Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You probably mean that your brother was added onto record title to your mother's home. A deed, once executed and delivered, cannot be altered.

Unfortunately, unless your brother paid full, fair value, Medi-Cal can attack the transfer as fraudulent. California, like 40-plus other states, has adopted the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, which basically provides that a transfer of property made for the purpose, or with the effect, to "hinder, delay or defraud" a known or suspected future creditor, is void as to that creditor, unless the transferor received fair value in exchange. It is fairly common for Medi-Cal internal auditors to check property records and to prosecute suspicious transfers to relatives of the patient.

As to homesteads, there are both a so-called "automatic" homestead that requires no filing, and a recorded homestead which does require filing by the homeowner. The protection afforded by the two is somewhat overlapping. Each is also limited in the type and amount of protection afforded the homeowner. Among other things, a homestead exemption does not protect the home from being sold; it merely affects the distribution of the proceeds of sale. See, e.g., Code of Civil Procedure sections 704.720, 704.730 and 704.850. Note also CCP 704.820 for what happens when the debtor co-owns the house with a joint tenant or tenant in common.

This is a fairly complex subject and I don't have enough information to give you a detailed answer, but I think you are relying upon inaccurate advice and I suggest you see a competent real-estate lawyer near you. I think the bottom line is that if you want to keep the house in the family, you'll need to figure a way to pay the Medi-Cal lien because the risk of having the house sold to pay them off is just too high otherwise.