Who does the contents of a home belong to?

Unless the instrument which transferred the house also made specific reference to "chattels" or "contents" or anything like that, any items which were your mother's property remain your mother's property and, hypothetically at least, the proceeds of any sale of contents would be her money. But here's the sad thing about people's belongings: for the most part, in spite of their original cost, their beauty, their quality, their true value, they generally turn out to be next to worthless in cash terms. I say this mainly to save you the kind of horrible shock I felt when my great aunt's *fabulous* furniture was valued at less than you'd pay for IKEA mdf.

Of course you may have in mind items that you know are both valuable and saleable, for which you had better create an inventory; but for the rest of it perhaps you could get an auction house or a clearance company to give you an estimate for Medicaid purposes?

Question, do the children have "Life Estate" of this home? If yes, then your Mother is still the legal owner of said home, and will be until she passes. Medicaid could put a lien on the house for recovery payments.

Or did your Mother give the house to the children with her getting "Life Estate" meaning she could live there for as long as she wants? Medicaid will look back to see when did the Deed transfer hands. If it was within 5 years, Medicaid might question the transfer.

My mother gave the house to her children 15 years ago with her getting Life Estate. She is now in a nursing home, and trying for Medicaid. We will probably put her house up for sale, but I don't know who owns the contents, us or Medicaid

Addison, do you have any idea of what the house contents are worth? If your mother is in the process of applying for Medicaid they will want to know that value when they are calculating her eligibility, so finding that out is the place to start - then you will know whether you're even talking about a big enough sum to make any difference to them. But since your mother continued to live in the house after the transfer then unless she formally gave her belongings to you they are still her belongings.

I doubt the contents are worth much, other than a few antiques most of it was bought second hand. Who determines the value, us or Medicaid, and can these items be sold before we sell the house, or do we have to hang on to them?

You might check into this -- I thought that if a family member is dwelling in the house, Medicaid can't count it as an asset. And the contents would stay with the house.