Elderly mother hoarding cash

Rob5342

That's good news, but why was she withdrawing cash to keep in her house instead of just paying the mortgage with it? If she had got burgled she could be in a huge mess.

friolento

Deedeb said:

Update. Excellent advice on here. I wrote out a general power of attorney and took the cash direct to Santander and explained everything. There was a bit of humming and harring  and a couple of phone calls but they agreed to allow it to be part directly to redeem her mortgage to stop court proceedings. Relief all around! Thanks everyone. 

You “wrote out a general power of attorney”?

Deedeb

It’s called an Ordinary Power of Attorney. It is used for a specified purpose and has a time limit. It’s witnessed by one person but does not need to be a solicitor. Age Uk gave me the advice. As to the reasons why she kept the money- that is very personal and I won’t be revealing it here, but it’s not unknown in the older generation. Ps my mother absolutely did not do anything illegal and the undertone of some comments is quite upsetting. Thanks to those giving genuine advice. 

Sea_Shell

I didn't know about OPAs.   You learn something everyday.

Could be useful in some circumstances.

retiredbanker1

Sea_Shell said:

I didn't know about OPAs.   You learn something everyday.

Could be useful in some circumstances.

I know this is now taking this thread off track but in my time the only Power of Attorney we would accept would be court stamped - I have never heard of a temporary general one.
My guess is here that the PoA is a red herring and that Santander accepted the story and circumstances of the mother, and accepted the monies as they were acting ''in the best interest'' of their customer.

xylophone

It is perfectly possible to use an OPA to have access to another person's bank account(s) - someone I know did this for his son for a couple of years.

It was witnessed by a neighbour and a solicitor.

VXman

mebu60 said:

For clarity I think it worth saying that I wouldn't take that amount of cash to a branch in one go without having made arrangments already - there is a fairly high chance of the staff refusing to accept the deposit, in which case there will be the risk involved in carrying that amount of cash on the way home in addition to that on the way to the bank.

Quite a small risk I'd say. I have walked around for 60 years without being attacked/mugged/stolen from. Why would having £25,000 in my rucksack make me anymore vulnerable? No one else would know any different.

sheramber

My son had an OPA for his brother who was selling a house in UK , but lived abroad. 


He signed all the required documents on his brother's behalf.

Section62

VXman said:

mebu60 said:

For clarity I think it worth saying that I wouldn't take that amount of cash to a branch in one go without having made arrangments already - there is a fairly high chance of the staff refusing to accept the deposit, in which case there will be the risk involved in carrying that amount of cash on the way home in addition to that on the way to the bank.

Quite a small risk I'd say. I have walked around for 60 years without being attacked/mugged/stolen from. Why would having £25,000 in my rucksack make me anymore vulnerable? No one else would know any different.

It was me, not mebu60, who made that comment - and the point was that on the way home from the bank you don't know who was listening to your conversation explaining the large amount of cash 'in your rucksack'.  Privacy in banks isn't what it used to be, and even the 'private' rooms are often made of paper and spit.

But the OP was successful in depositing the money, so all is good.