “had to make it compliant” is nonsense. Property thats a real POS or has blight notices or demo by neglect paper on it, get sold all the time. But requires more work from a Realtor and one who understand how safety & permits run for your city/county.
Personally i I would not try to deal with this type of issue as a DIY with Medicaid. I’d have mom get an elder law atty who is familiar with doing appeals and let them deal with this. Sounds like mom still has $ from the sale of the house, so use that $ to get the atty for her. I’d try to do this ASAP & ahead of her submitting an application for Medicaid.
Still - her house, her repair bills, you and your husband shouldn't be left out of pocket. Can you show receipts? I hope you weren't thinking of compensating yourselves for your time and trouble, though... :/