Owning a Home Jointly with Someone Other Than Your Spouse
This edition of the Koldin Law Center E-Newsletter is part of a series reviewing Medicaid treatment of different forms of primary residence ownership: single owner, joint owner, life estate owner, and Irrevocable Trust owner.
In this newsletter we review how Medicaid treats a home that the nursing home resident owns jointly with another person who is not the spouse.
All prior newsletters are saved on our website. You can read them by clicking here.
Home Owned Jointly With Sibling
If you own your home jointly with a sibling who also has an equity interest in the home, then special rules apply which are discussed in a separate newsletter which you can read by clicking here.
Home Owned Jointly with Child
If you own your home jointly with a child, special rules apply which are discussed in a separate newsletter which you can read by clicking here.
If the special rules do not apply to your sibling or child, then they would be treated the same as any other person other than your spouse as a co-owner.
Home Owned Jointly with Another Person
If you are in a nursing home, your ownership share of the home is considered a “countable” asset to be contributed towards the cost of your care.
However, the Medicaid Agency cannot force the co-owner of your home to sell.
Therefore, if the co-owner refuses to sell, then the home is considered unavailable and not counted for determining eligibility for Medicaid.
Whether the home is ultimately protected from being lost towards the cost of care depends on whether the ownership of the home is as tenants in common or as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and also may depend on which co-owner dies first.
Tenant in Common
When you own a home with someone else as Tenants in Common, this means that when each owner dies, his/her share of the home passes through his/her own estate, typically through the Will.
While the home might not be counted for eligibility purposes, whenever the home is ultimately sold, the portion that you or your estate receives after your death, would be subject to recovery by the Medicaid Agency for the amount it paid out towards the cost of your care.
Therefore, when you own a home with someone else as Tenants In Common, the home is ultimately unprotected and available to be used towards the cost of your care when it is sold.
Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship
When you own a home with someone else as Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship, after the death of the first co-owner, the remaining co-owner now becomes the sole owner of the property.
If you are in a nursing home on Medicaid and you die first, the co-owner would now own the entire property. The Medicaid Agency would not have any right of recovery against the co-owner.
Therefore, if you die first, the property now becomes fully protected for the co-owner.
However, if the co-owner dies first and you now own the entire property, Medicaid will have a right of recovery against the entire property. Now, not only is your half of the property unprotected, but the share of the co-owner also becomes unprotected and available towards the cost of your nursing home care.
If you own as Tenants in Common, your half will ultimately be available towards the cost of your care.
If you own as Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship, you “roll the dice” and if you die first, the entire property is protected, but if your co-owner dies first, the entire property becomes unprotected.
Additional Planning Options
Life Estate, Irrevocable Trust
Additional planning options to consider with the family home include transferring your entire ownership to someone else and reserving a life estate for yourself or transferring your home to an Irrevocable Trust. These planning options will be discussed in future newsletters.
At the Koldin Law Center, P.C., located in East Syracuse, New York, we have over 50 years of experience helping individuals plan for immediate crisis and long term care.
The Koldin Law Center, P.C. limits its practice to the specific field of Elder Law which includes estate planning and Medicaid law.
Our attorneys are available to discuss your estate planning options, including the advantages and disadvantages of Revocable Trusts and Irrevocable Trusts, along with other estate planning considerations including a Will, Power of Attorney, and Health Care Proxy.
When the Koldin Law Center, P.C. handles a Medicaid case, we not only handle the entire application process, but we also review asset protection options with our clients. We review with our clients who are already in a Nursing Home options to protect some or all of their assets beyond merely establishing Medicaid eligibility.
We do not charge a fee for the initial consultation. We welcome your children, family attorney, accountant, and/or financial planner to be present at the initial consultation.
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Our Attorneys speak to groups throughout New York State as a public service. If you would like to arrange for one of our Attorneys to speak to your group, please contact our office.
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We appreciate your referrals
We have been told by many clients who are in a crisis that they wish they had known about our firm much sooner. We are proud of the many families we have helped in times of crisis.
We are also proud of the many families we helped avoid financial crisis by doing estate planning in advance.
We all share the responsibility for making our family and friends aware of the planning options available to them.
Your referral to the Koldin Law Center could make a major difference in the lives of your family and friends if they are someday faced with a long term illness.
Remember that the Koldin Law Center offers many services for clients of all ages. Our services range from basic estate planning such as a simple will to complex estate planning including asset preservation planning.
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