Elderly Lady (81) in arrears with Woolwich mortgage ~ advice please

[Deleted User]

The elderly lady is my Mum. Although retired and with only a very small private pension in addition to her State pension, she was given a £40,000 mortgage in 1997 by The Woolwich in order to buy a retirement flat.

Initially a strongly independent woman, Mum developed dementia in 2003 and this ailment progressed rapidly. Hence her financial affairs quickly got into a muddle ... most worrying was the fact that she didn't alter (ie: increase) the amount of her Direct Debit payments which were paying off her mortgage.

Because Mum is "not of sound mind" she cannot now nominate anyone to act on her behalf in financial matters (ie: cannot award Power of Attorney). And although she vacated the flat during the summer of 2004 ... firstly to go into hosptial, and then to eventually become a resident in a nursing home ... the property cannot be sold due to the "not of sound mind" issue (ie: she is not 'legally' capable of making a decision to sell the flat).

So the mortgage is on-going. And as the amount being paid by her on-going DD is now about £50/month short, The Woolwich are adding an additional charge of £40/month onto the increasing debt.

I have explained the situation to The Woolwich. Basically I'm trying to get them to reimburse all the add-on charges (which are out-of-proportion to the amount of monthly shortfall anyway) and allow me to set up a realistic schedule for re-paying the debt.

The Matron at Mum's nursing home provided me with a 'formal' letter to explain that Mum has very advanced dementia and is simply not capable of sorting out this debt herself. She also confirmed that I am Mum's daughter and next-of-kin.

However The Woolwich have simply refused to discuss the situation with me.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can proceed with this problem? I'd be SO grateful for any advice.

By the way ... does anyone else find the issue of awarding sizeable mortgages to elderly persons on low incomes a little bit "iffy" to say the least?

Cheers,
ZED.

herbiesjp

The direct debit does not get altered by your mother - the DD would be changed the Woolwich automatically if there has been an increase or decrease in the amount to be paid each month

dunstonh

Because Mum is "not of sound mind" she cannot now nominate anyone to act on her behalf in financial matters (ie: cannot award Power of Attorney). And although she vacated the flat during the summer of 2004 ... firstly to go into hosptial, and then to eventually become a resident in a nursing home ... the property cannot be sold due to the "not of sound mind" issue (ie: she is not 'legally' capable of making a decision to sell the flat).

You can still get power of attorney in this case. I just had a client do this with their mother after Barclays refused to allow any more withdrawals from the bank. It took two weeks to sort and was granted by the court with no problems.

However The Woolwich have simply refused to discuss the situation with me.

This is totally correct I'm afraid. Until you have power of attorney, they cannot discuss her affairs with you.

By the way ... does anyone else find the issue of awarding sizeable mortgages to elderly persons on low incomes a little bit "iffy" to say the least?

No. You yourself said she was "a strongly independent woman".

Bossyboots

http://http://www.guardianship.gov.uk/about/aboutthepgo.htm will give you all the information you need.

Noz

Zed, as a short term measure - you could set up a standing order or money transfer from your own account to cover the shortfall in payments to ensure no further charges are added to the mortgage

waddy80

You can definitley get power of attourney - contact your solicitor who can sort it out for you.

Once you have that write to the woolich with a copy of the power of attourney and it should be sorted.

And I agree try in the interim to set up a standing order, details will be in the mortgage agreement somewhere. You should be able to use the mortgage account number as a reference.

waddy80

Zed,

http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/legalhelp/leaflet28.jsp?lang=en

Try this link and look at the pdf file, it exlpains about applying to the court of protection.

Bossyboots

waddy80 wrote:

Zed,

http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/legalhelp/leaflet28.jsp?lang=en

Try this link and look at the pdf file, it exlpains about applying to the court of protection.

The link I gave goes straight to the relevant site.

waddy80

Sorry Bossyboots, I couldn't get the link to work, might just be our browser it's a weird version.

tom188

Bossyboots wrote:

http://http://www.guardianship.gov.uk/about/aboutthepgo.htm will give you all the information you need.

youve got two sets of https there bossyboots, thats why it wasnt working. Its corrected here
http://www.guardianship.gov.uk/about/aboutthepgo.htm

GhostDog_2

ZED wrote:

The elderly lady is my Mum. Although retired and with only a very small private pension in addition to her State pension, she was given a £40,000 mortgage in 1997 by The Woolwich in order to buy a retirement flat.

Initially a strongly independent woman, Mum developed dementia in 2003 and this ailment progressed rapidly. Hence her financial affairs quickly got into a muddle ... most worrying was the fact that she didn't alter (ie: increase) the amount of her Direct Debit payments which were paying off her mortgage.

Because Mum is "not of sound mind" she cannot now nominate anyone to act on her behalf in financial matters (ie: cannot award Power of Attorney). And although she vacated the flat during the summer of 2004 ... firstly to go into hosptial, and then to eventually become a resident in a nursing home ... the property cannot be sold due to the "not of sound mind" issue (ie: she is not 'legally' capable of making a decision to sell the flat).

So the mortgage is on-going. And as the amount being paid by her on-going DD is now about £50/month short, The Woolwich are adding an additional charge of £40/month onto the increasing debt.

I have explained the situation to The Woolwich. Basically I'm trying to get them to reimburse all the add-on charges (which are out-of-proportion to the amount of monthly shortfall anyway) and allow me to set up a realistic schedule for re-paying the debt.

The Matron at Mum's nursing home provided me with a 'formal' letter to explain that Mum has very advanced dementia and is simply not capable of sorting out this debt herself. She also confirmed that I am Mum's daughter and next-of-kin.

However The Woolwich have simply refused to discuss the situation with me.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can proceed with this problem? I'd be SO grateful for any advice.

By the way ... does anyone else find the issue of awarding sizeable mortgages to elderly persons on low incomes a little bit "iffy" to say the least?

Cheers,
ZED.

Zed,

Firstly, my thoughts are with you in what must be a very difficult situation

However, the Matron at your mother's care home is not considered appropriately qualified to assess mental capacity for legal reasons in an older person with dementia - although she could provide supporting evidence. An assessment for mental capacity can only legitimately be completed by a medical consultant or psychogeriatrician.
I have never known any situation where POA was awarded post-diagnosis of lost capacity. This is now an issue for the Court Of Protection whose purpose is to protect vulnerable persons.

I have no doubt that your intentions are entirely honourable but systems are in place and will need be followed appropriately. I wish there was an easier answer in the cases like your own, where families genuinely have their relative's best interests at heart.

Good luck.