My husband & I lived with and took care of my mother for 13 years. I had to quit my job because received no help from siblings. We were suppose to receive the house. Back taxes were due and my sister took one of my mother's annuities out before mother passed per her wishes to pay back taxes & pre pay funeral costs but she passed away before the check was cashed. Now they are saying we need to pay back taxes and actually sent an eviction notice. They said why should their money pay the back taxes if we were getting the house. Also my sister lied to my mother and I and took out the whole $53,000 dollar annuity and told us only took out $20,000. I never would have found out had she had been able to cash the check. Anyway can I file for wages of 24 hour a day caregiving and how many years back can I file and or sue for?
Your mother's wishes were to use this annuity lump sum to pay her back taxes and plan her funeral. Ensure that those wishes are carried out, as far as it's in your power to do so.
Do I understand correctly that your mother did not make a will?
So what to do, to me depends on:
-Did mom have a will and in the will who did she name as executor? If so, has whomever named executor actually filed the will in Probate court and gotten “Letters Testamentary” naming themselves as executor and the type of administration (for moms estate)? In the will are you named sole heir or beneficiary of the home?
OR
-Did mom die “intestate” aka without a will? If it’s this, are there other siblings besides you & Sissy? Did dad or mom have other children outside of their marriage as well (even if these kids are dead)?
-Your mom died owning her home, just in her name, right? What value was it on her last tax assessor bill?
-Outside of delinquent property taxes, did she have other debt on the house..... like a mortgage, utility bills, any unpaid repairs?
-Was property tax delinquency more than for 3 full tax cycles? By this, I mean was it 4 sequential annual tax bills that were not paid.
-Other than the 54k annuity (this $ still there as mom died before check could get cashed, right?), what other assets did mom die having? .... like balance in her bank accounts.?.... did she have a life insurance policy that had her estate as its beneficiary?...or did she have a car?
-Was mom on Medicaid? Not MediCARE but Medicaid.
to me, the answers to the above will decide what your next steps probably need to be, who you will need to help you get thru this and how soon you (your attorney) need to move on filing at the courthouse. I’ve been an executor x3 & have bought property at tax sales & hubs has had to deal with intestate death, & in my experience things like this can be dealt with but imho you have to get a bead on just what your moms estate is likely to be to see what type of legal you need to get you thru this and (perhaps sadly) if it’s even worthwhile.
As an aside, property tax stuff is not something to be ignored. The delinquency on taxes can be super costly.... interest can be in the 25- 30% range in some places; AND if taxes weren’t being paid attention to then the annual assessment could also have gotten overlooked as well. So the assessed value could be quite high and not be accurate but if it wasn’t challenged year of assessment, the value gets placed & tax bill reflects this. If this went on for a couple of years, tax assessor placed value could be way way higher than reality, but that didn’t matter as mom had taxes frozen due to elderly w/homestead exemption. But now it will matter. If you have the old tax bills, you should review to see if this happened. If it did, I can understand why Sissy was some kinda pissed off upset.
Also As your mom has died, any owner homestead exemption on the property has stopped so the next tax bill will be significantly bigger and likely will get retro’d back to month of death. Tax bills usually go out Oct / Nov for January in full payment. Y’all have to be prepared to pay this bill. Could be way way higher $$$$. Nothing can happen on house - like to sell or transfer ownership- unless taxes are current.