Questions to Ask Before Signing a Senior Living Contract

A senior living contract is a significant legal and financial commitment. Here are the specific questions families should ask and the terms they should review before signing.

The contract signing phase of a senior living placement is one of the moments when families are most vulnerable to making a decision they will later regret. The emotional intensity of the placement process, combined with the genuine desire to finalize a plan and provide relief for everyone involved, creates conditions where people sign documents they have not read carefully. Understanding what to look for and what questions to ask before committing to a contract can protect your family from surprises that are both financially costly and practically difficult to undo.

Ask for the contract at least several days before you are expected to sign it. Any community that requires you to sign on the same day as a tour or that creates urgency around the signing timeline is not operating in your family's interest. A senior living contract is typically 20 to 40 pages and governs a significant financial commitment. Taking it home, reading it carefully, and having an elder law attorney review it if anything is unclear is entirely reasonable.

Understand the fee structure completely before signing. The base monthly rate is the starting point, not the total cost. Most assisted living contracts include additional charges for higher levels of personal care assistance, medication management, incontinence supplies, transportation, laundry, and specialized programming such as memory care enrichment activities. Ask for a complete list of all possible additional charges and ask the admissions coordinator to walk through what additional charges you should realistically expect based on your loved one's current care needs.

Review the terms for rate increases. Most contracts allow for periodic rate increases with notice, and some allow increases as care needs change. Ask whether rate increases require advance notice and how much notice is required. Ask whether there is a cap on annual increases. Ask how care level fees are assessed and whether that assessment is done by facility staff whose compensation is not tied to the outcome, or by someone with a financial interest in assigning a higher care level.

Understand the discharge provisions. When can the facility require a resident to leave? Under what circumstances can a resident be involuntarily discharged? What notice is the facility required to give? Arizona law does provide certain protections for residents against involuntary discharge, and a facility's contract should reflect those protections rather than contradict them. If the discharge clause in the contract gives the facility broad discretion to require residents to leave without meaningful notice or a clinical justification, that is a term worth reviewing carefully before committing.

Ask about what happens if your loved one's care needs increase beyond what the facility is licensed or equipped to provide. Memory care communities have capacity limits in terms of the level of behavioral or medical complexity they can manage. If your loved one's needs exceed that capacity, the community may require discharge. Ask what circumstances trigger that conversation and what support the facility provides in locating an alternative placement if it occurs.