How can spouse sell house when there is no POA?
21.05.12
When there is no durable power of attorney, the disabled spouse has not voluntarily given any authority to the well spouse. You are not his agent, and you cannot use that easy method to sell the house. He did not take the time to make a power of attorney. It was all too easy to think “bad things happen to other people, not to me” or “I know I need to do this, but I’m just too busy right now”.
Since he failed to preplan for a catastrophe, the entire burden sits on your shoulders. You have two legal alternatives: Guardianship and Community Administration. Both are court-based solutions that will take many hours of time and cost many times what he would have paid a lawyer for preparation of a durable power of attorney.
Guardianship is an intensive, court supervised legal process. You must hire at least two attorneys (your counsel and an “ad litem” attorney to represent your husband’s interests), plus court costs. You must seek a court declaration that your husband is incapacitated and ask the court to appoint you as his Guardian. Upon approval by the court, you must post bond and must create a public accounting of his assets, his income and his expenses.
Source: San Antonio Express
