I don’t know what your family situation is, but I know a woman who gave her house to her adult son in order to avoid having it show as an asset for Medicaid purposes. The plan was for her to stay in the house until failing health forced her to enter a nursing home.
She did it in plenty of time for the Medicaid five year look-back, but failed to foresee her son dying suddenly and her daughter-in-law inheriting the house. Mom ended up out on the street.
She would not be able to tolerate the weather up here. She’d hate it.
That would do no good. This woman is… Well, calling her ‘trailer trash’ might insult people who live in dilapidated trailer parks. If she wasn’t in my sister’s house, she’d be under a bridge. Or shacking up with some guy. That sort of person responds to far away threats with ‘Pssssh! Yeah, right. Come down here and say that to my face. Bye-bye.’
In any case, that’s neither here nor there. What I want is a way I can legally evict her, and it seems I need to have some ownership of the dwelling to do that.
Evictions can take months, just a heads up.
And in the interval, your vulnerable sister will still be living with the harpy, who will (justifiably) blame your sister for the impending eviction. If the freeloader is half as bad as your description, the escalation in abuse will be predictably terrible, because she’ll be in a “little to lose” situation.
Assuming everyone who matters survives, this may be a viable plan in the long term. But the short term will be much worse, I think.
Johnny L.A., what does your sister want to do? What kind of disability is she under?
I think that you and your sister really need to sit down with an attorney in her jurisdiction. I’m not sure if a protective order is possible, or if the eviction process needs to happen, but someone who practices there can probably guide you.
Definitely her area. The city and county of her house may have specific requirements for how an eviction is handled. You can probably do a phone consultation with an attorney down there.
But this whole situation is going to be very difficult to make succeed. I’m not sure how you can get the house from your sister and then start an eviction of those people if she doesn’t want them evicted. If she fights it, she could say you tricked her into giving up the house and sue. She’s not even on board with the house transfer or the eviction at this point. If your sister agrees to giving you the house, then it seems like she could evict them herself with your help. The freeloaders don’t have to agree–that’s the point of eviction. It seems like the transfer of the house is a complicated and unnecessary step.
Is there some way to get the sheriff involved and get a restraining order against the harpy? With it being your sister’s house that might be a way to shortcut the eviction proceedings.
All good until something happens to you. Then what?
IANAL, but I think you’ll need one to do this correctly. If sister is disabled, maybe the house could be placed in an irrevocable special needs trust with the terms of the trust explicitly stating who has the right to live there (to prevent future harpies) and evicting the current harpy. The Trust may also be a more secure way for ensuring the nephew is taken care of. And it can probably solve a bunch of issues that you may not be aware of. A lawyer who deals with estates and disabled people probably has a handful of ways of dealing with this.
My wife and I considered using a quit claim deed earlier this year to help our kids.
It is pretty simple, you can probably download the CA form, fill it out, get your sister to sign it, get it notarized and file it. She could add you as a co-owner or deed it all to you.
After reading this article and talking to a lawyer, we chose another route but our reasons were different from yours.
Document, document, document. IANAL but having some contemporaneous notes may help getting these people kicked out. Evictions can be tough.
Not sure of your work situation Johnny. Would it be possible to take some FML (since she is disabled, this may work), go to your sisters (move in on the floor if need be). And get this done? Call the sheriff and get advice from an attorney first (or at least give them a heads up.)
Calling family protective services was a good move. I would keep on them too.
I also mentioned the Quit Claim Deed, but did not think about taxes.
Johnny LA you need an attorney for a number of issues, including the house, and assuming care of your sister. You may end up with a real estate attorney, but I suggest that you start with a lawyer who specializes in adult disabled situations. I am going to see who I can shake out of our CA network. In the long run, you need to set up a care plan for her. The plan should include protections for her income, contingencies for when she needs to go into assisted living, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Once you’ve worked out the plan, you can put it into place, including whatever now makes sense for the house. We have close family friends who have a son with a permanent disability. My son has one as well, although more in the autism spectrum area. Planning for your sister’s whole her life now is a very good idea. Guard her resources now, while she still has them.
She definitely wants her gone. But my sister is a door mat. And she’s been on Social Security disability after a nervous breakdown 40 years ago, and has a degenerative back condition. Before our dad helped her buy the house, she was virtually homeless. She doesn’t have the will or experience to work things out for herself. Her ‘husband’ had been supportive of her, but he’s no braniac and tends to drink too much. The drunken harpy gets her way.
