A viewing is not a tour. Walk the route a resident takes at 7am to the dining room, in the rain, and count how many of the steps are covered. Then ask what happens at 2am if a resident calls for help.
Ask for three things in writing: the entry fee structure and refund policy on exit, the monthly management charge and what it stops covering, and the written policy when a resident's care needs increase beyond what the village provides on site. Those three documents tell you more than any show unit.
Questions readers ask
- What should the entry and exit terms tell me?
- Ask what portion of the entry fee is refundable, on what timeline, and whether it is returned if the resident moves to a higher level of care on site. Ask the same of the monthly management charge — specifically what it stops covering and how much notice a fee increase requires. All three belong in the contract you sign, not in the brochure you take home.
- What happens when care needs increase?
- This is the question most viewings avoid. Ask for the written policy covering a resident whose needs exceed what the village provides on site: whether care can be added in the same unit, whether a move is required, and who decides. Get it in writing, because verbal assurances are difficult to enforce later.
Read next
- The real monthly cost of care in Malaysia, by state
How village fees compare with residential care.
- More in Money
EPF, care costs and insurance for the decade after 55.
