My mum is desperate!

Xxwkd

My mums partner of 21 years sadly and suddenly passed away in December last year. She was living in his flat for the whole of their relationship. However he did not leave a will and now his sister is trying to evict my mum. He does have a daughter somewhere, but we have no idea where she is as they lost contact when she was still a small child in the 70's. The flat was originally the father of the sister and my mums partner and was left to him, his sister and her husband in the fathers will. It's all a very long story, but my mum has been told she has eight weeks to get out. Is there anything we can do?

webtalk

The sister is behaving as though the flat is hers.

I am not sure that it is.

Would the daughter not he the first to inherit? Just because people dont know where she is does not mean she should be disregarded.

As for you poor mum. What a terrible situation to be in. I would speak to CAB and a solicitor. Some give the first half hour free. Not all are sharks.

Best of luck.

John_Pierpoint

Can we assume that the laws of England & Wales apply to this situation?

Mum's deceased partner is self evidently not your dad?
Did you and your num not realise what a financially dangerous situation she was in by being financial dependent on her "partner".
Before you do anything you need to track down the legal ownership of the lease on the flat. With the correct postal address you can invest £3 now on-line to check this and print off copies of what you find. [Perhaps the flat only belonged to "partner" for his life time and then reverted to his sister]

Assuming the sister does not get the flat automatically it will go to the missing child (aged ?).
To belong to anyone else not already catered for by its current legal owner, the sister must apply to the court for a grant of representation called Letters of Administration.

If and when "sister" gets the L of A, mum has 6 months in which to prove she is dependant on the deceased and will be left destitute.

When you have investigated the Land Registry and the Court of Probate, come back and we can make recommendations based on fact not supposition.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/copies-of-grants-wills
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4705779
http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/

Xxwkd

Webtalk, it would seem that the daughter has been disregarded by the sisters solicitor. I don't know if the solicitor even knows there is a daughter.
My mum has spoken to CAB and a solicitor, I took her myself, she is still in denial that this is all happening. CAB didn't really help, and obviously half an hour of a solicitors time is not enough. I have found her another solicitor that she will go to see next week. I don't know what else to do. Or how much she will let me do.

Xxwkd

John,

No mums partner was not my dad. And yes they both knew it would be a difficult situation if anything happened and I think he would have left a will if he would have thought he was going to die so suddenly, in hindsight I think most of us would. However this is the situation she has found herself in.
I believe the flat is solely in my mums partners name, but the sister has a legal charge. Not 100% on what that exactly means yet, but I am looking into it.
The sister has applied and been granted letters of administration. So I am kind of thinking she has my mum over a barrel, but I want to make sure before we just give up.

nom_de_plume

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

If and when "sister" gets the L of A, mum has 6 months in which to prove she is dependant on the deceased and will be left destitute.

As this could be quite important in this particular case, can anyone point the OP in the right direction to follow this up?

Also the sister cannot herself evict your mother. She can ask her to leave but if mum decides to stay put it would need a court order to make her leave.

hardpressed

Oh dear what a situation for your mum to be in. It comes as a stark reminder to anyone who is in a partnership but not married that you need to make a will. No matter how young or old we are nobody knows when their time will come.

Gigglepig

Sorry to hear about this difficult situation for your mum.

- you need to check if the flat was jointly owned by the deceased partner, his sister, and the sister's husband? Or what the charge entails.
- now that the partner is dead, his daughter may inherit his share, but if he never bought out his sister/BIL , there would only be a partof the equity for the daughter to inherit?

If the flat is jointly owned, your mother and her deceased partner may have benefited from living in it for some time, perhaps even witout paying rent to the sister/BIL for their share? If that is the case, it sounds very understandable that the Sister/BIL now want their equity.

It also sounds plausible that the estranged daughter would want her share, instead of subsidising her father's girlfriend, if they don't have a close relationship and your mum never did anything for her.

If I were your mother I would make arrangements to move into another flat asap. (And without starting a family feud.) If her partner died in suddenly December, she has already had reasonable time to make arrangements.

Xxwkd

Nom,

The sister has already sent a solicitors letter and they have told her in two weeks time they are under instruction to go to court to get an eviction order. And then underneath that it says she has eight weeks notice. And they think this is a reasonable amount of time for someone to pick up their life and leave a home they love because they shared so many memories in it and find somewhere else to live. My mum is still devastated from her partner passing away and now has this to deal with. She cannot afford a solicitor and apparently there is no legal aid anymore, so what is she supposed to do. I don't see any options. Looks like she will be made homeless in eight weeks time. Just around her 60th birthday for which I was taking her away to forget about things for a while looks like that won't happen now because she will be looking for somewhere else to live.
Sorry to go on but I feel so helpless
Thanks for everyone's input very much appreciated.

Dimey

Who is your Mother paying rent to while all this is going on?

Are you trying to track down the deceased's daughter?

Gigglepig

8 weeks is not a lot of notice but keep in mind, if he died in December 2012 they did at least wait 7-8 months.

Sorry to say this but from the family's perspective, she could have moved out voluntarily or tried to negotiate a rental agreement in this 7-8 month period. Has she been paying them rent?

Edited to say - can you move her belongings to your house/garage temporarily,mso you can at least enjoy the holiday? Sounds like you will both be needing a break.