Complicated!

dzug1

linkin wrote: »

Thank you for all you replies and advice. I have now received a cheque for the funeral costs, which was what I wanted all along.

From the lady or from the PO?

linkin

dzug1 wrote: »

From the lady or from the PO?

From the lady! she has only sent the funeral costs. she is keeping the rest.

The post office are a nightmare. They are saying I need to apply for probate before they will discuss it with me. My dad doesn't want the money from the account, so she can keep it. I have made a complaint to the finacal ombusman, still waiting to hear from them.

g6jns_2

linkin wrote: »

From the lady! she has only sent the funeral costs. she is keeping the rest.

The post office are a nightmare. They are saying I need to apply for probate before they will discuss it with me. My dad doesn't want the money from the account, so she can keep it. I have made a complaint to the finacal ombusman, still waiting to hear from them.

So the woman has got away with fraud. It is a pity because having got away with it once she may go on to do something similar. Unless you have exhausted teh Post Office's own complaint procedure the Ombudsman will not usually consider the case. If the estate is under £5,000 there is no fee so You might consider applying and then tackling the Post Office.

Tuesday_Tenor

linkin wrote: »

The post office are a nightmare. They are saying I need to apply for probate before they will discuss it with me. My dad doesn't want the money from the account, so she can keep it. I have made a complaint to the finacal ombusman, still waiting to hear from them.

I believe the financial ombudsman would only get involved once you have exhausted the complaints procedure at the PO.

I think your brother thought he was leaving his affairs in order, with £4K in PO for funeral, his friend named as beneficiary for his credit union funds, and his friend agreeing to deal with everything, as his family weren't in his daily life/nearby. From the friend's point of view I think she (erroneously, but in good faith) thought she was assuming the role of next of kin and had permission to sign the PO form.

As a pointy of principle, I too am concerned about the way the PO allowed the money to be removed. In another situation this could be a blatant fraud, with far greater funds at stake. From the PO point of view, though, I can see why they won't do any more unless you get Letters of Admin, as they need some way of determining the truth between 2 competing claims to access the funds.

In most circumstances I would be keen to pursue this on the matter of principle, to push PO to tighten their procedures.

However, in you case, as
- you have been reimbursed funeral expenses
- there is now only a few hundred pounds left from the account
- next of kin (father, then you) are saying that you don't want to be personal representative
- friend has done the clearing up/sorting out work for you
- next of kin are not bothered about the remaining money
- you possibly didn't express expectations about access to funds clearly enough with the friend; you didn't actually object when she said brother wanted her to deal with things, and you gave her the death cert. If you intended her to notify of death but not access funds you should have made this clearer,

I think I would now assume that things were handled as you brother wished, and let this go. Would your brother have wanted this woman to be charged with fraud over these slightly muddled circumstances? Ultimately this is what it might come to if you pursue the matter. To make the PO think a bit more I would certainly put my concern about their procedure in writing (as you have done) , but leave it at that.

g6jns_2

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

I believe the financial ombudsman would only get involved once you have exhausted the complaints procedure at the PO.

I think your brother thought he was leaving his affairs in order, with £4K in PO for funeral, his friend named as beneficiary for his credit union funds, and his friend agreeing to deal with everything, as his family weren't in his daily life/nearby. From the friend's point of view I think she (erroneously, but in good faith) thought she was assuming the role of next of kin and had permission to sign the PO form.

As a pointy of principle, I too am concerned about the way the PO allowed the money to be removed. In another situation this could be a blatant fraud, with far greater funds at stake. From the PO point of view, though, I can see why they won't do any more unless you get Letters of Admin, as they need some way of determining the truth between 2 competing claims to access the funds.

In most circumstances I would be keen to pursue this on the matter of principle, to push PO to tighten their procedures.

However, in you case, as
- you have been reimbursed funeral expenses
- there is now only a few hundred pounds left from the account
- next of kin (father, then you) are saying that you don't want to be personal representative
- friend has done the clearing up/sorting out work for you
- next of kin are not bothered about the remaining money
- you possibly didn't express expectations about access to funds clearly enough with the friend; you didn't actually object when she said brother wanted her to deal with things, and you gave her the death cert. If you intended her to notify of death but not access funds you should have made this clearer,

I think I would now assume that things were handled as you brother wished, and let this go. Would your brother have wanted this woman to be charged with fraud over these slightly muddled circumstances? Ultimately this is what it might come to if you pursue the matter. To make the PO think a bit more I would certainly put my concern about their procedure in writing (as you have done) , but leave it at that.

Do you really think it was slightly muddled circumstances? It sounds much more like deliberate fraud to me.

nom_de_plume

g6jns wrote: »

Do you really think it was slightly muddled circumstances? It sounds much more like deliberate fraud to me.

Perhaps a bit harsh based on not much more than a few lines of information? The first post included

She has now been in contact to see how much she owes for the drinks after the funeral!