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Mother Unable To Care For Herself And House Is Up For Sheriffs Sale. Do I Have Options?

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I would love some advice. To sum up a long story short, my (27f) mother (59f)and I lost my father when I was 10, suddenly and unexpectedly. Together, only a year before, they had bought a “fixer upper” house in Pennsylvania and was in need of some repairs. Nothing major, it was mostly just dated for the area which is why it sold so low (at the time, this was 2006). When we lost him, everything and I mean everything just went downhill. My mom was distraught and lost. For years she wallowed in sadness and grew incredibly depressed. During this time a lot of people were offering her help. Some of the help was pretty major, like paying off her car loan. Things never got better in terms of her mental health- or the house. They both deteriorated at the same time. She held onto that victim mentality and would hope others would come along and “help a poor widow out” through the years. Don’t get me wrong. She deserved to have that, but it’s now nearing 16 years of this. Fast forward to a year ago. Now at this point, she’s still living in the house that is falling apart. Hoarded so much. I’ve tried through the years different ways to get her to move. Through this I had a feeling she was behind on bills but she continued to keep me in the dark and wouldn’t tell me. Around Christmas, I got her to cave and finally just say the words foreclosure. She assures me it’s fine, she tells me she’s got a lawyer. It’s getting figured out. So I let it go. (I too have my own family to care for) Fast forward to a few months ago, she’s now getting physically sick. Going into heart failure and now her diabetes is catching up to her. The house is so far gone that my grandmother was able to dig and find it’s now up for sheriffs sale in May. She’s too sick so she’s been moved to a rehab center near me. Physically and mentally, she’s doing 1000% better! Now i’ve signed power of attorney for her and I’m trying to clean up her finances. Starting with her house she’s on the verge of losing. I’m not sure who to start with in terms of stopping it. We don’t need the house any more per se, shes gonna be living in a nursing facility moving on but I want to make sure she gets at least some money from it, if possible. Another thing is I want to make sure she can move out her belongings (and a lot of my childhood stuff) in peace. What are my options? Who do I contact? So overwhelming.

Tl;dr: My hoarder mother kept me in the dark of how bad her finances are. Shes now in a nursing center and her house is so far gone it’s up for Sheriffs sale (PA). I’ve signed POA and need to find who to contact first on who to stop this so I can attempt to sell her house myself.

submitted by /u/biggiemolls_
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