Greedy sister

carmen123

Hi everyone,
I have a 91 year old mother who stills lives at home and does not want to go into a care home. She is frail and at times confused, at the moment carers go in on a regular basis to make sure she eats and is OK. My middle sister has used mum’s confusion to take over her finances, she has mums check book, bank card & pin number and takes all bank statements to her house. Lately sister has also taken mums will to study.

My elder sister and I do not trust our middle sister; she is domineering, controlling and greedy, she manipulates, co-hearses mum into saying and doing what SHE wants while saying
“I only want what’s the best for you mum”. Yeah right.
We know she takes money from mums account for ‘expenses’ like petrol for her and her daughters cars (they only live 30 seconds away!)

The biggest problem is middle sister is the favorite child, always has been, mum will not hear a word against her.

Anyway, the latest thing is this, middle sister wants to buy mum’s bungalow. We only found out by default (mum let it slip out) middle sister is trying to keep her actions quiet. In the past few weeks middle sister has also been phoning care homes and in a telephone conversation said “When mum moves out I’ll get house clearance men in, there’s nothing I want, and I’ll get those carpets ripped up, no one will want those” When I started to question her, she, realizing she said too much, changed the subject.

Now I feel middle sister wants mum out, and put in care home A.S.A.P while she buys the bungalow as cheap as she can does it up & makes a decent profit. My self and elder sister are not kept informed at all. In fact previously middle sister has phoned both of us and said
“I will take everything, I deserve it, I will take everything I can, so you get nothing”.
Is there anything we can to ‘rein in’ our greedy sister? Mum’s house is her only asset, our inheritance. In her will all money and assets are left equally between her three daughters. Middle sister hates this.
If middle sister buys the bungalow is there anything we can do to make sure she at least pays near the market value? For instance if the bungalow was sold dirt cheap to sister would that count as deprivation of assets, would the local authority get involved and insist on market value?

My father died, but as far as I know his half of the house is in trust, what happens if mum sells the house to sister, is dads half taken out of the proceedings and shared out? or will sister get it all?

My elder sister and I accept mums assets/money might be spent on her care. But we know that middle sister is determined to grab as much as she can for herself, by putting mum in a care home and buying bungalow cheap. We feel this is all wrong, should I contact the authority’s if so who?

Would be grateful for any suggestions.

CH27

From what I remember the Local Authority will not allow the house to be sold under market value if your mum goes into a home & needs to pay for her care.

antrobus

carmen123 wrote: »

... For instance if the bungalow was sold dirt cheap to sister would that count as deprivation of assets, would the local authority get involved and insist on market value?

Yes.

carmen123 wrote: »

...
My father died, but as far as I know his half of the house is in trust, what happens if mum sells the house to sister, is dads half taken out of the proceedings and shared out? or will sister get it all?

If half of the house is in trust, who is the trustee and what are the terms of the trust? If sister wants to buy the whole house, she would have to buy the trust's half as well.

Solicitors are useful for sorting out this sort of thing.

RAS

You need to do several things; one of which is to speak to the Public Guardians's Office.

You need to know if an Enduring/Lasting Power or Attorney has been granted to your sister. If so, you should have been informed before it was registered. And if your sister is taking actions that are not fully in your mother's interest you can report her to the PG and they will challenge her.

More likely she is trying to do this without the proper legal paperwork. You should download the deeds from the Land Registry; we have seen at least one instance recently here where the 50% left in trust was never set up properly (the executor was the other parents who did not do what they were supposed to have done). Is that trust in place? Who are the trustees? Consider getting a copy of the Probate (contact your nearest Probate Registry).

Then speak to Age Uk about elder abuse?

loubel

If your mum is elderly and confused, then she should speak to a solicitor face to face before selling her house, especially if she is selling it at an undervalue and potentially going into a care home. Ideally she should see a solicitor who is a member of Solicitors for the Elderly, who are experienced in dealing with older clients and the many issues that such sales can cause. They will also be able to investigate whether the property is held in a trust.

Of course you cannot make your mum do this, but hopefully any solicitor she does instruct will pick up that she may need specialist advice on the transaction over and above the conveyancing.

You could also investigate whether an LPA or Deputyship application might be appropriate - depending on whether your mum still has capacity to make her own financial decisions. Again, a SFE solicitor will be able to help you and/or your mum with this.

Albert22

I think the solicitor in your state clearly define you that what to do now in this situation because the law are different for the different state.All you do is just hire a solicitor and ask them that's how that house will sell?

securityguy

Unfortunately, it seems to be an ongoing problem that families (both the elder member requiring help and the children or other relatives) are unwilling to set up powers of attorney, and then do everything on an informal basis. Once one member of the family is effectively able to run the finances without a POA, then they are in a position to do all sorts of bad stuff.

If you can get a POA set up, then even if it's in the name of the sister you don't trust, the Office of the Public Guardian will at least oversee it and can be complained to. If it looks like a POA isn't possible (the threshold of "confusion" is something that her GP could assess) then it's possible to apply to the Court of Protection to get a Power of Attorney without the consent of the donor being required, but it's a much more complex and expensive process, and the costs and aggro of the record keeping that's required must be borne in mind.

But continuing to do this sort of stuff without a POA is an accident waiting to happen, because your mother is effectively opening her wallet and saying "help yourself".

troubleinparadise

Unless your sister has a proper Power of Attorney registered with the bank which holds your Mum's account, at present she is acting against the Bank's rules by accessing your Mum's account. Whilst many people do this (perhaps using an ATM card with the PIN number) it contravenes whatever agreement your Mum signed with the bank originally.

As has been said, you need to find out if your mother has set up a Power of Attorney (Lasting or Enduring) giving your sister the right to manage her financial affairs. Without that, she cannot sell your mother's house. Equally, if she did have Attorneyship, she would not be allowed to sell that house at less than the market rate without depriving your mother of assets - which an Attorney is not allowed to do.

The Office of the Public Guardian will investigate complaints about the abuse of attorneyship (or lack of Power of Attorney) if it is informed by a concerned individual. The person holding Attorneyship should keep records and receipts of how a Donor's money is being spent. Reasonable travel expenses can be claimed, but should be verifiable.

Have a look on this website for an overview:

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/money-matters/legal-issues/powers-of-attorney/powers-of-attorney-faqs/

ANGLICANPAT

troubleinparadise wrote: »

Unless your sister has a proper Power of Attorney registered with the bank which holds your Mum's account, at present she is acting against the Bank's rules by accessing your Mum's account. Whilst many people do this (perhaps using an ATM card with the PIN number) it contravenes whatever agreement your Mum signed with the bank originally. "


Not necessarily. Middle sister may legitimately have third party on the account which your mum might have agreed to and signed for.This means she can sign cheques , move money and everything inbetween.