Grandad dying in hospital, granny lives separately but still married, no will, but potentially large estate, does it matter if aunt Claire is emptying his house now of documents?

[KitchenKrisis]

Huge panic because grandad is probably not going to leave hospital and whilst he is still married people have started to empty the house?..

Does it matter if they take documents or not!

Ask granny if you can have permission to change the locks on the house

Granny should talk to police.

Thank you for all the advice.
I think he's unaware really of the animosity and lack of care shown to him and he feels everything is going to be OK.

I saw this with a friend her dp totally and utterly under estimated how greedy and ruthless her son would be when it came to her death!

They seem to be using his wish to go home as a hook to manipulate him because it doesn't look like he will go home. They said they wanted to make it suitable but they didn't and just took stuff away.
I think police in the first instance is a good idea.

Is it possible that he has expressed a wish to leave hospital, and Social Services need to assess his financial situation to arrange care?

What has actually been taken? Document everything that has been, report this to the police and speak with a solicitor.

Unless your aunt has been granted Power of Attorney (which she clearly hasn't) then her actions are likely not legal. Even with POA one must be very careful and all removal or transferral of inventory accounted for.

I would speak with him tactfully if he has confirmed capacity and confirm with him he has documents (a will) in order that reflect his wishes should anything happen. As family and next of kin you need to consider arranging power of attorney should he become more unwell, and appraise yourselves of the legal process surrounding a death so there is some order and control during this upsetting time.

Very sorry OP, I hope he improves and is comfortable

This happens so often - my DH's cousin did it to their mutual grandmother. Its an open but unproven secret she took a significant amount of fairly valuable jewelry too. She claims that her grandmother wanted her to have everything she took and that she knows nothing about some of the missing papers (including shares and deeds for land in a different country) and jewelry. It's impossible to prove. There's no reason the grandmother would have wanted her specifically to have most of her valuables - there were a lot of grandchildren and the one who did a sweep wasn't closer than some of the others.

My Grandfather died recently and his ex-partner’s daughter from a previous relationship emptied his bank account of thousands of pounds.
I’m assuming Aunt Claire could do the same if she has bank details.

If the relatives are going into grandad's house with his permission then nothing can really be done about it. They may be sorting stuff out for him.

It only becomes grandma's issue when grandad dies and she inherits (if she does).

How long have they been separated?

@Aquamarine1029

I'd call the police. What they're doing is stealing.

The police won't do anything, they'll say it's a civil matter. Similar happening with friend/neighbour of my mums. Neighbour has effectively stolen her car and changed the locks on the house. He has no right whatsoever, there's no will and two nephews to inherit. But police said they don't care. So he can walk across the road and take the car but no doubt if I turned up and drove his car away the police would be after me. Most bizarre.

If it's your aunt, then you are the child of Claire sibling, is your parents coming back to see their father perhaps for the last time?

If both siblings came back surely they could find out what's happening.