What a Minnesota assisted living must give you before you sign

What is a UDALSA?

UDALSA stands for Uniform Disclosure of Assisted Living Services and Amenities. It is a standardised disclosure a Minnesota assisted living facility must give you before an assisted living contract is signed, and — this is the part that matters — separately from all the other paperwork. Source: MDH — Assisted Living FAQs: Contracts (Minn. Stat. ch. 144G).

The requirement sits at Minn. Stat. § 144G.40, subd. 2. The statute requires the facility, prior to the execution of the assisted living contract, to give a prospective resident a disclosure of the categories of assisted living licence available and the category the facility holds, together with "a written checklist listing all services permitted under the facility's license, identifying all services the facility offers to provide under the assisted living facility contract," plus an oral explanation of the services it will contract to provide. The form itself is designed by the commissioner. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.40 — assisted living disclosure requirements.

A note on names, because it causes confusion. The statute calls it a "uniform checklist disclosure". MDH and the form itself use the consumer name UDALSA. They are the same document. If you ask for "the UDALSA" and get a blank look, ask for "the uniform disclosure of services and amenities you have to give me before I sign".

MDH also states that facilities must submit updated UDALSAs to the department within 30 calendar days of a change in services. So the version you are handed should reflect what the facility offers now, not what it offered two years ago. Source: MDH — Assisted Living FAQs: Contracts (Minn. Stat. ch. 144G).

Why the UDALSA is the most useful piece of paper in the process

Because it is uniform. Every marketing brochure in Minnesota is written by a different person trying to make a different building sound like the right one. Two UDALSAs from two communities are, structurally, the same document with different boxes ticked — which makes them the only genuinely comparable thing you will be handed.

Used properly, the UDALSA answers three questions that tours are bad at answering:

• What is this facility actually licensed to do? The disclosure names the licence categories that exist and the one this facility holds — including whether it holds the dementia care licence.
• Of everything the licence permits, what does this facility actually offer? A licence is a ceiling, not a description. The checklist separates the two.
• Of what it offers, what will it contract to provide to us? That is the line between a service that exists in the building and a service that will appear in your contract.

How to use two UDALSAs side by side

Lay them on a table next to each other and read down the same column. You are looking for three things: services one offers and the other does not; services that are offered but not included in the contract you are being shown; and anything on the tour that does not appear on the disclosure at all. That third category is the important one — if a service was described to you on the tour but is not on the disclosure or in the contract, it is not something you can rely on.

Ask for the UDALSA before you tour, not after. It costs the facility nothing to email it, and it lets you walk in already knowing which questions matter. Our tour question checklist is built to be used alongside it.

What the assisted living contract is, legally

"Assisted living contract" is a defined term in Minnesota law, at Minn. Stat. § 144G.08, subd. 5, and the requirements for one are set out at § 144G.50. Sources: Minn. Stat. § 144G.08 — assisted living definitions and Minn. Stat. § 144G.50 — assisted living contract requirements.

The starting rule is absolute: an assisted living facility "may not offer or provide housing or assisted living services to any individual unless it has executed a written contract." And MDH is explicit that this applies to everyone — all residents, regardless of service level, must sign a contract. There is no such thing as a Minnesota assisted living resident who is "just renting". Sources: Minn. Stat. § 144G.50 — assisted living contract requirements and MDH — Assisted Living FAQs: Contracts (Minn. Stat. ch. 144G).

The contract has to address three things together: the housing, the assisted living services — whether the facility provides them directly or through a management or other agreement — and the resident's service plan, where there is one. That bundling is deliberate. In Minnesota the housing and the care are not meant to be two unrelated deals with two unrelated sets of promises.

You are entitled to read it before you sign it

Section 144G.50 requires a facility to "offer to prospective residents and provide to the Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care a complete unsigned copy of its contract," and to give the resident a complete copy of any signed contract and any addendums promptly after signing. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.50 — assisted living contract requirements.

