Joint LPA and evidence of coercive controlling behaviour

Kazmck

I am a joint LPA for finance for my father with my brother, we also have two siblings that are not LPA's. 

Our father is in a nursing home and very poorly. I have been sorting out my fathers bank accounts and have found alot of evidence of money being taken from my father by our two other siblings.

Social services have previously found evidence of coersive and controlling behaviour by them and have spoken to my father before he had a stroke. At that time my father admitted he was frightened and bullied in to giving money to them but said he didn't want them to involve the police (at this time Dad had full capacity, but not now). 

However I have now evidence of over 10k missing in 9 months. We have only had the LPA for 3 weeks.

My brother is defending our siblings which is causing me to doubt his motives. He also has said he will not help me sort out Dads house which is 350 miles away from my brother and myself (the house is in a very poor state and needs to be gutted). We need to sell his house to pay for his nursing care home.  Really not sure what to do next, my brother (reluctantly) and I have signed a letter to the banks to  request the previous years bank statements which I m sure will show up more evidence.

Any advice really would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. 

TBagpuss

This is very difficult - it may be sensible for you to get some advice.

Obviously moving forward, as you know, you will have to act in you dad's best interests which will no doubt include ensuring that no one else has access to your dad's accounts, and possibly discussing with the care home your concerns, if you think that there is any risk of your siblings visiting your dad and causing him distress. 

With regard to the missing funds, I think a lot depends on how strong the evidence is of the previous behavior. Any police involvement would, I think, mean the the police would have to decide whether there was enough evidence to have a reasonable prospect of securing a convection, and assuming that your dad is no longer able to give evidence of the coercion, I suspect (but am not an expert) that there probably wouldn't be.

You *might* be able to put pressure on your siblings to return the funds on the basis of an agreement not to involve the police, or approach them with a view to setting up formal repayment terms on the basis that the monies were a loan not a gift and that now you are acting a s attorney you need to ensure that repayments are made regularly. 

I am not sure whether you would have any grounds to recover the money through the civil courts where the evidence needed to prove that the money was obtained through coercion would be lower than in the criminals courts but it may be worth getting some advice on that point. Again, I suspect it would depend hugely on what exactly the evidence is that Social Services have, and how much of the money taken it relates to.  

IF you are worried about your brother's motives (and bear in mind it may be simply that he doesn't want to trigger a family feud, rather than anything more sinister) and are worried about whether he might take money then you need to look at ways to avoid that. You may be able to set up any bank accounts to require two signatures, or authority from both of you, for example, or simply keep a very close eye on all transactions, be meticulous about recording and getting receipts for everything (which you should anyway) so you can quickly identify any transactions which are not appropriate. 

Kazmck

You pretty much summed up my thoughts, I will seek a legal opinion as I need to ensure my Dad gets the best care and that his funds don't suffer as a result of people thieving. Its so sad but thank you for you comments it helped to focus me on what I already thought. 

Keep_pedalling

Does the LPA give you the ability to act jointly and severally?

Kazmck

Jointly  which really is causing problems with providing care for my father. 

tacpot12

Kazmck said:

Jointly  which really is causing problems with providing care for my father. 

It really was a bad idea to agree to be named as an attorney if you have to act jointly with your brother, but now that you have done so, you need to work with him.

You can, of course, sort out the practical issues with your father's house without your brother, it is not fair that he will not help, but there is nothing other than a sense of duty to his father that will make him do so. So my advice is to crack on and sort it out yourself. Just use him to sign anything legal that is required regarding the sale.

It would be sensible to try to engage him on decisions if there is property that needs to be disposed of or which could be sold.   

Keep_pedalling

As for the house, take a trip remove all important papers and valuables and hire someone to clear it. As already said jointly was a terrible mistake, as you have no choice bu5 to work together to get is sold. If he really does help with the house he need to agree to let you get on with it including appointing an a state agent to market it. I would not bother doing any work on it sell it as is.