Dealing with finances of dying relative

FreeworldImpossible

The wife's grandmother suffered a stroke back in May and was deemed to lack mental capacity. She was subsequently diagnosed with leukaemia, which at 93 years of age they have decided not to treat. Some consultants have told us that they think she may only have months left to live.

She's now residing in a nursing home paid for by the NHS as they deem her to be requiring end of life care.

Just wondering if anyone has any info on how you deal with a family members' personal affairs when they no longer have mental capacity? There is no Power of Attorney in place despite her making a will some 6 or 7 years ago.

NPower are being very short with the wife because obviously she isn't on the account. At the outset the wife told them the situation and they said that they would place the account on hold. However, since then a series of debt collection letters have been sent and today there's a letter from a company who've made a home visit who are threatening to gain a warrant to enter the property. In total I think she owes NPower £800, plus there's a BT bill of about £450 which they keep sending threatening letters for. She's phoned NPower again today and they make out they're doing you a favour by giving her gran another month in which to pay.

Do we need to obtain appointed deputy status in order to deal with her affairs, or is there something else we can do?

Yorkshireman99

FreeworldImpossible wrote: »

The wife's grandmother suffered a stroke back in May and was deemed to lack mental capacity. She was subsequently diagnosed with leukaemia, which at 93 years of age they have decided not to treat. Some consultants have told us that they think she may only have months left to live.

She's now residing in a nursing home paid for by the NHS as they deem her to be requiring end of life care.

Just wondering if anyone has any info on how you deal with a family members' personal affairs when they no longer have mental capacity? There is no Power of Attorney in place despite her making a will some 6 or 7 years ago.

NPower are being very short with the wife because obviously she isn't on the account. At the outset the wife told them the situation and they said that they would place the account on hold. However, since then a series of debt collection letters have been sent and today there's a letter from a company who've made a home visit who are threatening to gain a warrant to enter the property. In total I think she owes NPower £800, plus there's a BT bill of about £450 which they keep sending threatening letters for. She's phoned NPower again today and they make out they're doing you a favour by giving her gran another month in which to pay.

Do we need to obtain appointed deputy status in order to deal with her affairs, or is there something else we can do?

Legally it is the only way though it is time consuming and expensive. Someone needs to speak to the two creditors and speak to a supervisor or manager rather than the front line call centre staff.

nPower

FreeworldImpossible wrote: »

The wife's grandmother suffered a stroke back in May and was deemed to lack mental capacity. She was subsequently diagnosed with leukaemia, which at 93 years of age they have decided not to treat. Some consultants have told us that they think she may only have months left to live.

She's now residing in a nursing home paid for by the NHS as they deem her to be requiring end of life care.

Just wondering if anyone has any info on how you deal with a family members' personal affairs when they no longer have mental capacity? There is no Power of Attorney in place despite her making a will some 6 or 7 years ago.

NPower are being very short with the wife because obviously she isn't on the account. At the outset the wife told them the situation and they said that they would place the account on hold. However, since then a series of debt collection letters have been sent and today there's a letter from a company who've made a home visit who are threatening to gain a warrant to enter the property. In total I think she owes NPower £800, plus there's a BT bill of about £450 which they keep sending threatening letters for. She's phoned NPower again today and they make out they're doing you a favour by giving her gran another month in which to pay.

Do we need to obtain appointed deputy status in order to deal with her affairs, or is there something else we can do?

Hi FreeworldImpossible,

Thanks for your post.

I understand that this must be difficult for your family, so while we still have to act within data protection laws, we'll help where we can.

We'd normally advise applying for a Power of Attorney so a designated person can manage their affairs for them. If it's deemed that a PoA isn't necessary and your grandmother-in-law's compus mentus enough to function with basic things, just needs additional assistance, we will also accept a signed letter from her and whoever wants to look after the account on her behalf. You can scan and send it into us using the details on our profile page.

Kind regards

Jess:)

Yorkshireman99

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi FreeworldImpossible,

Thanks for your post.

