Power of Attorney for family member

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I am currently a Power of Attorney for my mother who is now on Medicaid and in a Nursing Home.  Before she went into the nursing home, she was going to an adult daycare facility which we paid from her checking account. The daycare facility increased their hourly rate by double but we had no choice but to have her go until we could get her into a nursing home. Long story short, she (we) fell behind on payment's to the daycare facility due to lack of funds. After placing my mother into the nursing home, the daycare account was turned over to collection's and reported as such on my credit report  even after we were making monthly payments. I'm not trying to avoid paying the balance but this collections has really hurt my scores...I was also told by the collections company that their computer system would not allow them to delete this from my credit report because I was a POA? Do I have a good case on removing this? Or will it stick with me for 7+ years?

[Duncanrr]

Power of Attorney ("POA") doesnt make you legally responsible for the debts of the grantor.  All what POA does is allow you to act in "HER" behalf within in the scope of the POA (for example: you could have a medical POA that only allowed you to make medical decisions for her or you could have a broader POA that allowed you to conduct other business such as banking).  This has nothing to do with you personally.  The only way they can attribute personal liability to you is if your actions went beyond the scope of what what authorized in her POA, you didnt disclose to them that you held a POA for her, if you cosigned any of her obligations or if you acknowledged her debt as your own.  Sounds to me that the CA is full of crap.

[annielorie]

I suggest you call an attorney in your state. I've never heard of any poa being responsible for debts. POA is often given to a family member in case they are incapacitated like your mom. Did you sign any papers stating you would be responsible for the bill? Most attorneys will simply answer your question on phone. 

[Anonymous]

Thanyou for all your answers... They (CA) keep telling me that I singed for her to attent this adult day care facility and that they have a copy of my POA paperwork attached from their client? Maybe true but does this still give them the right to put a collections on my credit report? It's a small collections company here in my hometown so I don't think they would want to fight it for $300.00 if I pushed them hard enough. But no I didn't sign anything saying I would pay any bill, I signed just to give concent for her to attend.

[Duncanrr]

Based on the information you posted you should be fine. Pull up law on agency/mandate and copy it to letter that says you signed for her on her behalf pursuant to the poa. Im not familiar with fed code on debt collection but there maybe section for bad faith attempts to collect debt. Throw that in there and threaten them with legal action if they don't remove in 30 days. As always consult a local attorney.

[Anonymous]

UPDATE:

Talked to the CA today, they agreed to remove the collections from credit report! I spoke to the person that handles the credit reporting for the company and according to her, If I had not put POA after signing my name I would have been SOL. But anyhow thanks for the help you guys and for those that are Power of Attorneys make sure you put POA after your name if you have to sign anything She did tell me I had to put in a dispute to TU, EQ, EX and tell them "company will delete". When it gets back to her she will then forward this info as correct and will get deleted once returned to TU,EQ.EX. (FYI)