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She should have bought her own home in 1965. It would have been paid off by now, and her taxes because of Prop 13 would be almost nothing.

Strategist says

She should have bought her own home in 1965. It would have been paid off by now, and her taxes because of Prop 13 would be almost nothing.

Actually, if you read the article, she had a "life estate" in the unit. She had the right to live in the unit the rest of her life for $700 a month...

The problem is, she didn't live in for 4 years, and her life estate was only valid if she continued living in the unit...

Which begs the question, "if you could live somewhere else for 4 years, why is it a terrible disservice to leave?"

truth will find you says

she had a "life estate" in the unit.

Well if she wasn't living in the place, it should be taken from her as that was the agreement. My neighbor had a similar situation after her husband was tragically murdered in 2011 by a young man to whom he'd sold an old car. They were widower and widow who had married about 15 years earlier and he left his second wife, then 75, the right to live there for the rest of her life, at which time the home would revert to her husband's three grown children to do with as they pleased. Her step-children made it so disagreeable for her she simply moved to her daughter's town and left them with the home and its $33,000 balance on the mortgage.

When you hear of someone 100 years old you immediately assume their death is imminent. Lawyer André-François Raffray, of Arles, France, who was 47 in 1965, knew he would only have at the most a couple of years to wait until taking possession of the apartment of Jeanne Calment who was 90 at the time, so he didn't mind paying her 2,500 francs (apprx. $400) for the rest of her life for the privilege of then owning her apartment under a contingency contract. Raffray couldn't have known that Calment would live to be the oldest person in the world at the time, dying at the age of 122 in 1997. He died of cancer at only 77 in 1995 after paying the equivalent of 140,000 francs, double the value of the apartment but never getting to set foot in it as an owner. His family had to continue paying the stipend for two more years until her death. I'll bet she kept her doors securely locked all the time!

How the F do you get a "Life Estate" agreement and what landlord in their right mind would agree to something like that?

BayArea says

How the F do you get a "Life Estate" agreement and what landlord in their right mind would agree to something like that?

First of all, I didn't know you could "own" apartments, unless that's part of the rent control laws where apartments can be handed down from one family member to the next. If the apartment owner doesn't own the entire building, it would obviously be possible for the building at some point to be condemned for the use of another purpose and the person would have to move anyway. My high school English teacher died at 90 in 2013 and his 60 year old nephew had lived with him and kept house for him for several years before his death. He was left life tenancy in the house rent free for as long as he lives, but he has to keep it up and pay the taxes--if he moves to another location and tries to sublet on the sly, that of course would invalidate the terms of the tenancy and he'd lose his right. It sounds like that's what has happened in this case, although I don't think she sublet, just was not in residence.

BayArea says

How the F do you get a "Life Estate" agreement and what landlord in their right mind would agree to something like that?

Usually not a landlord. People often give them in remarriages, like new wife has a life estate agreement, so she can live in the home forever, but after death the home, home husband owned prior to marriage, goes to his heirs, not hers.

There are lots of reasons to use one. I could gift a home to anyone I choose, and leave my self a life estate so I live there...