Power of attorney given to tenant - ok or not?

[tb]

Hi,

This is a little complicated, and I wonder if it's completely above board.

I am an only child and am estranged from my mother, my father died some years ago.

My mother was living in a flat with a garage which she rented out to someone whom she had never met before to store a car.

Over time, she has made a will naming him as her next of kin, and he has control over her financial affairs. She has also left him money.

About 2 years ago, he contacted me and told me that he would ensure that any property of mine still in her possession would both be returned to me and excluded from any will. He contacted me again when she was apparently drawing up a new will, on her instructions to ask me if I wanted certain items. Some of them have sentimental value, some none whatsoever. Time will tell if I receive any of them, and I'm not holding my breath.

Last year, he told me that she was no longer able to live in her flat (she had used this to secure an income under a reversionary policy) and had gone into a nursing home. He then told me that except for a few possessions that she had taken with her, and some others stored at his house, presumably following her instructions, all other goods had been disposed of at auction.

She is using a firm of solicitors who, over 50 years ago, may have turned a blind eye to a property transfer she affected to defraud her brother and sister. So, I'm a little concerned as to what may have happened to any of my property that was still there. When I reminded him that he had promised to let me know before he disposed of anything, he blamed the lack of contact of his 'absent-mindedness'.

Does this situation sound reasonable? Or does it ring warning bells?

I live in sw France, and all this is happening in NW England, so I've never met this tenant.

What do any legal lurkers think?

Thanks in advance

tb

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

Not relevent to my post I mean. Clearly it is to you. Felt I wasn't clear

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

I didn't ask why she was not in your life. Not relevent at all.

Was simply expressing a hope that the bloke has not been left everything because he bullied or manipulated and showed that I understood you were not concerned about the things because you thought they should be yours (apart from the bits that ARE yours, iyswim)

[tb]

Resolution and Hecate - yes they truly belong to me, although it's years since I left home. They include things like a 18th C coffee can given to me when I was little by a friend of my father, school books etc.

My father promised me that I would have all his belongings after she dies, something that will not happen, but they are things of great sentimental value. Audit textbooks from 1925 aren't of much value.

Hecate - we're estranged because my dh and I didn't give her £40,000 of our money after she tricked us into selling our house and going to live with her, pay all her bills, and maintain her 6-bedroom house. She also accused me of trying to pass my guilt onto her for having counselling after being sexually abused by her friends and after she had invited one of the paedophiles to stay in the house for 2 weeks. Her only concern was to express sorrow for his wife, despite having procured me to be abused by her friends for over 10 years. If she has treated her garage tenant like a son - then God help him.

She paid for this with money stolen from her brother and sister, put it into my father's name, and then later when it suited her forced my father to transfer it into her name alone.

So you can see, she has quite a history. For my dd's safety, she has never her gm.

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

Hopefully your stuff will be returned to you.

Can you go come over to get it?

I hope that this man has been left everything because he has loved and cared for your mum and been like a son to her, and it's not that he has seen an opportunity and manipulated and controlled her. I realise that you are estranged from your mother and so would neither want nor expect to benefit from her will in either case.

[Resolution]

Why did you leave some of your belongings there for many years? Do they truly belong to you? What are they, and are they worth much?