Court of protection

Maeby

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MaebyForumite2 POSTS

 

I am interested to hear people's experiences with the Court of Protection, especially if you have had dealings with them in the past year or so.

I was appointed a financial deputy for my father in 2021. It was a fairly drawn out process but I received a court order confirming my deputyship within 6 weeks of the decision made following a judicial hearing.

Subsequently, I was (according to the person I spoke to on their phone team in late August 2022) appointed my father's trustee, in respect of a property jointly owned by my parents, on 1 August 2022.

This is the last time I was able to get in contact with anyone from the COP. Since then (so for nearly 6 months), I have received no correspondence, been unable to contact the COP by phone (I have phoned 30+ times since October and have been cut off after 20 minutes each time), and my emails have gone unanswered.

In the meantime, my vulnerable mother, who is in poor health and on a basic pension, is responsible for the upkeep of 2 houses, which is causing immense financial and emotional strain (especially given a difficult family situation.)

I have reached out to the OPG (who monitor my deputyship) but they have no more access to the COP than I have.

I would be interested if anyone has experienced anything similar or has any advice as to what next steps to take.

Thank you for your help.

elsien

Is the problem that they haven’t sent you any paperwork confirming the trustee? 

Have you made a formal complaint? Seems to me that’s where you’re at if you can’t get through to them at all.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service/about/complaints-procedure

Savvy_Sue

And / or speak to your MP.

Keep_pedalling

I am not sure what the problem is if you you received the court order back in 2021, but if you need to contact them try phoning at 8:30 as soon as they open.

Do you have an LPA in place for your mother? If not I would suggest she gets that sorted, otherwise you will end up going through the deputyship process again.

Malthusian

As others have said, you haven't said why are you trying to contact the COP, given you already have deputyship and the court order confirming this.
If you have Deputyship for your father then you and your mother (who is apparently compos mentis) should between you have full control of the jointly owned property. It's not clear what else the COP needs to do. Your mother should make an LPOA as soon as possible if she has capacity and has not already.
If the two of you are struggling to manage the two properties (you are Deputy for the other owner, so you are both responsible) then have you considered selling one? (I'm guessing one is her home and the other is... empty? rented?)

Maeby

Keep_pedalling said:

I am not sure what the problem is if you you received the court order back in 2021, but if you need to contact them try phoning at 8:30 as soon as they open.

Do you have an LPA in place for your mother? If not I would suggest she gets that sorted, otherwise you will end up going through the deputyship process again.

Appreciate my post is long winded and perhaps not clear - the issue is that, though i am my father's deputy, we cannot sell the house that my parents own until I am also appointed his trustee, to represent his interest in the property. I was apparently appointed his trustee last August but we cannot move forward because - 6 months later - I have not received the court order confirming this and for 4 months have been unable to get through to anyone to find out what's happening.

Maeby

Malthusian said:

As others have said, you haven't said why are you trying to contact the COP, given you already have deputyship and the court order confirming this.
If you have Deputyship for your father then you and your mother (who is apparently compos mentis) should between you have full control of the jointly owned property. It's not clear what else the COP needs to do. Your mother should make an LPOA as soon as possible if she has capacity and has not already.
If the two of you are struggling to manage the two properties (you are Deputy for the other owner, so you are both responsible) then have you considered selling one? (I'm guessing one is her home and the other is... empty? rented?)

Unfortunately, being a deputy does not give you permission to sell a property on anyone's behalf. In order to do this, you have to reapply to the COP to become a trustee. I am trying to contact the the COP because I was advised that a judge appointed me trustee on 1 August 2022, however I have received no paperwork. We cannot move forward with a sale (and so ease the burden on my mother) until the official paperwork comes through.

Maeby

elsien said:

Is the problem that they haven’t sent you any paperwork confirming the trustee? 

Have you made a formal complaint? Seems to me that’s where you’re at if you can’t get through to them at all.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service/about/complaints-procedure

Thank you, complaints process seems the next step.

Savvy_Sue

I'm wondering, do you know which court this judge was sitting in? My thinking is that approaching the physical court might get results - but I appreciate that COP stands for 'Court of Protection', and if that is physically where the judgement was made, it doesn't get you much further forward.

I did find a link which said that cases were sometimes referred to district courts, and I also found a link showing which cases were due to be heard tomorrow. So as you have a definite date on which this happened it might help. 

I'm wondering if it's worth approaching a solicitor with expertise in this area to see if they have ways and means of finding things out? But complaint / MP would also be worth doing!