Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

parent with sudden alzheimers/assets

my mother living in another state was recently diagnosed with alzheimers, does not know anyone. she has several properties. she is in a health care home for alzheimer patients. what are my rights as her daughter to her assets? she owns 2 homes, and acerage.she has no will. she lived alone, and seemed fine when I last saw her last summer, (a few months ago), her brother was keeping his eye on her...now she does not know anything...I have made travel plans to go to the state she lives in. now that she is in a home, her home needs to be put in order, as she has alot of stuff of little value, but she will not be coming home...she has money to take care of her...my father built the house, and I would like to live in it..she owns it free and clear, and another home as well....I just do not want it to be left empty for long....vandals,and emptiness...what can I do about the situation? Her brother has the key, and wants me to clean it up...go through her things. Do I have the right to live in the house if I pay the tax's? Can I petetion the state? what should I do? I do not have much money, but think it is my responsibility to take care of things. When she dies, with no will, what,...she was always going to get one made, but never did.


Asked on 2/25/06, 4:55 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Christopher Steuart IT Forensics, Inc.

Re: parent with sudden alzheimers/assets

From your description of your mother's condition, and if there is no power of attorney, the only recourse is to have a guardian of the person and estate appointed. Getting a guardianship setup is not particularly difficult (unless there are disagreements over who should be the guardian). As to your living in the house, whoever was the guardian of the estate you would be obligated to effect reasonable and appropriate return on the property to the benefit of the estate. If you lived in the property, you would need to pay rent or provide some other benefit to the estate. Some flexibility is possible, but would be very much controlled by details of the situation. The general rule is that when a person dies without a will, the assets-debts will be go first to a surviving spouse. If no spouse, then to children, biological or adopted of equal relationship in equal shares.

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Answered on 2/26/06, 10:12 pm


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