Jelly's will questions

RAS

Jellywobble123 wrote: »

Also I have found out from the OPG that the EPA taken out was never registered with them after Dad lost mental capacity.However they are not interested in the fact that as a result of her abuse of an EPA we have lost our inheritance!! Surely someone can do something about this?? Is it a Police matter???

Jelly

I am fairly stunned in one way, as they have a statuatory duty to look after the affairs of people who have mental impairment. They are however, IMHO pretty useless. Actually i will re-phrase that, in their previous guise, they had been the subject of a number of damning Parliamentary reports.

I have no experience of what you are dealing with; we registered the EPA as soon as we were able to (waiting for medical opinion) and in the mean-time did the absolute minimum to make sure our relative was looked after.

A couple of thoughts; contact Age Concern/Help the Aged. Some areas have legal officer in-house and the one I spoke to was excellent. ten minutes on the phone set me off in the right direction.

GO to you local main police station. Do not at this stage make a formal complaint, just ask them what the legal situation would be if you did, as you outline above. If it is really busy, try to make an appointment to come back later. I know someone who needed to discuss what the legal implications would be if they made a formal complaint before deciding what to do and the police were helpful.

Get the PGO to confirm in WRITING that they are not prepared to do anything about the situation and express your extreme concern to the MP. Make an appointment to speak to your MP. it would be worth hunting out the parliamentry reports on the Court of Protection as it was then known, so you can refer to them - think it is www.parliament.uk.

Jellywobble123

I have spoken to age concern and they werent "concerned" at all as Dad is dead! What a joke all these depatments are when it comes to helping those who have had elderly relatives abused financially.The OPG are a complete waste of time and said they WOULD have taken action if the EPA had been registered...I nearly lost it when I was told that! How stupid can they be??? Dont they know that any dishonest"attorney" would NEVER register it anyway!! I know the situation has changed somewhat since Oct 2007 but it doesnt help those of us who have lost out because of their CRAP system prior to that.Basically theres NO protection with EPA etc taken out prior to 2007 and they are not worth the paper they are written on as far as protecting the "donor" is concerned. Just another money making con by the Government.

Yes I WILL go to the Police and seek their advice as SOMEONE has to do something about this!

Jellywobble123

I have found this most helpful.....

http://www.trustees.org.uk/review-index/Powers-of-attorney-The-misuse-of-enduring-powers-of-attorney.php

Just wanted to clarify and having checked the OPG website ...they only take action when a EPA has been REGISTERED and is subsequently abused...sadly my Dads wasnt thats why they dont want to know,I guess they class it as non exhistant if it hasnt been registered and they dont have the proof. The wife obviously just got the EPA issued through the solicitor and then wafted it at the bank whenever she wanted to withdraw his cash,no doubt because they were long standing customers the staff didnt suspect she was actually stealing from him.

It would be interesting to see the original application because I would bet the form was filled out by her with Dads illegible signature on the bottom,like on his Will.I doubt he even knew what he was signing for, poor man.I will ask my solicitor to obtain a copy if they can.

The way its looking I may well end up sueing the bank for allowing his money to disappear and sueing the solicitor that drew up the new Will when Dad was far from "mentally capable".....

luiccia

The wife has rather shot herself in the foot by doing this - your father can't have been both capable of organising his affairs and "severely mentally impaired"!

Someone not having the capacity to manage their affairs but having the capacity to direct others would also be classed SMI.
That alone would be insufficient. The OP has other material to help though.

Mojisola

Jellywobble123 wrote: »

Thanks for the comparison with your Mum it is reasurring (in a funny sort of way) to know that someone else is in a similar situation and is not capable either of doing the things that are being claimed that our Dad did! I hope you are managing ok with it all as its a horrible thing to go through and I really feel for you at this time.

It's a difficult thing to go through but my Mum doesn't realise how bad she is and still thinks she's running her life like she used to. For example, she tells the GP and other people that she's walked down to the shops when she hasn't left the house alone for years and can't possibly walk that far! Do they believe her - and she sounds very convincing - or me?

I know for sure that, if I was that way inclined, I could get her to change her will and make her look competent in front of strangers while it was done. If I talked a lot about it just before a visit to a solicitor and then used leading questions like "You want to change the way your will is written, don't you?" in front of him, she would reply with the right answers.

I hope your solicitors can get somewhere for you without it costing a fortune!

RAS

jelly

You might find this (very long) thread intersting http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1613591

Ratty has not updated it in a while.

Jellywobble123

You might find this (very long) thread intersting http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1613591

Thanks RAS some very interesting points that I have taken note of!

Jellywobble123

still trying to convince the executor nephew to do his job and start investigating this,theres so much he could find out free of charge rather than us paying through the nose for solicitors to do the same job! Hes frightened to flag up doubts about Dads Will as he is somewhat loyal to the wife after 25 years and he still doesnt believe she would do all this despite him having the medical records in front of him! Also she has offered him £25k if we dont continue...maybe thats swaying him...surely he can get into hot water if he doesnt report all this that we have highlighted to him? Can we get in touch with the Probate Office ourselves rather than waiting for him to do something constructive?

Jellywobble123

Mojisola wrote: »

I know for sure that, if I was that way inclined, I could get her to change her will and make her look competent in front of strangers while it was done. If I talked a lot about it just before a visit to a solicitor and then used leading questions like "You want to change the way your will is written, don't you?" in front of him, she would reply with the right answers.
!

If you did something like that it could be classed as "undue influence"... from what I have been told to make a legal Will you have to deal with it ALONE from start to finish to avoid any "undue influence" suggestions in the future,just the presence of someone with you when you make a Will can be deemed as such.

im sure this is how the wife did it...eg " you dont want the girls to pay a HUGE inheritance tax bill do you??"

it makes my flesh crawl just thinking about her devious actions,I just hope and pray we can get justice and she gets her comeuppance and get sent back to the gutter from whence she came....

Mojisola

Jellywobble123 wrote: »

If you did something like that it could be classed as "undue influence"... from what I have been told to make a legal Will you have to deal with it ALONE from start to finish to avoid any "undue influence" suggestions in the future,just the presence of someone with you when you make a Will can be deemed as such.

I was present throughout when my parents made their wills. I made the appointments with the solicitor and was there throughout all the discussions. At no point did the solicitor suggest I shouldn't be there.