Owning a property with my sibling and want to sell... can I??

molly22

My sister and I bought a house together 20 years ago. 
Eventually my 2 children and I have moved on. my half is mortgaged and I need to sell... so I encouraged my sister (in her 80's) to move into a rented retirement flat more suitable for her disabilities and close to where I live. I sort her finances shopping washing cooking some of her meals etc. We were/are very close. She signed for the flat and I helped her move.... then she started asking to go home.... I've explained the house needs to be sold. After a week very warily I took her back to the house... she walked around and collected a few more things and we returned to her flat. She seemed more settled. Then the next day wanting to go home again.  
It's all very upsetting. I don't know what I can do. And I'm unsure about the legalities if there are any??
Any advice?

Savvy_Sue

Do you / does anyone have Power of Attorney for your sister? When the time comes to sell the house, do you think there will be any problem with her signing the necessary forms - might she refuse? That is the biggest legality I can think of. 

Do you think she forgets that the house has to be sold? 

Does her new flat have any support in place, is there anyone there you can talk to? 

Is she 'settling' in her new home, has she started to meet her neighbours and make friends? 

molly22

I have a POA... but im not sure how/when I can use it. 
She has become very forgetful and when I say If you want to go home just go.. she says she isn't sure where it is!
I'm trying to get a dementia screening done by the gp... not the easiest or quickest thing to get done.
I don't want to do anything illegal or immoral.... but I need to sell the house as I have a big mortgage on it and the cost are rising quickly. Also the house takes a lot of maintaining and my sister isn't interested in that side of things anymore. 

Misslayed

I've requested a move to the house buying/selling board, there are lots of very knowledgeable, experienced and helpful folk there. 

sourpuss2021

Please forgive me my nosy question, but how do you have a large mortgage on your half of a property bought 20 years ago for, presumably, peanuts compared to its value today?

user1977

The mortgage must in any event be over the whole property - the lender can't repossess half a house.

quotememiserable

You'll probably find she takes time to mentally let go of the house. My mum was the same. But over a year or so she gradually stopped wanting to go and it could be sold. Can you afford to give her some time?

Exodi

sourpuss2021 said:

Please forgive me my nosy question, but how do you have a large mortgage on your half of a property bought 20 years ago for, presumably, peanuts compared to its value today?

The OP hasn't said it was a large mortgage (though it's not impossible if they kept releasing equity by remortgaging) plus the house price is totally irrelevant to the mortgage - if they bought the property 20 years ago on a 25 year mortgage, they'd still have 5 more years to pay the mortgage (assuming they haven't overpaid or changed the terms), regardless of whether the house has 10x'd in value.

The reason the OP probably wants to sell, is likely to release some of the, potentially considerable, equity that is locked in the property.

As she's in her 80's, I'd give her some time to adjust and keep reiterating that you agreed the house needed to be sold.

Annisele

In principle you can sell, yes - but it might be tricky to get to the point where you can actually do that.

If your sister objects to the sale, then it's likely you could (eventually) get a court order to force the sale. Whether you'd want to take your sister to court is of course another question.

If your sister is willing to sell, and has capacity to make that decision, then selling is easy - or at least, no more difficult than it would be for anybody else to sell a property.

If your sister can't say what she wants, or doesn't understand what she wants, then things are trickier. I see you have PoA, but next steps are likely to depend on what kind of PoA. If it's an ordinary PoA, then it'll be unfortunately be utterly useless if your sister has lost capacity. If it's a (registered) LPA or EPA, then you might need to appoint somebody else as trustee for the property and/or make an application to the Court of Protection. But I think that will depend on exactly what sort of PoA there is, and possibly on whether there are any other joint owners.

(However, I'm also confused about how it's possible to have a mortgage on half a house - and it might be that my misunderstanding there has caused everything else I've said to be wrong in this situation.)

molly22

Basically the property is mortgaged which is my sole responsibility. Assuming the property sells for the market rate any equity will be my sisters. My only gain will be not having to constantly maintain or pay a mortgage on a house I don't need. 
Just to clarify I have an LPA for her. Both finance and health. 

TripleH

Letting go is hard especially after a long time.

My parent's home of 30+ years was sold this year. I was very much of the view I'd moved on and it made sense to sell it.

After it went I have a small niggle of longing loss at the back of my mind. I imagine it could be harder if it has an emotional security feel for your sister.