Property being sold for development - impact on family member

GotToChange

I hope it's OK to ask a question on this forum; I read a lot but rarely post as I am bit of an ignormanus about property matters. This is a situation that largley affects my friend but also impacts on me indirectly; also, I am the one who has the time to look for some answers from people cleverer than I am...
So, here's the scenario (I shall try to be succinct but it is -in my head anyway - a little complicated) -

The friend to whom I refer (W) has by virtue of his financial input saved his parents farm/smallholding/house with land from being repossessed. Although they should have (due to previous sale of land for development etc etc) owned everything free and clear, the house was remortgaged a few years ago. It was "only" around £100,000 but nevertheless a millstone.
W has paid considerable sums towards the mortgage - which lapsed into arrears after his mother's premature death (already was actually in arrears but she had been juggling/praying and certainly keeping their dire circumstances from her husband and their sons (W & E) - and paid many bills and debts. He has done this rather than move out and invest in his own property and to prevent his Father losing everything. Yes, there may well be a sense of protecting his own inheritance but that was never as prime motivator as - until recent events - all he would have inherited was property and land that he could probably not have afforded to keep going and besides, his brother (who has moved out and made financially self-interested decisions), would push for sale and division of such "assets" as there may be, so he wouldn't have been able to afford it/stay there.

Anyway, matters have changed as the old man has got himself a girlfriend and moved into her property some 70 miles away (that in itself is a fairly complicated arrangement due to the fact that she is waiting for her father to die [seriously] so that she and her brothers can fall out over the spoils of his estate); he has already changed his will to reflect this romance and is planning to marry her - so that he can have more power when it comes to her staking her claim in her own family's inheritance arguments apparently.

So - his plan is now to -as has been done before - sell his land but this time he is selling everything. W has been left to keep the house going; he has nowhere else to live (why should he?), has his own two horses on the land - although all the land (bar one quarter acre paddock) has now been sold to a local farmer (and the mortgage repaid in full - although proof has yet to be seen) who will sow crops on it this coming summer.

His father seems to think that - as he has offered his mid-30's aged son the option of moving into "his" new home with new mrs - he can walk all over him in this way.

The site - now minus any land except the paddock - will be sold for development - and is apparently big enough for 5 large detached properties (there will be many objections from the neighbours, that's a given) and he will equally expect his son to stay there until such time as that happens. (Whether he wants to or not - which he doesn't.)

A few months ago, I tried to urge him top seek legal advice - and this was before his Pa met the new woman. He is not named on the mortgage, nor does he know what his Father plans should he himself die; besides, he should hardly have to "wait" for that to happen. His Father has said that he will see that he is "all right" but that -knowing him - doesn't actually mean much; this man has gone through millions of pounds, put his wife into an early grave by working and worrying her to death and now seems to believe that s****ing on the son who has saved him from bankruptcy and the loss of everything should just wait until he decides that he is "repaid" in some way...

He needs to be able to see some way of having some control over his own future - maybe I am deluded in thinking that there is some legal way through this and that he just has to wait -

But I would be so very thankful if anyone who has any kind of experience of or thoughts (apart from just to suck it up...) of how to take this awful situation forward (without having to wait for someone - who is in very robust health anyway - to turn their toes up)...

Please, can anyone help...?

Emmzi

TL; DR

Any chance of a summary of this v long post in bullet point format?

clutton_2

elderly couple - mum died - dad saved from repossesion through kind son's financial input

dad now met lady friend who he lives with, wants to marry her.

kind son still living in old family home but will be kicked out when land sold for development......

not sure what the question is ....

Gototchange... is this brief summary correct ?

Zazen999

Basically, has the son got some claim on the property as he has paid some amount towards the mortgage; as he could see himself losing it all when the father dies and finds out the will has been made out to the new girlfriend?

GotToChange

clutton wrote: »

elderly couple - mum died - dad saved from repossesion through kind son's financial input

dad now met lady friend who he lives with, wants to marry her.

kind son still living in old family home but will be kicked out when land sold for development......

not sure what the question is ....

Gototchange... is this brief summary correct ?

