Legal Advice - daughter cheats mother out of home in France

meritaten

Cool heads on please! There is a money trail here - the old lady sold her house - where did that money go? to purchase a house in france? then there is a money trail there.
but it seems to start here - so I would start with the UK police Fraud Sqaud. the old lady has been defrauded out of her money - so start over here! I would speak to someone in the CID about possible fraud. see what they say. Just because it was perpetrated by a member of the family doesnt mean it wasnt fraud!

londonsurrey

I agree with Meritaten. I had a friend who worked for the police, and she specialised in fraud against vulnerable people. So the police may be able to help.

Also try Age Concern (or whatever new snazzy unmemorable name they are these days) and the Citizens' Advice Bureau. Even if they can't offer direct help, they tend to be very good signposts as to how to get help for this specific case.

July1962

Thank you for all your interesting replies (legal and moral!).
I appreciate the responses and will pass them on to the family...

Mupette

I don't know if this is of any help. first of all did the mother sign anything for the french property, this is important.


My parents moved to france a few years ago and bought property, now the legal system is differnet there when it comes to property which might be in her favour.

As i said parents bought property in france, reasons i don't clearly remember i had to be named with the property.

If my father dies, my mum can not sell the property unless i say she can, same if mum dies, dad can't sell unless i say so.

I am not sure if the daughter can not have anyone named, she would not be able to sell the property without the mother allowing it, if she did sign any paperwork.

Good luck

scheming_gypsy

Sounds like something off Columbo. The real daughter is probably tied up in the basement and the 'daughter' is actually the wayward son with his plums tucked inside his frock and conning the whole family.

ceridwen

adamantine wrote: »

ive no advice but i am disgusted at how someone can treat their own mother and grandparents like that but why did the mother trust the daughter after knowing about her coning the granparents?

i dont think there is much anyone can do as you said the daughter used to work in a law firm so presumably has done everything "by the book" meaning there is nothing anyone can do.

I'm guessing too that everything has been done "by the book" in the circumstances - but also worth looking into.

I'd be bringing up everyone that suffered loss because of this person:
- the mother
- the grandparents
- the sister (OP's friend) - (who will also lose out - as not getting anything she was due for when mother dies).

I presume mother did intend OP's sister to inherit half of everything eventually? If so - how did she think this was going to happen if ALL the inheritance was tied up in Bad Sister's name?

With the mother having fallen out with one of her children (ie the wayward son) and having put everything into the name of Bad Sister - then I'm guessing that maybe Other Sister wasnt on good terms with Mother before all this happened?? This is the thing that "doesnt make sense" to me. I understand why mother might have been conned into signing the house over totally into Bad Sisters name (in view of French law) - but I dont understand how Mother could have thought Other Sister could possibly inherit anything after that? (which makes it an odd thing for her to do). I am just wondering if everything here "adds up" the way OPs friend has told her - or whether maybe Mother actively wanted to make sure only Bad Sister inherited everything (out of her 3 children) and this was something that she arranged herself (or at least went along with) and she maybe doesnt seem as unhappy/furious/etc as one would expect at now living in rented accommodation and having lost her money?? Just suggesting this as one possible reason how mother managed to get "cheated" out of her own money - though goodness knows there are various others as to why this happened to her.

July1962

The bad sister promised (!) her mother that the good sister would inherit, and with her legal background and seemingly good intentions, her mother believed her (yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing). By using legal jargon and waving legal documents around, the bad sister managed to convince her mother that this was the easiest way to avoid the son inheriting.

The old lady spent a lot of money having all of her belongings shipped over to France and expected to be living there with her daughter for the rest of her life. She's now had the furniture etc shipped back to UK (bad sister didn't want it in 'her' house) and is using the remainder of some savings to pay rent for a tiny flat (although that money will run out soon).

The bad sister has shown no further interest in her elderly mother, even after the suicide attempt.

All very sad indeed and if there can be any fragment of positive news from all of this, it's that the old lady was found in time and is now trying to make the most of the rest of her life.

Many thanks for all the comments.

puddy

July1962 wrote: »

The bad sister promised (!) her mother that the good sister would inherit, and with her legal background and seemingly good intentions, her mother believed her (yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing). By using legal jargon and waving legal documents around, the bad sister managed to convince her mother that this was the easiest way to avoid the son inheriting.

The old lady spent a lot of money having all of her belongings shipped over to France and expected to be living there with her daughter for the rest of her life. She's now had the furniture etc shipped back to UK (bad sister didn't want it in 'her' house) and is using the remainder of some savings to pay rent for a tiny flat (although that money will run out soon).

The bad sister has shown no further interest in her elderly mother, even after the suicide attempt.

All very sad indeed and if there can be any fragment of positive news from all of this, it's that the old lady was found in time and is now trying to make the most of the rest of her life.

Many thanks for all the comments.

what will happen when the mother needs a care home or needs to claim benefits. will the DWP look back and say 'deprivation of assetts'?

i think the uk police can certainly look into this, its not outside of their remit or juristiction, the mother is a uk citizen? plus i get the impression the original house sold was here?

podperson

What an awful story! Doesn't sound like there's much that can be done legally but I sincerely hope that karma comes around and kicks that horrible daughter.
On a more practical side, I would strongly suggest a visit to CAB for the mother - if she is having to pay her rent from minimal savings then she may be able to get housing/council tax benefit and possibly something like pension credits.

July1962

Re: deprivation of assets
I found this site http://www.carefeesadvice.com/deprivation-of-assets.html which states "... it would be unreasonable for the local authority to consider deprivation if the gift were made when you were fit and healthy and had no expectation that care would be required."
The lady was of sound mind and believed that her bad daughter would care for her in her later years in the house in France.
Mother is UK citizen and her home was sold in UK, but it doesn't seem that there's much anyone can do as she was deemed to be 'of sound mind' at the time (albeit, the victim of a con).