I am the son and have power of attorney for my Mother in Florida. I am looking for an expert on life estate law. She is currently living in a home as part of a life estate. Before remarrying, she sold her home to live with her new husband (a wonderful man by the way). He tragically passed away after 7 months of wonderful marriage.

Even more tragic, her husband had not remove his oldest son from all finanancial accounts (joint accounts). His son quickly cleaned them out leaving his father a poor man and, leaving my mother victim as well. (There is, of course, much to this story.)

This son actually spread his father's ashes into the ocean without letting my mother know so she could at least be present. He loved my mother so very much. He was a wonderful replacement for my deceased Father.

My mother and I are now victims to our ignorance of life estate law.

Help!!!

First, what is a life estate? A life estate is a way of holding ownership in real property. Usually a life estate is used to create a right to live in property for the life of the individual. So long as that person lives they have all the rights to use, live in, lease, keep anyone else from living in the property until their death. When the life estate holder dies, her ownership interest disappears and the property then automatically becomes the property of the the remainder interst holder.

A typical creation of a life estate in a deed goes like this: To Mary Smith, for life, remainder to Stan Smith.

In a different context, a life estate is automatically created when a spouse dies leaving a survivng spouse behind. With or without a will the survivng spouse, in Florida, has a life estate in the home that husband and wife lived in prior to his death, should she not be a co-owner of the home.

Hi, New to the board.

My dear grandmother was put into a nursing home 1.5 years ago. It has come as a shock to us all and it has everyone else on this board as well.

She has been diagnosed with Alzheimers/Dementia.

My father doesn't want her house to sit empty as it is she can never go back home. She cannot walk or eat hard food and the prognosis is that it will get worse.

My father wants me to move into her home. Mainly because he fears having to rent the property to make sure it's kept up. As it is he has done over 15k worth of renovations so far. It seems like a great deal. I am happy to occupy this house with many great memories. I will be selling my house and moving into the house if all works out as planned. I have a problem with waiting. I sound awful don't I? I don't know what the laws are in NC. I have liked having control over my own current home because of ownership.

My father states he couldn't break the Life Estate until she dies. I have always been a cut and dry person with regards to things being out in the open. Maybe I need to think this through. There is a part of me that wants to push the issue and a part of me that doesn't want to. If someone can tell me I CAN'T break the Life Estate even though she is no longer living there, I'll drop it.

Need some help.