Zazen999 wrote: »

Basically, has the son got some claim on the property as he has paid some amount towards the mortgage; as he could see himself losing it all when the father dies and finds out the will has been made out to the new girlfriend?

clutton -
Thank you for the synopsis - I wish that I could be so succinct (I always fail...). Guilty of too much detail.

The question is as Zazen says (thank you!); the question is - does he have some kind of claim? Does he have to wait until matters are presented to him as a fait accomplit? Can only hope.

I know that "life" isn't fair - but should he really have to wait until some as yet unknown date when there are all sorts of issues...? (Rhetorical question.) It seems hardly right (certainly not moral although probably quite legal) - that the "options" seem to be -

Stay where he is - although his horses will have to go when the land that has now been sold - is taken over by the new owner - UNTIL - such time as the house he is living in is sold as part of the development (and demolished - even though it is less than 14 years old). It is not even clear if he would THEN receive some kind of recompense or have to wait until proceeds have been received.
(The horses are only on the land becuase it will not be farmed yet - the Father also tried to sell the barn in which the horses are stabled but the new owner didn't want it. He also plans to take down the outdoor stables and move them to "his" new property.)

Second "option" - that he uproots himself and his horses to live with his Father (still/again) and soon-to-be stepmother (becoming jobless in the process). Still also receiving little from the sale I should imagine - and yet he mayt be required to stay until the bitter end...? It's all very very one-sided from what I can see.

Sorry still not managed bullet-points.

GotToChange

Emmzi wrote: »

TL; DR

Any chance of a summary of this v long post in bullet point format?

Not familiar with all the acronyms on here...?

("Too long - didn't read" - possibly? If so, why? It's a complicated situation.)

Cissi

He needs to take proper legal advice, not rely on opinions of strangers on a forum, who will never have all the details.

For what it's worth, it doesn't sound to me as if he has much claim on the house if he isn't named on any papers - but this may be different if he can prove his past contributions. Also he may have some rights as a tenant in situ. Again, he needs professional legal advice.

clutton_2

how much in pounds did the kind son contribute to the mortgage when dad was about to face repossession... was it done in writing ... was a solicitor involved at any stage in this.... was the money a gift or a loan ?

GotToChange

Cissi wrote: »

He needs to take proper legal advice, not rely on opinions of strangers on a forum, who will never have all the details.

For what it's worth, it doesn't sound to me as if he has much claim on the house if he isn't named on any papers - but this may be different if he can prove his past contributions. Also he may have some rights as a tenant in situ. Again, he needs professional legal advice.

I know - but part of the problem has been/is his fairly "laissez faire" nature - and that is what has helped him to be in this situation. I don't want to see this happen to him but cannot seek the legal advice myself - I'm just looking for opinions (preferably without criticism for doing so).

Besides, it seems as though offering all the details results in a "TL;DR" response.

Cissi

GotToChange wrote: »

I know - but part of the problem has been/is his fairly "laissez faire" nature - and that is what has helped him to be in this situation. I don't want to see this happen to him but cannot seek the legal advice myself - I'm just looking for opinions (preferably without criticism for doing so).

Besides, it seems as though offering all the details results in a "TL;DR" response.

My post wasn't intended as criticism and I do appreciate that you're trying your best to help a friend, and some research surely can't hurt. I just meant to say that this situation is so serious and complicated that there is probably a limit to how much this can actually help. The best thing would really be if you could persuade him to seek legal advice... Maybe start with CAB?

GotToChange

clutton wrote: »

how much in pounds did the kind son contribute to the mortgage when dad was about to face repossession... was it done in writing ... was a solicitor involved at any stage in this.... was the money a gift or a loan ?

I know that the simplest answer is to put numbers to it - and it could be argued that what he has paid has constituted his "board and lodgings" (but he has paid out way more than that and has in fact bank-rolled the farm/house for years and years) but had he not done that, the property - at one time worth a million pounds minimum - would have gone for the sake of a £100K loan/mortgage that shouldn't even have been necessary.

No Solicitors have been involved; I tried to get him to see about something like a "Deed of Trust" but apart from anything else, it is unlikely that his Father would even then have acknowledged that he has decimated his son's chances of "independence" and now he is still worshipping at the altar of the almighty dollar while his son is left with nothing.

(Just a rant, apologies.)