I understand that this must be difficult for your family, so while we still have to act within data protection laws, we'll help where we can.

We'd normally advise applying for a Power of Attorney so a designated person can manage their affairs for them. If it's deemed that a PoA isn't necessary and your grandmother-in-law's compus mentus enough to function with basic things, just needs additional assistance, we will also accept a signed letter from her and whoever wants to look after the account on her behalf. You can scan and send it into us using the details on our profile page.

Kind regards

Jess:)

Given the circumstances why don't you just send the OP a private message and sort the problem out?

Keep_pedalling

This is an example of why all us adult should have a LPA in place to deal with situations like this.

Appointing a deputy unfortunately does take time and does involve significant costs. If you can afford to do so one alternative would be to pay these bills on her behalf and then bill her estate after she passes, but I would not do that without speaking to the executors named in the will first.

elsien

Deemed not to have capacity for what? Capacity is decision specific, so she may not have capacity to decide where she lives, for example, but may have capacity around other decisions.
If she has financial capacity then she could set up a third party mandate on her bank account. Does she have enough understanding to authorise you to deal with creditors on her behalf so you can at least speak to them and stop the charges from racking up.
If she doesn't have financial capacity then as others have said deputyship is the way to go.
There's also some guidance for companies dealing with vulnerable customers - if I can find it I'll post the link.

Edit - the information here might be of use.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5459201
You could write to remind them of their obligations towards someone who lacks capacity with regards to debt collection etc.

FreeworldImpossible

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

This is an example of why all us adult should have a LPA in place to deal with situations like this.

Appointing a deputy unfortunately does take time and does involve significant costs. If you can afford to do so one alternative would be to pay these bills on her behalf and then bill her estate after she passes, but I would not do that without speaking to the executors named in the will first.

Yes Keep pedalling, indeed it is. When she told us she'd created a will we did tell her to create a LPA, her words were, "oh no, I'll never need anything like that."

We are however, (wife and I), the sole executors of her will. I'm not sure how much more of the bills we can afford to pay to be honest as we've already paid her council tax and water bill for her.

elsien wrote: »

Deemed not to have capacity for what? Capacity is decision specific, so she may not have capacity to decide where she lives, for example, but may have capacity around other decisions.
If she has financial capacity then she could set up a third party mandate on her bank account. Does she have enough understanding to authorise you to deal with creditors on her behalf so you can at least speak to them and stop the charges from racking up.
If she doesn't have financial capacity then as others have said deputyship is the way to go.
There's also some guidance for companies dealing with vulnerable customers - if I can find it I'll post the link.

Edit - the information here might be of use.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5459201
You could write to remind them of their obligations towards someone who lacks capacity with regards to debt collection etc.

Her lack of capacity involves the here and now. She doesn't know where she is, she doesn;t know if it's 1968 or 1977 and thinks the nursing home is our house, then in the next sentence thinks she's on holiday. So I'm not sure in what capacity she could even consider financial decisions.

FreeworldImpossible

Does anyone know the costs involved with gaining deputy status? I believe she is in receipt of pension credit if that has any bearing on the costs? Would this be something we could do ourselves?

Keep_pedalling

Costs are here.

https://www.gov.uk/become-deputy/fees

weeowens

FreeworldImpossible wrote: »

Does anyone know the costs involved with gaining deputy status? I believe she is in receipt of pension credit if that has any bearing on the costs? Would this be something we could do ourselves?

All is outlined here: https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview

I set the financial one up for my late mother two years back. I did it myself & did not use a solicitor. It is not too complicated but needs to be completed as directed.

Then after completion post it off & wait for it be be registered. My Mums took about ten weeks to come back.

Any questions are welcome.

Yorkshireman99

FreeworldImpossible wrote: »

Does anyone know the costs involved with gaining deputy status? I believe she is in receipt of pension credit if that has any bearing on the costs? Would this be something we could do ourselves?

Phone the Office of the Public Guardian and ask them.

0300 456 0300 900 to 1700