What is she up to?

[DontVisitCabotCove]

DB, his partner “Jane” & her 2 kids have been staying with me - in my house - after the house they were buying fell through. They had been looking at other properties to buy but have since decided to end their relationship so that’s no longer happening.

Yesterday while my DB and I were out and unbeknownst to me, Jane had an estate agent over to value my house & as he was leaving he told her he’d send her an email with the valuation & they were talking about viewings etc.

Today Jane asked me to give her a letter stating that my brother is living here but wouldn’t tell me why she wanted it & was really unhappy when I said I’d give her a letter saying they were both temporarily staying with me as that’s the actual truth.

What on earth could she be up to? I’m honestly baffled!

Should I tell her that I know about the valuation? Should I tell my DB about all of this?

On one hand I don’t want to get involved in their troubles or make things worse (things are bad enough between them already) but on the other hand I feel I’m being drawn into it as it’s my bloody house she had valued!

Ok I have seen a very similar situation to this with a work colleague.
Firstly DO NOT give her any letter or any documentation with your signature on it. Get all paperwork away where she cannot access it. Call the Estate Agent and ask them what the heck they are playing at giving a valuation to persons other than the home owner. Demand they are to let you know what was said etc. Sit the pair of them down and ask what the hell they are playing at. Brother may or may not be in on whatever is going on. Give their marching orders and I'd be inclined not to leave them unsupervised in the house. Make sure they have none of your documentation on anything including any written valuation. Contact your bank and let them know you may be at risk of identify theft or someone obtaining a loan in your name. This is what happened to my work colleague by her SIL who basically took out loans in her name and a loan against the house too. It did eventually get sorted but it took a long time and my work colleague collapsed with the stress of it all, ended up in hospital. SO OP please be proactive and get sorted as this could be a major problem although I hope that it's not. But she sounds dodgy and I'd get her out asap, she can stay with her own family/friends.

She has fraudulently set up an email in your name and then had the cheek to try to gaslight you!

There's no copyright on names unless they're registered trademarks. You only have to search for someone on FB to see how many people share names. I can't be the only one MN who has email addresses in various names that I use for various purposes, none of them nefarious.

You really don’t need this OP. I am sorry any of this is happening and this may not be the end of it. Either Jane is lying, Jane and the Estate agents are partially lying, or another female is involved a friend of Janes or a friend or new partner of your brothers.

I really would ask them both to leave and hope this is the end of it. Could the police speak to them both about fraud? Can you have a good trusted friend or other trusted family member stay with you. Some really horrible low life people out there.

Take care 💐

OP - given the fraud risk, might be worth signing up with Experian ir an equivalent: https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/identity.html.

Either Jane is lying, Jane and the Estate agents are partially lying, or another female is involved a friend of Janes or a friend or new partner of your brothers.

Crikey, and here's someone inventing more females involved to go with the invented pregnancy, the invented marriage and DB's invented children.

You say her kids so I'm presuming they're not his... It's either for child support or to get a share of his assets which apparently include your house. I'd be contacting the Estate Agent to let them know she doesn't own the house and to ask them why they felt able to do this (what reason did she give?).

Oh she's sneaky your dB is well rid of her.

A police officer called me back and it’s all logged but they’re not going to do anything about it as there’s no crime.

He was quite matter of fact about the estate agent and suggested it was very likely a dead end as it’s highly unlikely whoever it is would have used any identifying information i.e. their real phone number.

He also pointed out that while I may suspect Jane, her story has plausible deniability and several other people including my family members and DP knew I had a hospital appointment at that time, details of my condition etc.

So basically there’s no crime and several different people who could have had involvement.

He sympathised though and said he understood how unnerving something like this can be but if my suspicions were correct, I’ve caught on early enough and alerted people that I’m aware now so I’ve probably headed off any potential problems.

He then gave me some general advice on what to do to protect myself and what to look out for (monitoring my credit file etc) and suggested following up with my solicitor regarding the land registry etc. So basically that’s it unless something else happens.

