San Antonio Express-News
January 7, 2003

Any Legal Way to Control Harm from Obsessive Hoarder?

copyright 2003, Paul Premack

You say that your stepmother is allowed to live in the house "until she remarries or dies." Technically, that may be incorrect. If she retained her Texas homestead right, then she may live there until she voluntarily abandons the home or until she dies. Remarriage would not be a ban to her occupancy (unless she waived her homestead rights and the "remarries or dies" conditions were stated in your father’s Will).

Hoarding disorder may afflict up to two million people, according to Dr. Randy Frost of Smith College. He says that it may involve a brain chemistry imbalance, and that people who hoard have an emotional attachment to things and a distorted sense of what is valuable.

What can you legally do about her disorder’s affect on the house which she does not own? There are four levels of intervention that you can attempt. First, try a friendly intervention. Perhaps one of her children, an old friend or a respected member of the clergy can help convince her to clean up.

The second option would be to call on Adult Protective Services (APS), a division of the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. They can investigate, among other things, cases of "self neglect" and may help implement a variety of solutions. The National Center on Elder Abuse addressed hoarding disorder at its 1999 national conference. The Center says that typically hoarders find nothing wrong with their behavior, but that hoarding may rise to the level of neglect that can be investigated by the state.

Third, a mental health commitment might be appropriate. This is a fairly extreme measure, and can only be done with full respect to your stepmother’s civil rights. It requires that a Judge finds either 1) she is mentally ill, and due to that mental illness is likely to cause serious harm to herself, or 2) she is undergoing severe and abnormal mental, emotional, or physical distress. The result would be medical treatment for her disorder, which would hopefully result in cleanup of the home.

Finally, it is possible that a guardianship proceeding would be appropriate. If she lacks the capacity to do some (perhaps not all) of the tasks necessary to care for herself or to manage her property, the local probate court can appoint a guardian to perform those tasks. Again, the legal process is designed to protect her civil rights. Responsibility for cleanup of the home would then be assigned to her Guardian. Her health and safety would be enhanced, and the value of the property would be protected.