Home ownership
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Home ownership
My stepfather passed away last year and my mother took possession of the home, although it is still in his name. My mother took a lawyer to my stepfather while in the hospital a day before he was transferred to hospice. He could
not speak or physically sign anything but they attempted to wake him in his state and then signed a power of attorney that listed all of his children. Who has rights to the home? It is still in my stepfather’s name but my mother allows
other individuals to reside there. The house was purchased prior to the marriage and my mother was never listed on the home.
Asked on September 16, 2018 under Estate Planning, Missouri
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
A power of attorney ceases to have any power after the person dies; POA's are only good while the person making them is still alive. So the POA is wholly irrelevant at this point. If your stepfather had a will, his estate (what he owned) went to whomever the will said it did. If he did not, it would have passed by "intestate succession" (the rules for who gets what when there is no will). In that case, your mother would have gotten half his estate (including a half interest in his home) and his children would have gotten the other half.
So we can't answer definitively: it depends on whether there was a will and, if so, what it said; though if there was no will, the home is NOT your mother's exclusviely, but would be owned half by her, half by his children.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.