Any lawyers here to advise about abusing POA rights

[Newsername]

If anyone could advise me what kind of lawyer would deal with a POA buying the house of the person they represent (father) secretly and not telling their sibling, even though the sibling is the one living there and paying bills/upkeep.

Is this legal? Would it come under family law, property? I have no idea where to go for advice.

Also, it’s been bought at a tiny fraction of the price the property is actually worth.

If POA is being abused, surely the Court of Protection is the first call?

Where do you come into it? It isn’t clear from your post. Are you the attorney or the sibling living in the property?

I’ve emailed the OPG for advice. I want to see a lawyer/solicitor but I’m not sure where to start I’ve never had to contact a law firm before. I’m the sibling living in the house.

Is there a reason why you ve not got poa?

Where does your father live?

Contact the compliance unit of the OPG as it sounds like sibling is abusing his power. They will investigate.

What kind of solicitor depends on what you want to achieve. If it’s to establish whether you have any interest in the property, then you want a family lawyer.

I think you mean the attorney rather than the power of attorney (the power is what they are appointed under). I believe there are old ones and new ones so you might want to check if it is a new style one or an old style one before the law changed and also the jurisdiction - eg English and Scottish law are not the same.

Then you need to check if the power has been registered/activated with the pubilc guardian office or not and if it was entered into at a time when the person had capacity to enter into it or force on to them once they had severe dementia.

Let us assume the parents entered into it years ago when they were competent so the main question now is has it been registered yet and do both children accept the parent has lost competence or not? If not you may want the public guardian to send in their medical visitor to check.

I haven't really answered the question - you should use a family lawyer who knows about probate and that kind of thing. You may be able to do it without a solicitor of course. Also you could on line today go to the Land Registry website and probably register some kind of interest over the house if the siblings has basically attempted to steal it from the elderly parent.

However the person who "stole" it may have acted in best interests - we don't know. It may be the elderly parent is still competent and has authorised the transfer (go to the land registry website and for £3 check the title etc anyway).