grandparent keeping child's money

marleyboy

Your hands are tied on this OP, there are no solutions other than to talk to your Mother about it. If she was to say she is going to spend it all on a toyboy for the weekend, there is nothing you could legally do about it.

Sommer43

istanbul09 wrote: »

Thanks Kayalana- still open to more suggestions mother has refused on more than one occasion to hand the money over

As is her right to do so.

Macca83_2

marleyboy wrote: »

If she was to say she is going to spend it all on a toyboy for the weekend

Haha I like it

WestonDave

The crux of this is whether the money actually became the children's (in trust) or whether it was merely designated within her assets as being potentially for them.

To deal with the latter first, this is where she sets up an account, puts some money in it, and thinks (and maybe tells others) that this money will be for the children. However until she actually hands the money over, the money remains hers and she is entirely at liberty to decide at a later point that she wants to keep it and not hand it over. There may be a slight moral issue if this money has been dangled in front of the kids and they've been expecting it, but to all other purposes its her money and if relations have broken down you have no chance of getting it and no real reason to expect to other than greed.

If the money has been properly put into a trust account and for example tax has been reclaimed on interest due to it being a children's account, then it would be arguable that title to the money has passed (possibly via trust) to the beneficiaries at which point she can't just take it back. However the only way to enforce this would be via legal action which could end up just being a matter of spite as the legal fees could easily outweigh the sums of money involved so the only one who ends up with anything is the solicitor.

Sommer43

I was trustee on my children's accounts and when they were 16 years old, they had to sign a form for tax purposes. Otherwise, the interest on the money would have been income for me and I would have had to pay tax on this.

WestonDave has put it in plain English. Until you know the details of the accounts and how they were set up, then you can do very little about this situation. Legally. As her daughter, then trying to resolve the feud is probably your best way forward.

peachyprice

If your children have never recieved any communication from the building society it's unlikely the accounts were ever in their names.

They would have recieved letters over the years when the style of accounts change, usually around 11 and 16, tax forms to fill in when they are 16 as Sommer has said, letters when they reached 18 as they would have had to be changed from childrens savings to adult savings, statements.

Sounds to me like she earmarked the money in her own account(s), in which case there's nothing you can do about it.

Sommer43

When the statements came once every six months they were addressed to:

Sommer43 - Trustee for XXXXXXXXX (My child's name)

At 16, they were then allowed to sign for the money themselves. After signing the form R85 with me countersigning the form. At 18 the accounts were then upgraded to a current account and their savings account became their own.

This was with the then Abbey National.

OP: Your mother might not have even placed a penny in the account and if there is a substantial amount of money in the accounts then she should have been declaring this as income for tax purposes. If she set the accounts up in her own name.

Fraid you cannot just demand she hand over the money if the account is in her name.

Shelldean

wonders if this like the a/c ex set up for our DD... he promised he was putting money in there for her future. Never totally believed him but hoped esp as he paid no maintance either. Although we knew he had actually opened the account in her name, as we tried unknowlingly to open her a savings a/c and managed to pick the same BS he had. Caused some confusion when they said oh she already has an account???

He handed the book over when she was 18. Held the grand sum of £157 and some odd pence. Not even £10 for each yr of her life.

onlyroz

My understanding was that an adult could set up an account for a child, with the child as the named account holder (and so is eligible for gross interest), and the adult has full control over until the child turns 18. At that point, the account is turned over to the child and the person who opened it loses access. I've never done this myself, but I think my parents have opened accounts for the children with the intention of them having the money when they turn 18.

istanbul09

The last post is my understanding of the position but everyone else seems to think differently?