If recieving SSDI are you mentally incapacitated?

[jcogswell]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

My mother was receiving SSDI. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. She had been receiving SSDI for about 1 year when she needed to refiance her house. To be able to get the refianancing she was told by the mortgage company that she would have to deed the property over to her and her husband. (My mother owned property in fee simple. She had purchased this house on her own.) She consulted with an attorney to draft up the deed to transfer the house into tenants by the entirety. 8 months after this orrcurred she was killed in a car accident. Stepfather was the driver and is now being charged with vehicular homicide. I did not find out that the house had been transferred until the day after her death. I had always thought that the property was in her name. She also died without a will.

My questions are as follows:
If she was on disability for a mental disorder, is this deed valid? Wahat I am questioning is whether she had the mental capacity to execute such a document if she was considered disabled. Can I request what the attorney discussed with her regarding this conversation about the house. I have been appointed as Administratix of her estate. Thanks, Jenny

 

[tigger22472]

Unless or until a doctor states she is incapable of making her own decisions or even more specific this decision her SSD has no bearing. My MIL gets SS for a mental disorder, yet she's considered competent to make her own living and medical decisions.

 

[jcogswell]

This is exactly what I am concerned about. I know that she was in therapy once a week for her depression. It was continually getting worse because my stepfather had been so ill for the last 5 years and because of this I know that my mother's depression was getting worse. My stepfather has a very dominate personality and because of this, despite being ill and depressed himself, I belive forced my mother into making decisions under duress and not really knowing the full implications of what she was doing. Especially since my stepfather was ill and on Medicare the concerns that I'm not sure she fully knew were issues of Medicaid taking the house if it was held in both names should he go into a nursing home. Also the deed that was executed was only notarized it was not witnessed which also concerns me. My concern is that my stepfather has indicated to us that after he passes he is not giving the house back to me and my brother who were my mother's only heirs. He told us that he is giving the house to my 11 year old stepsister. I know that this is not what my mother would have wanted. Thanks,jenny

 

[tigger22472]

The fact that she died and the fact there was no will but considering they were married the house belongs to your step-father and it is his right to do with the house what he wishes.

 

[jcogswell]

True but the fact that he is responsible for her death should accout for something. What i am trying to find out is which strategy is the best way for us to go to get my mother's house back. We can show that this was her house and that she paid all the bills in the house and that she wanted the house to come back to me and my brother and not to my stepsister. My stepfather was a third husband for my mother and she was only married to him for 3 years. She was actually contemplating divorce back in January of this year, but because he fell ill again she didn't. He was expected to die in January. She didn't execute a will because she didn't think that she would die before him especially because of all of his health problems. It was due to these health problems and the medications that he was on that was the reason for the car accident to begin with and she died in the accident. All of her friends and family knew that she didn't want for him to be thrown out of the house, which we would never due, but that after he passed away the house was supposed to come back to me and my brother. She actually met with her attorney at my house two weekd before her accident and he told her at that time that she needed to make out a will. She acknowledge but then said I had all the time in the world to get to that and then looked at my stepfather acknowledging to us that she was waiting for him to pass before making her will. We knew that he didn't agree with what should happen to the house after they were gone and my mother didn't feel that she should have to give her house to her step child instead of her own flesh and blood. She didn't want to fight about it with him.

 

[tigger22472]

Although he may be responsible for her accident the fact remains that you'd have to prove he meant to kill her which is highly unlikely considering he was driving and there was just as much threat to him as to her. Secondly your mother didn't make a will, even after being told she should. It still remains she died without a will and had allowed her husband assess to the deed to the house making him the now owner.