[quote=toots]Thanks to everyone for their advice, I really appreciate the information.

I am a little stressed out about this because I don’t know exactly what my mother’s finances are BUT it’s time for her and my brother to tell me the truth. He didn’t worry about the shape of her house until he lost his and moved in with mom. I didn’t really want to say that but it’s silly for me to be embarrassed. I am not inclined to take his financial advice considering he’s on his second bankruptcy in 15 years. The only reason I know about the 1st bankruptcy is my dad bailed him out and put it in his will to subtract the amount from my brother’s inheritance(he died 10 years ago and I was given a copy of his will; maybe that’s why my mom has no savings). My brother is executor. My dad must have turned a few times in his grave.

He tells me all the repairs will cost in the 20 30K range (not just the roof). I just got off the phone with a good friend who owns several properties in San Francisco, and she said DO NOT do a RM. She recommends an equity line of credit, but said they are hard to get these days.

I was searching online for programs for seniors; my mom has no debt, the mortgage was paid off when I was in high school and she has a modest income (pension/SS). I told my brother not to do anything until we’ve considered all options. The roof has been leaking a long time from what I can tell, it can leak a little longer.[/quote]

toots, an equity line of credit is the same as a HELOC. You need to find out if your mom has given your brother a power of attorney and a whole bunch of other information. Is there a third party in the area who can oversee the purchase of materials and supervise labor for the repairs?

If your mom gets an RM or HELOC and your brother is in the house, given his history, he may find a way to go thru the $$ and NOT apply it to repairs, exposing your mom to foreclosure. Just being blunt here . . . I’ve seen a lot of things.

I would make a trip back there and get your mom to an attorney and have the attorney give you copies of everything and make an agreement with the attorney to inform you if your mom comes in later to revise her estate planning. I would do this EVEN IF I HAD THE HIRE THE ATTY MYSELF AND DRIVE HER THERE!

$20K – $30K is a small HELOC, but in your case I wouldn’t trust your brother on this because the materials could actually all be under $5K plus labor and he’s just padding the figure. If he’s got access and signing privileges to her checkbook (go thru her stmts. and canceled checks and find out), he could neglect to make the HELOC payments thus exposing your mom to foreclosure.

If your mom has SS and a pension, she may very well be able to qualify for a $20K – $30K HELOC. If she can, I would strongly advise she gets exactly as much as she needs (even if just $5K) and NO MORE for the reason of your spendthrift brother being “too close to the action.” If she DOES get a HELOC, I feel the money should be all drawn at once and spent on materials/labor WHILE YOU ARE THERE or while a third party is supervising this. If your mom gets a HELOC larger than she needs, or just draws down a little and does the work little by little, your brother could figure out a way to get the rest from her, leaving her to make the payments.

Not trying to overdramatize things here, just emphasize that you need to know exactly what is going on. I think your telling them to do nothing right now was smart. Hopefully, your brother will not be able to convince your mom otherwise until you can get there and assess everything for yourself.