Charging order and possession

helpplease14

I desperately hope someone can help or advise us. We are being taken to court by a solicitors for their client, a multi-national nursing home business, for over £20,000 of nursing home fees accrued by my mother. Because I signed her into the home I am liable despite the home telling us they were going to sort out applying for funding once her assets ran out (which they now deny). I have been trying to sort out a way to repay some of the funds and put ourselves further into debt asking for an initial case from a solicitor earlier this year. I wrote over three months ago offering an initial settlement with them and have chased them repeatedly ever since by mail (agreed contact with them to one named person) and phone as they have refused to respond. In the meantime an interim charging order was put on our property which is our only asset as we have no savings at all. Whilst we have no dependent children (under law) with us here, we do have two under 20 with mental health issues and health issues of our own. We both work and receive no benefits and have been completely unable to engage a solicitor or anyone to advise us about all of this as we are struggling to pay back mortgage arrears and other debts as it is.

We are completely desperate and I don't feel I can take much more: I don't see the point in any of it anymore. I finally received a letter this morning from the solicitors (after I threatened them by saying that it appeared that they were stonewalling me by refusing to discuss settlements simply because when it goes to court they can claim charges (over £30,000 worth I may add!) for attending the court. The letter states that they reject my offer and that I have to send any further offer in writing with evidence of our financial position and the value of the charges registered and pending registration against the property and that they anticipate receiving instructions to apply for an Order of Sale.

It appears to me that this has been deliberately timed to make sure there is no way we can to and fro in the time leading up to Christmas and New Year when their offices will be closed as the court date is in the first week of January.

At the moment I feel like life isn't worth it. I am not the sort of person to be that way, however I feel beyond desperate and as though we are trapped in a nightmare. My mother must be turning in her grave. Please, please can anyone offer any advice at all? Please.:(

Trying_to_be_good

Welcome to MSE, I'm sure there'll be people here who can help you, and support you. I'm sorry for your loss.

To try and undertand what's happened so far:
Has your mother ever owned any part of your home, or has she given you any money (which could be considered to be 'depriving her of her assets'?) - people can't give away their money to save care home fees.
What contracts did you sign with the care home? What correspondence have you had since your mother's money was running out and since then? How long ago and for how long have the fees not been paid?

rizla_king

if gone or going to court then would be a good idea to ask at http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/ as they specialise in help on that.

helpplease14

Thank you.

She did give us a few thousand here and there, but not huge amounts regularly or whatever. I signed her into the home when she had to move from a regular home to a nursing home following being in hospital for a month and requiring nursing care. I met the DM along with my mother's brother and his wife initially and explained that whilst she still had some money left from the sale of her house a couple of years previously, there was not a lot and I asked if they would ask her to leave when her funds dwindled as it was private and explained we didn't have funds to pay. She told us that this wasn't unusual and that they kept a careful eye on these situations with regular reviews and if it was coming close to that they would look at applications for funding from the LA. We were reassured by this and went ahead with me signing the documents (although my brother was equally EPA) which is why they are solely coming after me. I asked my brother for help when they first started threatening action earlier this year and he has since not really been in touch! To be fair I haven't chased him either though so maybe he thinks it has all magically gone away.
Unfortunately I had a breakdown around the time that my mum's money was falling below the threshold she could have held on to and failed to address this for almost 6 months as simply breathing in and out was a struggle at that point. I eventually tried to meet with the manager on several occasions which was always problematic and ended up agreeing to meet with the Account Manager and asked for the DM I had originally seen on entry to come along - my husband was there too. We were told that she would speak with the manager and she would look into the funding situation and I thought no more of it. When any funds from DWP stopped a couple of months later I assumed they had sorted it (naive in the extreme but we haven't been in this situation before). I would add that over the next few months, before her death, we were constantly in touch with the home by phone when ever they needed us (including night time) and in and out of there. I even slept there overnight on two occasions when she was seriously ill. My point is, we were not avoiding them. The fees were not paid for 8 months. She died just over a year ago.
Stupidly, I was given wrong advice that when she died with no savings, money or investments that her debts died with her so I ignored their letters initially. Hindsight is everything...

helpplease14

Thank you I will post the same on there x

antrobus

helpplease14 wrote: »

... We were reassured by this and went ahead with me signing the documents (although my brother was equally EPA) which is why they are solely coming after me...

I presume that EPA is 'Enduring Power of Attorney', and so what we have here is a question of the potential personal liability of someone acting under a PoA. The answer to that question depends on exactly what it is that you signed.

It is also important to understand how you may become legally liable as an Attorney. You should consider at all times the ways in which you should limit your personal liability and the potential liability of the Donor for whom you act. This is because you are the legal agent of the Donor.

When you make any contract on behalf of a Donor it is important to make it clear that the contract is being made on the Donor’s behalf and not personally by you.

The words of the contract (e.g. care home agreement or contract for household repairs) and the conduct of the parties to the contract are important to determine who is ultimately liable for what. Sometimes words alone will not be enough to limit liability, if the actions and conduct of the parties are inconsistent with the words used.

http://www.mckenzielaw.co.uk/how-we-help-individuals/lasting-power-of-attorney-the-duties-responsibilities-and-potential-liabilities-of-attorneys/

helpplease14 wrote: »

... Stupidly, I was given wrong advice that when she died with no savings, money or investments that her debts died with her so I ignored their letters initially. Hindsight is everything...

That advice wasn't wrong. Your late mother died with no savings, money or investments and thus her debts died with her. That's why they are coming after you. They are arguing that you effectively guaranteed the payment of those care home fees, when you signed those documents. Whether they are correct or not depends on what those documents say.

helpplease14

The solicitor that we got advice from said that it wasn't an open and shut case as I only signed one part of the document (there were two bits that should have been signed) and they didn't pick up on that. Also, that they didn't follow their own policy in asking, or threatening, that she would lose her place when payments weren't made - this is why I genuinely thought that they were sorting it all out. I only found out for certain that they actually hadn't done anything at all except issue bills from April to September the day before she died suddenly following a quick illness and rapid decline. I wonder now if that is why all of a sudden the Manager wanted to see me as they had a inkling of what was to come.