Can this old lady sell her house?

Question

An old lady neighbour has gone into a care home. She wants to sell her house to pay for her 'rent' at the home when her savings eventually run out. She has appointed her niece (she has no other living relatives) as executor. Her niece however wont agree to her selling her home until her savings run out. This is because her niece is hoping the old lady will die before it becomes necessary and she will inherit the house. What is the legal position here? Can the old lady sell her house even though her niece is appointed executor or must she de-appoint her niece first?

Answer 1

You might want to explain to the niece that if the woman does burn through her savings, and nursing homes are ridiculously expensive, and ends up relying on Medicaid, they’ll be involved with the sale of the house after she passes. They’ll have to approve the sales price, and then they’ll take their costs from it.

My mom went through this with her aunt’s house. They had to hire an attorney to convince Medicaid the house wasn’t worth as much as they tried to claim just to get it sold, and for all of the time my mom spent on the deal, she got nothing. Medicaid got 100% of the proceeds less the attorney’s fees.

Selling the house now would be easier for all involved.  

Answer 2

The old lady can do as she wants. The niece can only have a say when the old lady dies. However when the old ladies savings run out, our lovely goverment will make the old lady sell her house to pay for her care home fees.

Answer 3

If she is capable of executing herself she can sell, otherwise she can deappoint her niece as trustee. Has she thought of the reverse mortgage option? is her house paid off?  

Answer 4

The best thing that can be done is a situation like this is tell her to enter a reverse mortgage. This is where the bank will pay her the mortgage for a period of time up to usually 105-125% of the value of the house. If she should die before that time her daughter will take the house and start making the payments back to the bank in exchange for the house. Its a win-win. The reverse mortgage should take care of the rent for the rest of her life.

Answer 5

Her niece sounds really selfish. I would advise that she seeks legal advice, they will be able to guide her in the right direction.

Answer 6

an other reason the niece may not want to sell cause once the cash assetts are gone the lady may get approved for medicaid . . my granny was in the same situation .. once she ran out of money medicaid started paying . . she has passed away which now it is up to the nursing home to file against the estate for the balance from what medicaid didn't pay . . . if we had sold granny's house then medicaid would have never paid until the money from the sale of the home is gone. . even if the niece gets the house there will still be bills that will need to be paid either from the sale of the home or if the niece decides to keep the house and not sell she will have to come up with the $ by either having it or taking out a loan against the house. .  

Answer 7

If she is capable of dealing with her own affairs, she can do what she wants.  If her niece won't do what she asks, she can contact a solicitor.  If she can't get to the solicitors office, he will visit - for a fee.

Answer 8

Sounds like this lady needs to seek legal advice.  If she is of sound mind, i think her niece has no say coz the way i see it an executor only comes into it after the lady has died. End of day its her home if she wants to sell she should. Good Luck

Answer 9

Is the niece Executor or does she have Power of Attorney?  Is the older lady mentally competent?

If she is competent she should be able to sell the house herself.  

Answer 10

Sounds like her niece isn't the right person to have as her executor.  There's always gotta be someone in the family with their hand in the cookie jar.  As long as the little old lady is of sound mind I don't see why she can't contact a real estate company and list the home.

I always thought the executor would come into play if the person wasn't able to make decisions for them self or had died and that person needs to arrange for burial.