Unpaid Nursing Home fees after death - who is liable?

fredsnail

Fantastic news - well done to both of you:beer::beer::j:j

ratty67

Thanks guys!

Confusion still reigns over the husband's funeral expenses.

I believe we can show the payments that were made from the lady's NatWest bank account (from March 2005) and the funeral directors concur that the account was indeed settled during March '05.

However the solicitor who holds funds from the ISA wrote to DH and said that after receiving the ISA funds (£6,400 odd in Oct 2006) his firm paid the funeral.

DH telephoned him and asked for clarification only to be told that solicitor had made an error and the ISA paid the funeral BEFORE paying them.

Why is something that should be easy so difficult?! Not to mention the fact the solicitor can't do simple maths and I've already proved his sums to be wrong and that they are holding more funds than they have stated.

The ISA was opened in March 04 with £3,000. A further £3,000 was deposited in August 04. The gentleman then passed away. It was closed in October 06 with a balance of £6,440 which makes sense when interest is added.

Therefore the solicitors statement that the ISA paid £2,300 in March 05 then made that exact amount back in interest in 18 months is bunkum.

Not to mention the fact that the figures only work if the solicitor DID pay the funeral bill. He starts with £6,400, takes off funeral costs and a bunch of other dispersments and comes out with the amount they are holding. This isn't brain surgery!!

I still think the daughter was paid by this solicitor for a funeral she didn't pay for in the first place! The solicitor can't have paid the funeral directors can he?

As it stands it appears the lady's estate has paid twice for her husbands funeral.

Errata

Blimey, the !!!!! could take lessons from all this carry on !
If the funeral director was paid from the ISA it seems to me there will be both an FD invoice and a receipt in the solcitors file, and also in the FD's file.
If the FD is helpful, perhaps they might be your most productive port of call to get to the bottom of this. A conversation along the lines of "From the paperwork we've seen and what the solicitor's told us, it looks like you've been paid twice, Fred. I'm sure you weren't and I'd be so grateful if you could help us clarify the payment by letting us have a copy of the invoices and receipts you sent." Worth a shot, although you may have already though of doing this. HTH

ETA the !!!!! word that was censored was m a f i a . Very odd !

Mrsmoneypenny

Hello Mr and Mrs Ratty

You couldnt make it up, makes for compulsive reading! Hope the funeral director is helpful and more bits start to fall into place for you both.

Well done!!

ratty67

Time for another update.

1) The funeral payments DH questioned - all sorted. Some people need to learn to READ their files properly before passing things on!

2) We have (finally) a copy of the husbands WILL. Now DH can organise selling those shares and close the Nationwide account.

3) DH has today written to Phoenix Life (formally Cornhill) to confirm they did pay the husbands life insurance as we cannot find proof of it being paid into any of the known bank/building society accounts.

4) DH has today received the two cheques from Royal London, one of which was for more than we thought it would be. They want him to call off the ombidsman

5) DH has received a whole bundle of papers fromSolicitor B (the one who started work on the husband's estate). Everything in his file, photocopied. Some pretty useful stuff I think although I haven't had chance to go over it all properly yet, just put it into chronological order and give it a quick glance.

Apparently the daughter approached HIM to act for her regarding the CoP but he refused as it being counter to the lady's wishes. He also did write to Solicitor A with his concerns.

6) DH hopes they will be word this week regarding having a meeting with the LA. They said after the 9th...

7) The NatWest fraud department are finally taking DH seriously and thoroughly investigating the misuse of that account. Shame it has taken an official complaint and threats of the ombidsman to get them to do something.

8) Prudential are (next to) useless and cannot trace any policy without a policy number. With 70 million records you'd think they'd run by name/address AND policy number :mad:

Think that's it!

Errata

A wonderful update :A - looks like light at the end of a very dark and long tunnel at last. I'm so pleased Mr Ratty has stuck to it; so very many older people have nobody to stick up for them in life or in death.

fredsnail

Well done Mr Ratty - sounds like you're getting close to the end - and hopefully she who must not be named will get her just desserts :j

Mrsmoneypenny

Brilliant news:j

ratty67

I am so very :mad: right now I could scream.

The finance departemnt at the LA have got back in touch with DH regarding those outstanding fees which if everyone remembers was the original reason for me starting this thread in the first place.

It's not the news we'd all hoped for either and the lady from finance was very upset herself.

The letter has come back to them from the DWP and, get this, NO-ONE was appointee for the lady. No-one. So the legal team have tossed it around and have had to come to the conclusion that as 'on paper' the lady was in sole control of her own finances, her estate is liable to pay the remaining balance.

I think an urgent meeting is required with the lady's mental health team worker. Someone clearly wasn't doing their job properly.

And how the heck did the daughter manage to get her Mum's pension payments changed from the lady's bank account to HER OWN without appointeeship?

This beggers belief it really does.

djohn2002uk

Looks like a few more hoops to jump through yet. Good luck to you and your DH. Stick with it, you'll get there in the end and what a lot of satisfaction you will gain from it all. You may need a good holiday by then mind, but you'll really deserve one.