Not if your parents don’t have an ownership interest in the property. However, if they did not have an ownership interest in the property and one of them were to apply for Medicaid within five years after paying for the house, Medicaid might deny eligibility on the assumption that the payment was a gift to you. A contract with your parents granting them the right to stay in the house indefinitely could help protect against this possibility. A local elder law attorney could help draw this up.
For more on protecting a house from Medicaid estate recovery, click here.
For more on how to prepare when elderly parents move in with adult children, click here.
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