As for an attorney, she certainly can’t afford one. And I’m not in great financial condition this year.
Rather than hijack this thread, starting a new one on preparing for what to do regarding kids with disabilities and becoming adults here.
Have her pass a capacity assessment before she signs over the house to you.
It’s going to be challenging to manage the eviction of Harpy (and future freeloaders) from so far away and without a lawyer and without being local. Eviction is a legal process that requires filing documents. It’s not just telling someone to get out. Look up the eviction rules in her county by searching for “XYZ county eviction”. You should be able to see what the process is. Typically eviction is to remove people who are paying rent. I’m not sure what would be different for freeloaders who live in the house. Here’s some guidance for removing a houseguest who won’t leave:
Some states allow you to just kick them out, while others consider them a tenant and would need to be evicted.
But if your sister can’t or won’t take these steps herself, you may want to consider more drastic solutions. Kicking Harpy out won’t keep her out or keep other Harpy’s out. ‘Husband’ sounds like a loser who will cause problems (although your sister probably likes having him around). It would probably be best for your sister to come live near you so you can keep a closer eye on her. Of course, there’s a ton of issues involved with that. But unless you can do something like that, you may be wasting your time focusing on getting Harpy to leave. It’s like focusing on getting one particular cockroach to leave your kitchen. Even if you’re successful, that doesn’t mean it will stay away or that others won’t come in.
The federal tax situation if you give somebody a relatively highly valuable thing like a house works as follows:
There’s no tax paid by the recipient no matter what, if it’s a gift.
There’s an annual gift tax ‘exclusion’ of $14k (ticks to $15k in 2018 by inflation adjustment to nearest $1k). What that means is one giver can give to an unlimited number of recipients that much each and not file any tax paperwork.
Presumably the house is worth more. Say it’s worth $200k. In that case the giver must file a gift tax return giving that value. But all that does is subtract from the giver’s lifetime gift tax ‘exemption’ of $5.5mil ($11mil under the new tax bill). Only when that exemption has been exhausted, by all gifts to all recipients in the giver’s lifetime, is there gift tax due, and that’s owed by the giver.
Only CT and TN have state gift taxes, and AFAIK no state considers a gift to be income (all statements obviously to be checked with a professional before somebody actually gifts a house).
Johnny, there is no way to do this legally and safely without talking to a lawyer. You MUST get a lawyer, in the jurisdiction in which your sister lives, and talk to him/her about the whole situation. There are too many legal pitfalls here.
Be especially cautious about using a quit-claim deed. If anyone has any claim on that house it might enable them to get ownership. It could be as simple as The Harpy putting a lien against the house you or your sister are unaware of. In some places long-term squatters/residents start to have some rights.
Different jurisdictions have different rules on evictions.
And you will certainly need to protect your sister while all this is going on.
You say you can’t afford an attorney, but really, you can’t afford NOT to get one. At least consult with one so you are clear on the rules in the location where your sister lives.
A difficult situation indeed … if your sister is willing to “give” you the house, then she should be willing to designate you as her agent in any eviction action, I believe this is allowed in California as it is in Oregon … we don’t have to be a lawyer to represent someone in an eviction action; and if true in California, then there will be folks out there who process evictions for a charge …
I’d like to expand on what ivylass posted … as a general rule, things will get A LOT worse before they get better … as soon as The Wench gets handed her notice of termination, the shit will hit the fan … and the house might be in a jurisdiction that requires a 60-day notice before anyone can file a court complaint, then whatever time it takes to work through the court and that could be another 60 days if there’s no written rental agreement …
The advice I give people in your sister’s situation is pack their stuff and move … obviously this isn’t a option … sounds like you moving down there isn’t an option either …
You said that The Wench hit your sister … that’s a crime … did she file a police report? … if not, I would suggest there’s things going on there that your sister isn’t telling you …
ETA:
+1
You will have to determine if the person has contributed any money to the household. If they have then that could be construed as a rental agreement. If not then you can serve her with a notice to pay rent and she will have 3 days to comply. After that you will have to file an unlawful detainer suit against her and if you win that you can kick her out.
Buy it for one dollar. Get a lawyer to set everything up.