Your brother has had a lucky escape

Give her nothing with your address on

I doubt this woman was sophisticated enough to use a fake number. For completeness, I would still put through a SAR request with the estate agent. She must have left a number.

This is insane. She must have faked an email address with your name in it. She’s gone to some lengths to do whatever it is she’s trying to do!

I'd be contacting the Estate Agent to let them know she doesn't own the house and to ask them why they felt able to do this (what reason did she give?).

If I may defend the EA here (never a popular position): If someone calls you up and says "Hi, I live at 4 Acacia Avenue and I'd like my house valued, can you come round at 2pm tomorrow?", and you turn up and they let you in — either because they answer the doorbell or because they are standing outside with the key — you are probably not going to say "Sorry, just a bit of due diligence first, can you please show me your passport and the deeds?". I think it's reasonable for the EA to assume that someone with access to the house who is asking for the valuation and says they're the owner, is in fact the owner. Maybe that due diligence should be a standard part of the protocol, but I'd bet it isn't in 99% of cases. Whenever we've sold a property, nobody asked for ID.

That also means that when the OP later turns up and says "Er, actually, I'm the owner", the EA has no obvious immediate way to work out who is telling the truth. From their point of view they are just dealing with a couple of people, of whom probably one is weird. All they can do at that point is activate the "Hmmm, something is fucked up here" mode that anyone who has to deal with the public for a living will develop over time. Once the OP shows them the deeds and her passport, hopefully the penny will drop, but psychologically it's a lot easier to believe the first person you met rather than the second, so I can understand it taking a while for the lies planted by Jane to be cleared from the OP's mind.

@DontVisitCabotCove What a horrible experience you are having. Have you told Jane that she needs to leave immediately? The innocent act really doesn’t stand up in light of the letter she’s trying to get out of you but refuses to explain why. That’s not an innocent person’s actions.

Yup. Get the number, block ID and then give her a call...

I'm sorry for everything you're going through OP. Unfortunately there's always people out there who will take advantage of people so it's work keeping your eyes open.

Maybe she's struggling to find somewhere to rent (it is very hard to find a place at the moment) and tried to say she's selling the house so they knew she could afford the rent. A load of private landlords do affordability checks before they let out a house. Also, if the council thinks she has somewhere to live now they won't even help her. They would say she made herself 'intentionally homeless' if she moves out with getting evicted.

But still she seems really sneaky so I wouldn't trust her.

Aye. I recently sold a house I no longer live in.

When I got the no obligation valuation, the EA just popped round. No ID until I signed up with him...

Apologies if already suggested and I have missed it but you may want to apply for protective registration

https://www.cifas.org.uk/individuals

This places a flag on the national fraud database that organisations need to do extra checks for any applications they receive using your details

Crumbs lucky escape- the estate agent plus the timing of asking for the letter gives it away. The EA has clearly indicated that she was expecting him, which goes against her statement that she thought you forgot. She is clever enough to get this information which is currently available to her AND set herself up with plausible deniability. I anticipate this isn't her first rodeo, it will be interesting how bold she is.

Is she using the system to find out how much you DB will be worth, and then attempting to prove that she and her family were resident at the property, so they are entitled to some of the money when she inevitably makes their relationship into a situation that can no longer continue. I can't imagine she would honestly thing that she would be able to actually sell your house.

But I agree it's all a bit St Mary Mead/Cabot Cove-esq if she had pulled it off. Perhaps there was more than one estate agent in case she was rumbled?

So has Jane now left your house OP? Has DB told her to go? (Sorry if I've missed that bit someone put me right)

Firstly love your username

secondly as per my advice earlier I second this, at least you’d have the details they sent emails to etc.

I'm so worried about the OP and her safety 😟

I sincerely hope Jane and the brother are out of the house by now.

How stressful for you. Could she have been intending to try & raise a mortgage on your home?
A lucky escape for your brother.
Wishing you well.

Why should the brother go? So far there had been no indication he was involved.

I share a creeping feeling of worry.
Yuck.