Power of attorney and selling property to a family member.

[Proudofeveryone]

I am one of 3 attorneys on the POA for my mother.
We need to sell her house to pay for the care home fees.
One of the other attorneys wants us to sell this house to
his daughter for a large reduced rate. (Think £50k)
I don't think it's allowed plus I don't think it's fair. The other Attorney is on the fence.
What I've read is that as attorneys we must get either the market value or best price.
Am I correct in what I'm saying.

No. I wouldn't do this. As attorneys you're responsible for the donor and must act in THEIR best interests. It is not in their best interests to sell their house for less than it worth. Don't do it x

If you will be looking at the council stepping into to assist with care fees a property sold under market value will be seen as deprivation of assets.

This. The other is being selfish and suggesting stealing from your mum. You could all be removed as attorneys if anyone gets wind of it. You should insist on 3 independent valuations and best possible price or it will need to go on the market.

My friend bought her aunts flat and bought her sister out (they were the 2 beneficiaries) and her Mum and another family member were executors and they had 3 valuations and my friends sister said she was happy with 50% of the lowest valuation but the differences were all between £160-175k not a £50k difference but I'd take some proper legal advice as there's an inheritance tax evasion issue too.

As others have said, you are under a legal duty to act in the best interests of your mother. Selling the house for less than its market value would clearly be a failure to fulfil that duty and could lead to a criminal prosecution for Fraud by Abuse of Position and/or the attorneys being dismissed and replaced by a professional. If the local authority needs to be involved with paying care home fees at any point, selling the house for less than its value would be regarded as deliberate deprivation of assets, which means the additional £50,000 that should have been raised would be included when they do the means test.

I think this could be seen as deliberate depreciation of assets as the money is needed for care home fees.

As poa you’re on dodgy ground doing this, and it’s not in your mums best interests.

As PPs have said, unlawful on several counts. The attorney who is suggesting this is an absolute shit. Your poor DM trusted him and he is betraying her.

Expect the beneficiaries of her Will to come after you as well, unless you are the beneficiaries, in which case why would you shoot yourself in the foot?

Thank you for your replies.
I thought you couldn't sell it for a lot less than its worth.
The attorney who wants to sell cheap is my younger brother.
Who has always been money oriented.
Yes we are the only beneficiaries I hadn't thought of that.
At the moment mum has enough money without the house sale to
be in the care home for another 4 years but who knows how long
she will live. She is 87 with dementia and her mum lived until she was 92.
Mum has no other health problems.

Your job as attorney is to get the best possible price for the house, fortunately there's three of you so no underhand dealings.
Some years ago we were in this position when DM died and a family member wanted to buy the property.
Three valuations were taken at the market value and that's what we sold it to the family member for.
You could for arguments sake tell other POA you want it put on the open market and his daughter can bid like any other viewers incase it does go for more, as does happen or they can except the MV price and you'll be happy with that.
The other POA shouldn't expect you to lose out and can always hand his inheritance over for daughter to buy the house

Beware that you don't leave it to one POA to get valuations especially if they know the EA.

Right, so your brother wants to:

1. Betray your DM's trust, act counter to her best interests, and potentially leave her without enough money to cover care home fees.
2. Commit criminal offences under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and tax law.
3. Induce you and your other sib to commit criminal offences under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and tax law.
4. Give part of your inheritance (assuming any money is left when your DM dies) to his DD.

I think you and the other attorney need to be on your guard. I'm surprised that you hadn't realised that this would affect your inheritance (not that that's the main issue).

Your DB is prepared to swindle both your mother and his siblings.

Make sure EVERYTHING is in writing, even if you have to summarise a verbal conversation in writing after it happens. Text messages/ WA are fine - in fact, WA is ideal, assuming your brother has notifications switched on, because it creates proof that a message has been read.

The PP warning about an EA valuation makes a good point. Although it's not a legal requirement, it's good practice to have 3 valuations and makes an HMRC challenge less likely. Make sure you and your non-crooked brother instruct the EAs as well and have sight of all correspondence. A good way of doing this is to set up a dedicated email address for your mother's affairs, to which you all have access.

Ensure that any organisation you deal with is aware that there are 3 attorneys, not just your dodgy brother.

Insist on sight of all receipts (you can say it's for tax purposes, which is also true).

Be careful.

0300 456 0300. It would be making a gift of £50,000. If -
-The Power of Attorney authorises you to make substantial gifts.
-Your mum has such a short life expectancy that she will never need the funds, and
-your mum has been in habit of making such large gifts to other family members- e.g. all her grandchildren have been given £50,000.

Then... go to the court of protection and get an order confirming that you may make this gift.

You can get advice from the Public Guardian's Office - telephone 0300 456 0300 about gifts and what you should do and what you should not do.

PS If you sell and put the money into a bank account, you MUST all 3 have live access to the account and you MUST have an upper limit on the value of transactions that can be made without the consent of at least two of you (ideally 3).

Be very careful. It's not just that your brother is prepared to defraud you and your DM, it's that he is also trying to get you and your other sib to conspire to break the law.