Mom died, no will

[Magdalen2013]

Mom was on social security and had Medicare. How do I find out if she has medical bills. She diedin the ICU after a 21 hours of medical treatment for sepsis in her liver and spleen.

It isn’t your place to contact the hospital, because your mother did not give you power of attorney. The hospital would be violating the HIPAA privacy rule if they gave you any information. The Probate Court that decides how to split your mother’s estate will see that debts against that estate are paid.

One of the reasons I said the house may be sold is that there seems to be several potential heirs to your mother’s estate. The Probate Court MIGHT order the house sold so it can split the profits between satisfying any outstanding debts and the heirs.

Note: IF any of your mother’s creditors approach you about paying ANY of her debts, refer them to the Probate Court – you are not responsible for your mother’s debts.

 

[Listener]

It isn’t your place to contact the hospital, because your mother did not give you power of attorney. The hospital would be violating the HIPAA privacy rule if they gave you any information. The Probate Court that decides how to split your mother’s estate will see that debts against that estate are paid.

One of the reasons I said the house may be sold is that there seems to be several potential heirs to your mother’s estate. The Probate Court MIGHT order the house sold so it can split the profits between satisfying any outstanding debts and the heirs.

Note: IF any of your mother’s creditors approach you about paying ANY of her debts, refer them to the Probate Court – you are not responsible for your mother’s debts.

Interesting point about the privacy laws–I wonder if that is also the case when your spouse dies, in which case you probably would be responsible for the medical bills, at least in a Community Property State.

Another thing I thought of is that sometimes on zillow.com you can type in a property address and than click on another link called “See County Website.” You can sometimes see who is the legal property owner of the address that you searched for. If she typed in her mother’s address, she might be able to verify that her mother hadn’t put the brother on as a co-owner of the property.

 

[vallancec]

It isn’t your place to contact the hospital, because your mother did not give you power of attorney. The hospital would be violating the HIPAA privacy rule if they gave you any information. The Probate Court that decides how to split your mother’s estate will see that debts against that estate are paid.

One of the reasons I said the house may be sold is that there seems to be several potential heirs to your mother’s estate. The Probate Court MIGHT order the house sold so it can split the profits between satisfying any outstanding debts and the heirs.

Note: IF any of your mother’s creditors approach you about paying ANY of her debts, refer them to the Probate Court – you are not responsible for your mother’s debts.

I agree. Don’t pay anything to debt collectors for your mom’s bills. If I were in your shoes, I would let this go to probate court.
God bless you and your family.

 

[As_for_my_House]

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Another thing I thought of is that sometimes on zillow.com you can type in a property address and than click on another link called “See County Website.” You can sometimes see who is the legal property owner of the address that you searched for. If she typed in her mother’s address, she might be able to verify that her mother hadn’t put the brother on as a co-owner of the property.

Oh, I know that my mother never put my brother on the deed. And I did go to a zillow type web site to get an idea of the property value which list her as the sole owner.

There are 4 heirs, my brother living in her house, myself her oldest daughter, my sister, a single parent with 3 children and no support, and my youngest brother who lives on disablility because of mental illness, he is poor.

Again like I said, my brother lived in my mother’s house.He ended up in my mother’s house was because is common-law wife left him because of all the abuse. He kept her from keeping her children, she couldn’t care for them anyway but neither could he, so my mother took them in. He has serious mental issues, owns guns, has a history of molesting and raping my sister. He stabbed me in the leg when I was 18. He threw my youngest brother through a glass window about ten years ago.
He verbally abused and neglected my mother. He allowed his 3 daughters over the years verbally abuse and hit my mother.

He controls his children because he has made them unable to become independent. They suffer from low self esteem and have made some terrible life choices already,( 2 are teen unwed mother), and they are just barely out of heir teens. They do not see their father as a monster. He has groomed them and abused them. They think he loves them but he controls them. It’s very sick to hear how he curses at them and berates them for their mistakes and then courts them with promises and gifts. He dangles a carrot in front of them and gives them just enough support to keep them in control.

The house has no proper bathroom,only a tub ,and a toilet, both leak and the water comes down though a hole into the kitchen, toilet water into the kitchen!!!
He rips things out and doesn’t fix them. The upstairs bedrooms my mother gave to them (she slept on a couch in the living room) are absolutely filthy, the walls and ceilings have holes in them from being punched. He has snakes and other creatures in the basement. The smell is indescribable. You have to walk over piles of filthy clothes and trash to get to the washer.

