A friend of mine recently put one of his houses into a life estate with his elderly mother to protect the property from his upcoming bankruptcy proceedings. He is now looking to rent the house out for some extra cashflow. His elderly mother doesn’t live in the house by the way, she’s in a nursing home. Does my friend have an obligation to disclose that the property is in a life estate to his would-be tenants?
It’s not his property. It belongs to his mother and the transfer will have to be disclosed to the BK court. Hopefully, the judge or trustee doesn’t ask too many questions.