Family dispute: house in step-father's name

elsien

I don’t know about the joint ownership - she would need to consider if there is any financial detriment to him by doing so, for example if there is the possibility of needing the equity himself for any care needs or anything else. If he might, then it’s probably a no.
Pressuring the relatives - can’t see any way of doing that. If it’s in their interests then they will, if it’s not then they won’t. 

Unfortunately your stepdad’s wishes are just that if he chose not to address the situation while he was still well enough to do so. 

Spendless

Fishmarket said:

Thanks so much for such really helpful comments. To answer some of the questions raised, my step-father owns the house and he has made a will leaving the property to my mother and she has POA for financial affairs. His family are now using more than one solicitor for different issues such as the financial settlement and easement, which makes it really difficult for my mother’s solicitor to manage the situation.  

I understand that mental capacity is judged discretely for different issues and that it may still apply in dementia cases. However, my step-father is very poorly these days.

My step-father’s wishes will be ignored by his family if my mother dies before him so her family will get nothing. The key issues are: can my mother alter the ownership of the property to a ‘joint ownership’ and is there any way of pressuring my stepfather’s family to sign the settlement papers?

I'm struggling to understand. Maybe I'm not grasping something. If step-dad dies first then your Mum inherits the property.
If Mum goes first, then on step-dad's death the property goes to his  family instead, fair enough. Your Mum would have already died.

What are the step-father's wishes that would be ignored? If he wanted some of his step family to inherit in Mum's place instead of his own family why wasn't this put in the will?

 When my Nan made a will she was asked and what about if you outlive your child/grandchildren and how she wanted anything left divided up if that happened. I always thought that was commonplace when making a will.  

Fishmarket

My step-father’s will was made shortly after he married my mother. There were three brothers in the farming family and their houses were all held jointly. The brothers all married and the other two put their houses into joint ownership with their wives. This was unbeknown to my mother at the time. Years later, when my mother found this out, she asked her solicitor if their house could also be put into joint ownership. She was told then that it would not be ‘ethical’ to do this because my step father was already suffering from dementia. My step father is no longer allowed to sign any documents because of his condition. For some years now my mother has been his carer and she now deals with his financial affairs. We could argue that she is saving the farming family the expense of carers (which another brother had to have) but risks being able to leave absolutely nothing to her own family.

elsien

I can understand your mother’s perspective in wanting to provide for her children however I’m not seeing how giving half your stepfather’s house away in now in his best interests? 

It may well seem unfair and that the other families have pulled  a fast one but tbh that’s not your stepfather’s problem.