Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
My mom's estate is (1) house valued at $400,000.
The state medical recovery office is asking me to pay them $22,000 from my mother's estate. I do not plan on selling the house. My probate final court date is April 2011. The state has placed a lien on the house and offered me a payment plan of $100 per month.
Can a judge close out my probate, disburse the house to me with this payment plan in place?
2 Answers from Attorneys
I would think so. The house would still have a lien on it, and you may be required to accept assignment of the debt. You should probably have an attorney review any agreements or stipulations that the state medical recovery office wants you to enter into. This limited representation shouldn't be too expensive. Feel free to give me a call.
If the State medical recovery office has an outstanding creditor's claim against your mother's estate, the Court may not agree to close the estate until that claim has been dealt with. Even if it did, the lien would remain on the house until paid. Even if the State medical recovery office did not seek to forclose (and I don't know how they handle such matters) If you ever wanted to refinance the home or sell it you would have to pay the State. I don't know whether interest accrues or not, but it very well might so just leaving the lien in place could end up being a very bad decision. Likewise, paying the State $100 per month does not seem like such a good deal as, even without interest, it will take you almost 20 years to pay off the amount demanded. You might want to see if you can negotiate a reduced compromise payment, even if you have to take a small loan on the house, just to get rid of them.
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