Great Aunt has signed house over to carer

[PooFlower]

I would be grateful for some advice on this. My Great Aunt has signed her house over to her carer.

Great Aunt is in her eighties. She lives alone after her son died last year.
She has the beginnings of dementia and has a paid carer who visits daily. She is close to the carer and has known her for a few years. I think the carer is paid for from local authority, however I am not sure about this as I think she may be self employed.

Alarm bells rang at Aunts sons funeral as all of carers family, including children attended.
The carer also stuck to Aunt like glue.
When my mum arrived at Aunts house before the funeral Aunt was in a bedraggled state with unwashed hair. We just put this down to her grieving.

My Grandad wanted Aunt to give my Dad and his cousin power of attorney to protect against things like this. Grandad was worried about the carer too. Aunt refused and seemed to like the carer so the subject was dropped. Grandad did warn Aunt to not sigh her house over to anyone .

My Grandad is very worried about this but is in his 90s and housebound so is limited to what he can do.

We are worried about what would happen if Aunt needed residential care which is very likely with Aunts current health problems and the longevity on that side of the family.
Is there anything that the family can do about this?

This is not about the money it is about the principle. The house is not worth that much and would be shared between a lot of nieces and nephews if Aunt out lived my Grandad which is likely.

Provided you have done your research, and the carer is the registered proprietor of your aunt’s home, this is a matter for both the police and any professional body the carer is a member of.

Are you 100% sure that the aunt has signed the house over?

I would find out if she's employed by the local authority or not. If so, her employment contract probably limits what she can be gifted by the people she cares for.

You need to report this straight away to the police and the council as this may be a crime and let them deal and find out what has gone on here. This would set off alarm bell to me and I would be acting to protect this elderly and probably easily led lady as you say she may need specialist care in the future and this should not be anywhere in the carers control.

Police and council ASAP. YOur great aunt is vulnerable and wide open to financial abuse, which is what it looks like is happening here

This could be abuse of position. Contact police / solicitor and her employers if you're certain your aunt has done this.

If it's paid for by the local authority she will working for a CQC registered company. You need to raise this to them and to the local authority (both the social worker and the placements or quality assurance team)

This is a huge massive red flag and if employed by the LA through a company would be regarded as safeguarding

I used to run (and sort of oversee still) Domiciliary carers and she would be suspended , dismissed and reported to dbs for this at the absolute least

There should be a daily log file in the house that the carer records in giving the name of the company ...do check it

Or go straight the social worker...or both

There is no reviled group of people in my industry more than carers like this...trust me social workers and providers worth their salt would fillet her for it

Agree with the above- however, it doesn't sound like your aunt has any of her own children left, she is obviously close to the carer. Does anyone else visit or help her out? If I didn't have my own children and a carer was the only person I saw, I would leave my house to them too

I understand that but if it is a professional carer it's so far against the rules it isn't even funny

That carer had best hope she never needs to work again because no-one in the industry would touch her with that on her DBS

Are you sure she's handed it over, have you been able to see any correspondence. If she hasn't handed it over and she does have to go into care in the future then her home may need to be sold to pay for that so there may not be any inheritance. You can contact her local adult social services safeguarding lead and the police who can investigate financial abuse . I would also contact the office of the public guardian to ask about taking over her financial affairs if you feel she is being abused. You can also speak to social services if you feel she is not being cared for properly. Maybe she might benefit from a g.p. visit at home. Do you know if she has been assessed for mental capacity.

I echo what others have said- find out who she works for and her registration details. Report her to her professional body and seek legal advice ASAP. Also have a chat to the police about what they might be able to do with it as a possible fraud case.

You might also want to have a word with your aunt’s regular doctor. She is going to need someone with power of attorney for medical issues if she is in mental decline. I think you would have to prove that she didn’t or couldn’t have known what she was doing.

Thank you for all the advice.
I am going to see my Grandad tomorrow to get more information, he does get confused so I am hoping he has got the wrong end of the stick.