Two practical consequences. First, if a community will not give you an unsigned contract to take away, that is not a policy — it is a refusal of something the statute requires it to offer, and it should change how you feel about the community. Second, the Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care holds these contracts. If you want an independent read of the terms before you sign, that is exactly who to call.

What the contract must cover

Section 144G.50 sets out what has to be in the contract. Here is what the law requires, and what that means you should be looking for on the page in front of you.

The waiver and housing support notice in the last row is worth pausing on, because it interacts with a question most families ask far too late. Not every Minnesota facility accepts Elderly Waiver residents, and some cap how many they will serve. Our guide to Elderly Waiver acceptance covers how to ask. Source: Minnesota DHS, "Elderly Waiver services in assisted living" (DHS-7935-ENG, 7-2024).

What a contract can never do

One prohibition is worth knowing by heart. Under § 144G.50, subd. 5, the contract "must not include a waiver of facility liability for the health and safety or personal property of a resident." MDH puts it the same way: contracts cannot waive liability for health, safety, or personal property. Sources: Minn. Stat. § 144G.50 — assisted living contract requirements and MDH — Assisted Living FAQs: Contracts (Minn. Stat. ch. 144G).

That covers a family of clauses that turn up in consumer contracts generally — language saying the facility is not responsible for injuries, or not responsible for belongings that go missing, or that the resident accepts all risk. If you see anything shaped like that, stop and ask about it before signing, and consider getting it looked at.

Changes have to be agreed in writing

The statute also controls how a contract changes: "the resident must agree in writing to any additions or amendments to the contract," and on agreement a new contract or an addendum must be executed and signed. A facility cannot simply post a notice and treat the terms as changed. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.50 — assisted living contract requirements.

So when a rate rises, a care tier changes, or a service is dropped, ask which document records it and ask for your copy. Keep every addendum with the original contract in one folder. When something goes wrong two years later, the folder is the entire argument.

The Assisted Living Bill of Rights

Separately from the contract, Minnesota gives assisted living residents a statutory bill of rights at Minn. Stat. § 144G.91. It is not something you negotiate for; it applies because the person lives in a licensed assisted living facility. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.91 — Assisted Living Bill of Rights.

It runs to many subdivisions, and it is worth reading in full when you have an evening. Among the rights it sets out:

• To be informed by the facility of the rights granted under the section, and of the recourse available if they are violated.
• To be treated with courtesy and respect, and to have the resident's property treated with respect.
• To actively participate in the planning, modification and evaluation of their care and services.
• To refuse care or services, and to be told what the medical, health-related or psychological consequences of refusing would be.
• To be free from physical, sexual and emotional abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, and all forms of maltreatment.
• To make and receive a timely response to a complaint or inquiry, without limitation.
• To consideration of privacy, individuality and cultural identity as related to social, religious and psychological well-being.
• To meet with or receive visits at any time from family, a guardian or conservator, a health care agent, an attorney, an advocate, or a religious or social work counselor.

Read that list next to the contract. If any contract term appears to cut across a right in § 144G.91 — visiting restrictions beyond what safety requires, for instance, or anything that discourages complaints — that is a question to raise before signing, not after.

Before you sign: the checklist

Work through this at your own kitchen table, not in the sales office, and not on the same day you tour. If you are being pressed to sign quickly, that pressure is itself information.

One more, which is not on the list because it is not a document: give it a night. Nothing in a Minnesota assisted living contract has to be signed on the day it is handed to you, and every term that later causes trouble was available to read before the pen came out.

If something goes wrong after you sign

Keep this section for the folder. The three phone numbers below cover almost everything, and none of them charge or sell anything.

If what arrived is a termination notice, act quickly and read how termination and appeals work in Minnesota — there are statutory notice periods, a pre-termination meeting process, and a right of appeal during which the facility must keep providing contracted housing and services. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.52 — termination of an assisted living contract. For anything else, who to call about a problem at a Minnesota care home walks through the four agencies and what each can actually do.

And if the outcome is that you need to look again: browse assisted living across Minnesota, or start with a city — Minneapolis, Saint Paul or Duluth.