My biological mother died when I was a toddler, and the state felt that my grandmother wasn’t applicable as a placement provided that they discovered she had mental-health points at the moment. I was adopted by an upper-class household, and all communication with my biological grandma was prohibited after the adoption.
Fast ahead to when I turned 18 and we reconnected. She was nonetheless working as a temp secretary with a low revenue. She instantly started hinting that she wanted cash, and threatening a lawsuit if I obtained harm on a trip we took collectively. My grandma stayed at my home rent-free, and refused to pay her share of the utilities.
While she stayed with me, she couldn’t cease speaking and strolling round in circles with her purse below her arm. She handed me a $20 invoice each week or two for “room and board.” I advised her that if she stayed with us, she would have to deliver her personal mattress, as a result of she couldn’t take my son’s room. She made a beeline for that room and kicked him out.
“‘She has alluded to suing if I don’t support her or buy her this condo or house.’”
She ate and drank, and contributed nothing to the grocery invoice. She advised me that since my household’s probate was ending up and I could be the only inheritor, I am required to buy her a condo, as she will be able to’t hold dwelling in a motel as a result of “I am the only blood relative you have.” She mentioned I need to support her in her outdated age.
A lawyer advised me that when I was adopted, the regulation now not acknowledged her as my household. But she has alluded to suing if I don’t support her or buy her this condo or home, or at the least pay her hire for an house. She will get $1,200 a month in Social Security, and we’ve no clue why she never has enough cash.
We lastly obtained her out of the home after we advised her we didn’t have enough steaks for dinner that evening — the canine obtained into a pack — and she would have to get her personal supper. She snuck into my home and took her stuff and, we predict, a few of mine.
Please assist me know if I am actually liable for supporting her. I don’t dwell in a filial-law state.
Victim of Freeloading Grandma
Dear Victim,
“G” is for grandma. “G” can also be for grifter. Unfortunately, you bought a two-for-one deal.
Your lawyer is right. You are below no obligation to pay this lady’s payments, buy her a condominium and even return her calls. All authorized rights have been severed between you and your biological household. Even if she had been your grandmother in a authorized sense, you wouldn’t be obliged to financially support her.
Rather than concerning you as an open-hearted, loving grandchild who might enrich her life, she merely sees you as a monetary alternative. If she desires to get wealthy fast, she ought to buy a lottery ticket or go to Las Vegas, although I clearly don’t suggest both as a viable resolution to anybody’s monetary issues.
More than two dozen U.S. states have so-called filial duty legal guidelines, which may be traced again to colonial occasions and (in principle) impose a responsibility on grownup youngsters to support their impoverished dad and mom. Here’s a checklist of the states that do have these legal guidelines, even when they don’t follow them.
“‘All legal rights have been severed between you and your biological family.’”
One of these states is Pennsylvania, which did use filial duty to power an grownup baby to pay his mom’s invoice. In 2012, a Pennsylvania court docket dominated that an grownup son should pay his mom’s $93,000 nursing-home invoice, but that occurred after she moved to Greece, leaving the unpaid nursing-home debt behind.
In your case, you don’t have any duty to pay for this lady. You can, after all, supply to assist her navigate an utility for Medicaid ought to she need long-term care sooner or later. You may also present compassion for any mental-health issues she should still have, and assist join her with sources or companies. But I suspect that it will likely be almost unimaginable to have her in your life with wholesome boundaries and/or in your phrases.
The state seems to have made a good choice by not placing you in her care whenever you had been a younger baby. Given what you will have advised me, your grandmother solely sees greenback indicators, and she could produce other points that require the assistance of a medical skilled, but you aren’t certified or charged with the duty to present that care.
I recommend you shut the door and change the locks, each figuratively and actually.
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