Q: My mother married a man and they lived in OK. He did not have a Will, 17 years later the two properties never probated.
She is bedridden from a stroke living in an Alabama nursing home, and trying to get qualified for Medicaid. We can not pull up the deeds to two properties that he owned with my mothers name on them. She has kept the taxes up on one property that she was living in, but not sure about the other one. The one she wasn't living in has a lien on it. These properties have not been probated. He to our knowledge has 2 daughters. For Medicaid to cover her in Alabama we are being told she needs to put the homes on the market to sell. Can she legally market the homes without his daughters involved, and without her name being on the deed? One home was valued at 21k the other 11k with the 4k lien. She is 74, disabled, and draws social security.
A:
Sorry for your issues.
Unless your mother holds title to the property she cannot sell them. It sounds as though a probate would be needed. Depending upon the situation, your mother be required to share the inheritance with the husband's children (if not alive their descendants).
A summary probate process may be possible which would in all likelihood not require anybody to travel to Oklahoma.
In the meantime, Alabama may not hold the property to be a resource if there is a legal barrier, such as not being on the title, that prevents your mother from selling the resource.
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