Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia

Reverse mortgages are good and bad. You would have to review the terms, but I think that when the owner of the home has been out of the home for a year, then the reverse mortgage lender either has to be repaid or the home has to be sold.

It does not matter that your mother or siblings are not on the mortgage loan. Why would they be? With a reverse mortgage the bank pays the property owner. However, all good things have to come to an end and when the property owner dies or leaves the residence, the lender wants repaid. So your mother and her siblings are going to have to sit down and decide what is to be done. The problem is that if grandmother is still alive, then your mother and siblings do not own the real property.

Is grandmother mentally competent? Why is grandmother in a nursing home? Will she ever be able to return home again? Is grandmother on Medicaid If not, how is she paying for the nursing home? What is the home worthy? How much money has been paid out by the reverse mortgage lender and was it a lump sum or in monthly installments? Will this continue?

This will dictate what is done. If grandmother is not on Medicaid and will not be applying for Medicaid in the next 5 years, the thing to do would be to "sell" the home to your mother and/or her siblings and let them get a new regular mortgage (if they do not have the money) and pay off the reverse mortgage lender. This would work if they want to keep the home. If the equity value is such that there is a lot of equity and if grandmother will not be coming back home, then the home should be sold and the reverse mortgage lender repaid.

If the home is worth less than the reverse mortgage owed, grandmother is never coming back home and if the children cannot find a way to pay for the home in 12 months, then the grandmother should consider deeding the home to the reverse mortgage lender at the end of the 12 month period.