Selling a parent’s house with a power of attorney in Maryland: what the title company needs and where it goes wrong

The call usually comes from a daughter in Ellicott City or a son who moved to Charlotte years ago. Mom is in memory care in Catonsville, the house in Randallstown has been empty since spring, and the family has a power of attorney signed back when she was still driving. Can they sell? In Maryland the answer is almost always yes. The part that goes wrong is the document: whether it says what the title company needs, whether it can be recorded, and whether the sale will cause a problem with Medicaid later.

What a Maryland power of attorney has to be

Maryland powers of attorney are governed by Title 17 of the Estates and Trusts Article, the Maryland General and Limited Power of Attorney Act. Since 2010 the state has published two statutory forms, a general one in section 17-202 and a limited one in section 17-203, and a lawyer who drafts something else has to make it substantially similar or a third party can refuse it. The signing rules are in section 17-110: the parent signs in front of a notary and two adult witnesses, and the notary may count as one of the witnesses. A Maryland power of attorney is durable by default under section 17-105, meaning it keeps working after the parent loses capacity unless the document itself says it does not. That default is the whole point for a house sale, because by the time a family needs to sell, the parent usually cannot sign for themselves.

Two things the document has to cover. It needs to grant authority over real property, which the statutory general form does by default and a limited form does only if that box is filled in. And it needs to be the parent’s power of attorney, not a healthcare directive. Medical powers of attorney let you talk to the doctor. They do not let you sign a deed.

The recording requirement most families do not know about

Section 4-107 of the Real Property Article says a power of attorney used to sign a deed must itself be signed like a deed and recorded in the land records of the county where the house sits, either before the deed or along with it. That is why the title company will ask for the original document, not a photocopy or a PDF from the lawyer’s office. If the original is lost, a certified copy from the attorney who kept it in their vault usually works. If nobody can find the original, you may be looking at a guardianship instead, covered below.

What the title company will ask for

Every Maryland title company we work with runs the same checklist on a power of attorney sale. The original or certified copy. An affidavit from you, the agent, stating the parent is alive, has not revoked the document and is not, to your knowledge, subject to a guardianship. A phone call to the parent if they are able to take one. And the document itself read closely for a gift or self dealing clause, because the agent’s duties under section 17-113 do not include selling the house to yourself or to your sister at a family price unless the document specifically allows it. A sale to a third party at a fair price with the proceeds going into the parent’s account sails through. A sale to a relative, or a sale where the money goes anywhere but the parent, gets flagged and often refused.

You sign the contract and the deed as the agent, in the form the title company gives you: the parent’s name, by your name, as attorney in fact. You also fill out the disclosure under Real Property section 10-702. Most agents pick the disclaimer form because they never lived in the house and do not know its condition, and that is fine, but a defect you actually know about still has to be disclosed. Our vacant house article covers the insurance and maintenance side of a parent’s empty house while all this is going on.

The Medicaid trap

This is the paragraph to read twice. If your parent is in a nursing home or headed for one, the house is usually an exempt asset while they own it and cash is not. Selling converts an exempt asset into a countable one, and Medicaid long term care looks back sixty months at every transfer. A sale for less than fair market value, including a quiet sale to a grandchild, is treated as a gift and produces a penalty period during which Medicaid will not pay for care. A sale at a fair price is not a gift, but the proceeds will be spent down on care before Medicaid picks up the bill. Neither is a reason not to sell. Both are reasons to talk to an elder law attorney before you sign, and to keep a written offer that shows how the price was reached.

On taxes, the federal exclusion on the sale of a primary residence still applies when an agent sells for the owner, and the rules count time in a licensed care facility toward the residence requirement when the owner became unable to care for themselves. If your parent has moved out of Maryland to live with you, read the withholding section of our closing costs article before settlement.

When there is no power of attorney

If your parent has lost capacity and never signed one, nobody can sign for them, and the route is a guardianship of the property under Title 13 of the Estates and Trusts Article. You petition the circuit court in the county where your parent lives, attach certificates from health professionals who examined them, and the court appoints a guardian after a hearing. The guardian then needs the court’s permission to sell the house, reports the sale back to the court, and holds the proceeds under the court’s supervision. Expect months rather than weeks and a lawyer’s bill. We buy from court appointed guardians, but it is the slow road, which is why we tell every family with a parent who still has capacity to get the Title 17 form signed this month.

When the parent has died

A power of attorney ends at death under section 17-112, full stop. Families sometimes try to sign a deed the week after a funeral under the old document. The title company will catch it, and a deed signed that way is void. Once a parent dies the house belongs to the estate, and the person who can sell it is the personal representative appointed by the Register of Wills. Our probate article and our letters of administration timeline pick up from there.

How a cash sale fits

We buy houses from agents under a power of attorney across Maryland, most often the 1960s ramblers and split levels a parent lived in for fifty years. You send us the address and a copy of the document, we walk the house or take a video call, and you have a written offer within a day. The title company reviews the power of attorney before we go under contract, not the week of settlement, so any problem with it surfaces while there is still time to fix it. No repairs, no cleanout, no commission, and a closing date you pick, which matters when the money has to be in the parent’s account before a care facility’s deadline. Our how it works page shows the math, and our inherited house page covers what happens to the furniture and everything else left inside.