Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: reverse mortgage foreclosure

The nature of a reverse mortgage is that the homeowner is entitled to live in the home for as long as she likes, and only when the house is sold does the lender get paid off. The lender takes the risk of any changes in market value of the home -- if the value goes down, that limits what the lender will recover. If the value goes up, depending on the mortgage, once the lender is repaid there may be extra left over that may go to the owner or her family.

The lender should be limited to receiving only proceeds of sale of the house, and not be able to reach any other assets or investments of your mother's. But this mortgage may provide otherwise.

You need to have the mortgage documents carefully analyzed to see what it really provides. You also need to insist that the mortgage company give you an itemized statement showing how it calculates what is owed and how that will be paid.

Please consult a real estate lawyer in your county to help you with this.