Mother wants to sell house but son is living in it...

The_Walker

Hello. My mother's husband has died recently and so she has inherited the entire family home. She lives in a nursing home though, and my brother has been living in the house for many years which has certainly been a great deal for him money-wise.

However my mother has decided she wants to sell the house now, and doesn't want to continue financing the maintenance of the house etc.

My question is, does my 55 year old brother living in the house present her with a problem if he doesn't want to leave (highly likely)? Is possession really 9 tenths of the law?

Thanks in advance.

SiliconChip

The best option is for your mother to consult a solicitor, which of course she'll need to do to sell the house anyway. My very non-expert opinion is that your brother has no rights at all so your mother is perfectly entitled to do whatever she wants with the house, the difficulty is getting him out of the house if he decides not to move.

A couple of questions: do you (or your brother, or both) have a finance power of attorney for your mother, and is she self-funding in the nursing home?

Keep_pedalling

No possession is not 9 10ths of the law. Your brother is effectively a lodger and lodgers have few rights as far as staying put are concerned. If he has actually contributed more than the basic costs (share of CT, energy costs ect) he may claim to have built a financial interest in the house but otherwise he has no claim on the house.

You need to have serious words with him about him needing to start to look for alternative accommodation. 

Do you have financial power of attorney for her? If not she really should put that in place, but this might be a case where it would be better to give a solicitor POA to act for her as far as the house sale is concerned. 

elsien

It may also depend on whether he can try to claim to be financially dependent on her, given the length of time that he’s lived there without paying his way.
Has she taken her name off all the bills?

The_Walker

Thanks guys. She is funded in the nursing home primarily by the council along with her pension, but of course now she owns the house they will have some interest in it of course. I'm not sure what kind of powers they have though.

My brother and I do not have power of attorney over her, she is deemed to have mental capacity currently. I didn't realise a solicitor could use power of attorney to deal with the house sale, that sounds interesting.

I guess my concern is what happens if my brother, who has spent zero of his own money on the house, literally refuses to move out? Squatters rights and all that?

The_Walker

My mothers name was never on the bills to my knowledge. My father paid for everything, but he passed away recently.

Keep_pedalling

Unless your brother is a vulnerable adult then the house will certainly be included in her financial assessment and the house will need to be sold to pay for her care. 

The_Walker

I should add my brother mentioned in passing that if someone reaches the age of 60, apparently they can't be evicted? I'm not sure how true that is or whether we'll reach that stage!

The_Walker

Keep_pedalling said:

Unless your brother is a vulnerable adult then the house will certainly be included in her financial assessment and the house will need to be sold to pay for her care. 

Interestingly a social worker said if there is someone living in the house they can't force a sale but will get their money retrospectively. I thought that was puzzling actually, I always assumed they'd go after the house immediately. He's not a vulnerable adult by the way.

elsien

He is probably thinking of the property disregard when it comes to local authority funding for care homes. 

If your mother is self funding, then that is irrelevant and doesn’t give him the right to stay there forever more. She still has the right to tell him to leave if she wants to regardless of his age.

The_Walker

elsien said:

He is probably thinking of the property disregard when it comes to local authority funding for care homes. 

If your mother is self funding, then that is irrelevant and doesn’t give him the right to stay there forever more. She still has the right to tell him to leave if she wants to regardless of his age.

I wonder if he was thinking along the lines of if she dies when he's over 60 and we inherited the property jointly, I couldn't get him out.