5331 Home and Surrounding Property

The home is defined as real property in which the applicant or recipient is living or from which he is temporarily absent. This includes the tract of land and contiguous tracts of land upon which the house or other improvements essential to the use or enjoyment of the home are located. Tracts of land are contiguous if lying side by side, including tracts separated by streets, alleys, or other easements. This does not include pieces of property that touch only at the corners. The home and surrounding property shall remain exempt when temporarily unoccupied for reasons of employment or training for future employment, illness, or uninhabitability caused by casualty or natural disaster, if the household intends to return. Households that currently do not own a home, but own or are purchasing a lot on which they intend to build or are building a permanent home, shall receive an exclusion for the value of the lot and, if it is partially completed, for the home. However, if the household currently owns a home, this exclusion does not apply.

The home, as defined, is exempt without regard to its value. Except for clients who are in an HCBS, Pace, or institution, the home becomes nonexempt when the client has been absent for 12 consecutive months and does not intend to return (see 5331.2 ) and occupy the property as a home within the same 12 months. (See 5331.3 for clients who enter ACH facilities or receive HCBS services outside the home.)