My dad is 94 and many of you have seen his 'progression' here in this forum. Since covid started, he has had to move from assisted living to skilled nursing due to a downturn in his health. We have tried to get him to 2 different memory care facilities but was turned down by both because of his continuing medical needs. His dementia is worsening and he is unable to walk anymore -- he is confined to a wheelchair. He has not been in his house for over a year. It sits like it did since the day he went to the hospital a year ago in September, and was not able to return home. As guardian, I am responsible for keeping it maintained, although I haven't really done much except hire a yard service to maintain the yard. All his stuff is still there and there is no chance he will be able to move home. He is on self-pay at skilled nursing and has enough funds to last a while. I still pay all utilities on it plus property taxes and yard care. The house itself is paid for. I am very afraid of something happening to it. It is an old house. It sits back in the woods in a grove of very large fir trees. In talking to my guardianship attorney this week, she suggested looking into selling it. We are concerned about what the 'basis' might be, however, and if it is going to be too large a tax bill, we might hang on to it. My dad still asks to move home which can't happen. To sell his house would send him into a spiral and because of the guardianship, he will receive copies of all legal papers. This may be more than I can do emotionally and I'm just not sure what to do.
After years of elder care adventures, Both my folks FINALLY went into assisted living in 2017 leaving me with 5 acres and a nasty rundown house full of stuff. I also had Conservatorship. No way was I going to mess around fixing the place up. It would have taken thousands of dollars and not really increased the value very much.
I was only surviving kid, 60 plus years old and 3 states away.
I cleaned out the personal belongings, paperwork, nasty stuff from the fridge, 40 trash bags from the house and garage to the dump, left the old ratty furniture and sold it as is. The land was valuable so it sold for a good price right away.
The money allowed me to keep them in a very nice place and later memory care for dad after mom died. Dad died just last month. Using the house funds I spent over $200K since 2017 for their care.
We get to a point where we can’t let the dementia over rule common sense decisions. I think you’re there.
I began going through all their stuff to decide what I should do. I had antique buyers come to buy some of the old antique furniture. I had native American friends of theirs come to take whatever other furniture they could use--for free. I moved some of their family heritage stuff--old photos, etc, to my house to eventually get to a relative. Then had the carpets cleaned, some damaged windows replaced and put it on the market. That took 2 1/2 years. Low value housing was in great demand and the second couple who saw it bought it. All the money went directly to the husband's bank account and helps pay for his costs. The day of their move, a friend took them out for breakfast in a nearby town, then to have their nails done. During this time, we were moving their furniture to their memory care apartment and arranged it just like they had it in their condo. Everything was familiar and when the reluctant-to-move husband saw his favorite recliner facing his same tv with the couch in the same place and the same pictures on the wall, he sat down with a sigh to relief and never said a word about living in a different place.
I never told him all I was doing to deal with their condo and I made sure any money I got went right to their bank account and never took a cent for myself. It was a lot easier this way and they had given me this authority, so I used it. I was retired and had the time and I loved giving this service to my friends.
You risk having the home occupied by squatters or wild animals.
Please remind them for me that it doesn't become an inheritance until the testator is dead.
"Inheritance" is an unseemly word to utter before probate.
I figured that a house generates expenses while securities in the trust fund generate income, so it was an easy decision.
If you have siblings, I would ask someone to take the lead on cleaning out the house. (This will need to be done eventually anyway). If you choose the fussiest/most headstrong sibling for this difficult task, there will be less fussing later (complaining that you had not completed this process and thus deprived them of quick receipt of their portion).
Home prices and interest rates are favorable now.
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