Dissolving a Life Estate.

[Clarence Martin]

For those that have been involved with Life Estates, how difficult is it to get them dissolved when the person is still alive ?

The person that has the Life Estate , is in very bad shape, and it won't be long before they enter a Nursing Home. Once they enter the Nursing Home, it's about a 99.99 % chance that they will be in the Nursing Home for the rest of their life. The other person , the Remainderman, with get the house when the person that holds the Life Estate dies, or can no longer physically maintain living in the house on their own.

The catch is this: in the wording of the Life Estate, it states that the Life Estate expires when the Life Estate holder has been out of the home for ONE YEAR.

Question: Does anyone know if there is a way around the One Year time limit ? If the Life Estate Holder is permanently in a Nursing Home, they are obviously not coming back to the house. Another thing is that the Remainderman has been paying all the Property Taxes , Insurance and Maintenance on the House.


Has anyone went through something like this ?


Thanks,


Clarence

[Mike Henderson]

Talk to an attorney. I would think it would be difficult to dissolve the life estate. Whoever granted the life estate would have specified other provisions if that's what they wanted (such as dissolving it when the life estate person went into a nursing home).

Setting up something like a life estate is tough because the person setting it up wants to make sure the life estate person is protected - so clauses like the one year of not living there are used.

It may be possible to rent the house for the year so that some money is collected to pay for the upkeep of the house. But only an attorney could advise you on that.

Mike

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Mike. This is how attorney's kids get college funds; give one a call. The one year clause seems pretty odd. Why would one do this? As long as the remainderman and the resident are on good terms I would think a modification would be doable but, you definitely want professional help from a lawyer and an accountant.

[Joe Kieve]

Maybe John Keeton will see your post and chime in. IIRC he's an attorney.