This is what my mother had to endure.

 

[signit]

Tomorrow is her church service and then she will be cremated. I ask for your prayers and good advice because I do not know how to handle this.

Well, first of all, you and your siblings are in my prayers.

We can’t give legal advice here but I seriously hope everything works out.

This is an example of why it’s extremely important that EVERYONE who is of legal age, no matter what his/her life situation is, have a will.

Everybody needs a will–especially people with children.

Absolutely.

My mother’s friend was a devout Catholic who never married and wanted to leave money to the Catholic Church and/or charities. Unfortunately, she never left a will, and her substantial estate went to a brother she hadn’t seen in years.

Again like I said, my brother lived in my mother’s house.He ended up in my mother’s house was because is common-law wife left him because of all the abuse. He kept her from keeping her children, she couldn’t care for them anyway but neither could he, so my mother took them in. He has serious mental issues, owns guns, has a history of molesting and raping my sister. He stabbed me in the leg when I was 18. He threw my youngest brother through a glass window about ten years ago.

That’s often the case.

One adult child lived in the family home for whatever reason. Then the parent dies and suddenly the adult child who lived there thinks it’s “their” house and is angry at the greedy siblings trying to put them out.

 

[Listener]

I am very sorry to hear about all of your troubles. I can’t help but think that maybe your mother did you a favor by not having a will. I think it would be much worse if your mother had a will and named you as executor. It would be especially hard to deal with if she had disinherited your brother.

It looks to me like you can wash your hands of this situation and just let the state probate deal with this. When your brother is around, you can always pretend like you can’t imagine why your mother didn’t make a will.

I hope everyone here will say some prayers.

 

[As_for_my_House]

I think given the circumstances, letting it go to probate, sounds like the best solution.

I just wish that I could find out exactly how this process works without having to pay for legal advice. Since the house is not worth much, maybe 75,000.00 and once estate taxes and maybe a few outstanding medical bills are paid, plus the reimbursement for the funeral cost about 7000.00. Divide that by 4 and it doesn’t leave much for legal fees. Considering my brother’s past record, I am sure the longer he stays in the house the more he will trash it especially now knowing that the house won’t be his and wanting to seek revenge.

But even a couple of thousand a person would be a great deal of money to my younger brother and sister. So I’m willing to do what it takes to get it to them, except risk my life.

 

[Magdalen2013]

I think given the circumstances, letting it go to probate, sounds like the best solution.

I just wish that I could find out exactly how this process works without having to pay for legal advice. Since the house is not worth much, maybe 75,000.00 and once estate taxes and maybe a few outstanding medical bills are paid, plus the reimbursement for the funeral cost about 7000.00. Divide that by 4 and it doesn’t leave much for legal fees. Considering my brother’s past record, I am sure the longer he stays in the house the more he will trash it especially now knowing that the house won’t be his and wanting to seek revenge.

But even a couple of thousand a person would be a great deal of money to my younger brother and sister. So I’m willing to do what it takes to get it to them, except risk my life.

Well, really the process doesn’t require anything from you – because your mother didn’t have a will it automatically goes to Probate Court. There is no way to stop that. In fact, the only thing that COULD stop it would be finding out that she DID have a will, but since you’re certain she didn’t, that isn’t going to happen. It’s the Court’s responsibility to determine who qualifies as an heir or as a creditor that has a legal claim on the estate.

If you really want more legal advise, call your local BAR association, and ask if they can recommend a lawyer who will do pro bono work on this case. At the very least, they’ll be able to tell you how your Probate system works (there are differences from state to state).

 

[As_for_my_House]

Well, really the process doesn’t require anything from you – because your mother didn’t have a will it automatically goes to Probate Court. There is no way to stop that. In fact, the only thing that COULD stop it would be finding out that she DID have a will, but since you’re certain she didn’t, that isn’t going to happen. It’s the Court’s responsibility to determine who qualifies as an heir or as a creditor that has a legal claim on the estate.

If you really want more legal advise, call your local BAR association, and ask if they can recommend a lawyer who will do pro bono work on this case. At the very least, they’ll be able to tell you how your Probate system works (there are differences from state to state).

This sounds like the most logical scenario to what will happen next. Does anyone know anything about squatters rights?

 

[As_for_my_House]

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for their kind condolences and prayers.

God bless you all!