Legal Question in Elder Law in Massachusetts

My aunt retained a life estate in her house when she signed it over to my father 10 years ago. Since then she has been in a nursing home and then passed away. MassHealth is seeking 67,000 reimbursement for the nursing home costs. The house was renovated and is being sold and we just found out that the state( Massachusetts) has accrued interest of 10,000 dollars on this lien. Are they alllowed to accrue this interest and if we had known about this the house would have been sold immediately. Any help on this issue would be great.


Asked on 6/23/11, 5:55 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Alexandra Golden Golden Law Center

More facts are needed to answer your question, as it's not entirely clear to me if the lien is proper in the first place. If your aunt gave your father the house and kept a life estate for herself, then MassHealth by law cannot execute its lien, because the agency can only collect against assets which go through probate. If that's the case, correspondence between a lawyer and the Estate Recovery Unit could clear this up fairly quickly. However, I (or any other elder law attorney) would need to see the deed and the correspondence from MassHealth to know how to properly advise you.

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Answered on 6/23/11, 7:41 pm


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