Taking over retired parent's house and use it as a rental

[Thien Hoang]

Hi All,

I'm looking for advices on the legality of taking over my parent's mortgage and house. Then use it to rent out to my parents. Just wondering if there's any benefit to that. Currently I co-own the house, but would like to remove their name from the mortgage and deed. I do not want to go through a buy/sell process, but instead re-finance the house. The house is north of Boston, MA.

To my simple mind, the benefits are as follow:

1) Help with my tax deduction, since I own a rental property.

2) My parents are working class folks and they really do not have much saved up for retirement. Social security isn't much, enough for food and bills. I'm certain within the next 5 years their retirement fund will run out. By doing this, they may be eligible for government assistance; such as medicaid.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

[Debbie C.]

@Thien Hoang

I had the same situation with my mother. She had a small property in her name, but not much money, and we could see she would need assistance at some point in time.

I recommend you find a good attorney, ours specialized in Elder Care. I am glad that we started when we did, because when we ended up applying for help for my mother down the road, the program had a " look back " period of time that for the previous 3 years if you had transferred any assets, or sold a property etc. they counted that against the applicant. The attorney had knowledge of several State and Federal programs available.

Hope this helps.