The CAO must consider only resources that are legally available or have been deemed available from a legally responsible relative (LRR) or sponsor of a noncitizen. See Chapter 155.
Resources can have more than one owner, and the availability must be established to determine the percentage of ownership.
The CAO must do the following:
Review the documentation of ownership provided.
Compare the information with previous case record information.
Resolve all discrepancies.
Record the information.
The CAO must apply the concept of rebuttable presumption in determining ownership of real property and personal property. The presumption is automatic and can only be disproved or rebutted by the person presenting evidence at a prehearing conference or fair hearing. The presumption stands if no disproving evidence is presented at the conference or hearing.
Under rebuttable presumption, the total value of a resource is assumed to be available to the budget group in the following situations:
When the only owner is a member of the budget group
When there is more than one owner and all owners are members of the budget group.
When there is more than one owner and not all of them are members of the budget group, but the budget group member does not need the others’ consent to sell the property
When there is more than one owner and the other owners agree to the sale
See Section 140.31 for more rebuttable presumptions about bank accounts.
Part or shared ownership means that all or part of the resource, subject to the rebuttable presumptions, may not be available to the budget group. Ownership may be shared with a nonmember of the budget group, including an LRR living outside the common residence.
The CAO must get verification from the other owners as to whether or not they would sell or make the resource value available to the budget group.
The resource is not considered available to the budget group when the consent of the other owners is needed to dispose of a resource but is refused.
The shared ownership and the refusal must be verified at application and at least as often as each renewal.
NOTE: See Chapter 155 for treatment of property owned by or shared with an LRR living in the common residence and not in the budget group.
Revised August 28, 2020, replacing September 20, 2012.