Uncle Selling Grandparents House to Pocket Cash

JaiHart

New Member
Jurisdiction
Massachusetts
House was to be sold and the proceeds split between surviving son and deceased sons three children. Now the surviving son (the uncle) is selling the house before grandfather has passed. Is there anything we can legally do to make sure that the proceeds go into an account the uncle cannot touch?

Our grandparents have a reverse mortgage and when they pass the sale of the house is apart of their will to be split between their one surviving son and the other sons three children. Our grandmother passed away about a year ago and our uncle came up and took all items of value from their home and took our grandfather to move in with him in FL. (His home is in MA) Now the uncle says he is selling the home. Do we have any legal standing to make sure that the proceeds from the sale go into a secured account that the uncle cannot touch?
 
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What kind of authority does your uncle have to sell the house before your grandfather passes?
 
You've apparently written two posts on the same topic so I've added the text of the other post to this thread and deleted the other one. Please keep ALL of your discussion to this thread and don't open any more. Thank you.

As to your issue with your uncle, I'm going to assume a few things and you can check on them and advise whether I'm right or wrong.

1 - Your grandmother and grandfather owned the property jointly with right of survivorship so the property now belongs to your grandfather who has the rights and the obligations under the reverse mortgage.

2 - Your grandfather has not been adjudicated as unfit to handle his own affairs.

3 - Your grandfather's son is doing what he is doing with the consent of his father which means that any past "intentions" as to the disposition of your grandfather's estate is irrelevant.

Do we have any legal standing to make sure that the proceeds from the sale go into a secured account that the uncle cannot touch?

As a practical matter - no.

Although if you want to spend 10s of thousands on litigation you can petition a Florida court to declare your grandfather incompetent and award you conservatorship over his person and his assets.

The chances of you being successful are pretty much zero because, even if he is incompetent, if anybody gets conservatorship it's going to be his son and the past "intentions" go out the window anyway.
 
What kind of authority does your uncle have to sell the house before your grandfather passes?

My guess is that he's got his father's consent and cooperation considering the considerable advantages of living in sunny Florida and avoiding those horrible Massachusetts winters, not to mention having son take care of him in his old age. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
 
Yep - I only had first paragraph when I answered -- later realized started two threads.
 
What kind of authority does your uncle have to sell the house before your grandfather passes?
The uncle has power of attorney, and the house is under a reverse mortgage. The bank has contacted the grandfather about his residence and says that he can choose to sell or they will foreclose because it looks as if he lives in FL now. I do not believe that my grandfather knows that the house has been put up for sale. when we talk to him he says he wants to come home.
 
Under the terms of the reverse mortgage the house has to be sold to pay off the mortgage. If it isn't sold within a certain amount of time, the mortgage company forecloses. That's how reverse mortgages work so your uncle isn't doing anything wrong. In fact, there isn't any choice unless somebody steps up to pay off the mortgage to keep the house.

Any proceeds come from the sale are likely to be used for your grandfather's care as long as he is alive.

It's irrelevant whether the money goes into your uncle's pocket and he, in turn, supports your grandfather, or if he puts the money into a separate account.

Either way, nobody else is going to get it.

That your grandfather appears to be homesick after the recent change is normal.

You folks need to resign yourselves to the fact that you are entitled to nothing and are going to get nothing as this is a father/son deal that you are not involved in.
 
@adjusterjack, your explanation of how a reverse mortgage was spot on.

I'll only add that if one enters into a reverse mortgage, he/she is required to use that property as the main residence.

Furthermore, there's nothing left to inherit after the person(s) entering into a reverse mortgage expire. The deed passes in fee simple to the holder of the reverse mortgage, no other successors and/or assigns need apply. LOL Which, I might add, is why many senior citizens obtain reverse mortgages.
 
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