As Aunt is my great Aunt and lives a distance from me, I don't really know her and haven't seen her since I was a young child.

@Hippopotamus My Dad has cousins who live close and visit weekly. My Grandad who is housebound also regularly pays for Aunt to visit him in a taxi.

I think if Aunt had decided to leave the house to the carer in her will, the family would understand. As I said the inheritance would only amount to a few thousand each if split between the nieces and nephews as there are quite a lot of them. It is the possibility that she has already signed it over that is worrying.
I agree that Aunt is probably quite close to and reliant on the carer.

I think the main concern is if Aunt has signed to house over now when it is likely Aunt will need it to fund future care. There is also concern that Aunt could end up homeless.

If your Great Aunt is likely to need care in the future and may have handed it over then it could be seen as deprivation of assets to avoid care fees. I'd have thought she must have got some legal advice about how to hand over a property. It may be worth checking that your Grandad has it right, also if she lacks capacity she could be taken advantage of, a g.p. could determine if she has capacity. Hope it goes ok.

This definitely needs reporting and looked into.

You can report to social services as a safeguarding issue and they will investigate

This absolutely should not be just ignored

First, try to find exact situation with the house. Look up who’s the current owner : www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

If it still is registered to your relative,
then put an alert on it. : www.gov.uk/guidance/property-alert

If it’s not a registered property( because it hasn’t been sold since compulsory registration began, ) then you need to put a caution against first registration, with the Land Registry. www.gov.uk/government/publications/caution-against-first-registration/practice-guide-3-cautions-against-first-registration. You could do this yourself, or pay a solicitor to do it. The person filling in the form should be someone with an interest in the property- expecting to eventually inherit part of the value should do.

Right. Secondly, the possibly criminal carer. Contact adult Social Services .Doesn’t matter who is employing and paying the carer, they will be horrified at possible financial abuse of a vunerable adult, and can advise you how to proceed, and take action themselves.
It may be necessary to involve the police.

Think carefully about gathering and preserving any evidence.
The elderly lady is probably emotionally dependent on her carer, abusive or not. Think about how she can be supported, and hopefully other care arrangements made. She will almost certainly deny there is a problem.

Visit her as much as possible, to gain evidence of how she’s being treated by carer. And meet needs not currently being met. She will need someone else to rely on.

assuming the house has registered title, you can check whether it has been legally transferred by spending a couple of minutes and £s at the land registry.

www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

That's your starting point before contacting the authorities.

I believe if title is unregistered then a transfer form (TR1) is still needed and then first registration will be triggered. So there should still be a paper trail somewhere.

Can you not just ask the aunt directly?

Has she been officially diagnosed as experiencing dementia?
If so, I don’t think anything she has signed will be unchallengeable.

If she's diagnosed with dementia nothing she does is legally enforceable I don't think

If your aunt needs residential care within 7 years of the paperwork being completed then the council get first dibs on the house value anyway. If the carer is paid in anyway by the council/nhs then I'm pretty sure there's a maximum gift limit. But is there proof it's been signed over even? If dementia is an issue you can go to the court of protection for power of attorney

You could just download the OCE from land registry for £3 to find out

Police, social services and the council ASAP.

Just to clarify a diagnosis of dementia would not singly cause this to be unenforceable. A mental capacity assessment would need to be completed and if found not to have capacity a court of protection or POA be involved.

There is a concept of fluctuating capacity where on different days and different issues people can have different levels of capacity so a simple dementia diagnosis would not necessarily affect it

Although it would certainly be easier in court to priove the carer was behaving inappropriately

She may not have a professional body depending on when she started with the company. I don't have to register with them until 2020 because of when I started with my company.

Most companies have a policy that staff are not allowed to benefit or receive anything left in a will and they're also not allowed to be witnesses for wills.

If there was dementia involved, you could say that at the time the Will was written, there was diminished capacity.

Phone your social services and ask for the Pova team. Protection of vulnerable adults. They will have the power to investigate this.
She is being financially abused