Elderly dad was manipulated into variation of deed

[propertyquestion]

My elderly dad’s wife sadly passed away. Her property that they lived in was owned in a 50:50 split as tenants in common with her daughter but paid for by his wife - I think this was set up to secure the daughters inheritance free from inheritance tax. His wife left her 50% share to my dad.

The daughter then put up a fairly sustained campaign of guilt saying that she expected to inherit 100% of the property, and my dad agreed to do a deed of variation to give her 40% of his share. We advised him to pause before making such a decision, especially given that she would have been happy to have him inherit 0% so we couldn’t see why he was being so generous in return, but he was consumed by grief and guilt and she insisted on urgency.

Some of the messages she sent him were appalling and he is a very kind hearted softie. I believe that she has manipulated a vulnerable and grieving elderly man into giving her hundred of thousands of pounds.

Anyway, they set up a deed of variation which he and the daughter signed, witnessed by his neighbour - but due to spelling errors in the document they have to make a new one and are destroying the old document.

Badly timed on his part but right after signing the deed he suddenly had a moment of clarity that he shouldn’t be doing it.

Because of the spelling errors, the lawyers said they are shredding the document and re-doing it and he will have to sign again.

He is speaking to solicitor tomorrow about his options - and whether he is able to change the % in the deed or cancel it altogether.

It would be great if any lawyers could help provide some insight on whether this is possible? If the original deed of variation was void due to spelling errors, does he have to re-sign a new one or can he change his mind still?

Not any kind of legal professional, but if he was my father, I would be advising him that the old deed is dead, and he doesn't have to sign anything.
What can happen? The daughter will be unhappy, and possibly quite nasty to him, but she can't force him to sign a legal document.

His solicitor will obviously be best placed to advise, but as it stands, the deed doesn't and never did exist.

I think it's important the solicitor is told the invalid deed was signed under duress so they can be awake to that possibility, should another deed be suggested.

Wait for what the solicitor says, but if it needs resigning then I would simply refuse to do that. Then send them a strongly worded letter about not harassing an elderly man who is grieving any further.

If his wife bequeathed him 50% then they should respect that , tell him not to sign anything further and keep copies of the messages incase she decides to try and invalidate the Will

Your dad should instruct his own solicitor and take independent legal advice. Then his solicitor can contact the estate solicitor. This will avoid any conflicts of interest.

How long has your dad been with his wife?

This. Then make a new will excluding that hideous woman.

If they're having to redo the deed and shred the old one then the old one didn't ever exist. So he can do what he wants.

As well as legal advice, I would be contacting social services and showing them the messages. There is also the issue of financial abuse of an older person.

wearehourglass.org/hourglass-services

No deed existed and no signature required. I hope your Dad stands firm.

Any documents signed under duress or undue influence are unlikely to be valid

Thanks all, they were married 30 years and he was her 24/7 carer for the last 3 years - the daughter doesn’t seem to realise that there is only an estate to inherit at all because his dedicated care of his wife meant she didn’t need a care home.

He has said he is scared of her reaction if he reduces or changes the deed.

Well she will just have to wait. Support your dad.

What does her reaction matter? He need never see her again.

You need to treat this as elder abuse. He's SCARED.

Yes, if he's scared it must be reported.

Could the council view this as deliberate deprivation of assets if he himself needed care in the future?

If he's that scared you really do need to report it as it is elder abuse.

And if possible please go to solicitor with yr dad

Signing (executing) a deed doesn’t make it effective. Usually each party executes their own engrossment, or both execute both copies, and then the solicitors agree completion and it’s then effective. It’s dated on completion. So the question for the solicitors is whether it was completed. Not whether it was signed.

I suspect given they are shredding it that it wasn’t completed, as you just couldn’t shred a deed. It makes much more sense that it was signed, errors picked up, so it will be corrected, re-engrossed, executed again and then completed (or not, if the parties don’t execute it this time).

So he will be homeless if he diverts his share of the house to the daughter??

Did his wife leave him a life interest?

He needs to be brave and honest and tell the solicitor he only signed under duress and does not wish to sign the deed.

Can you or a family member go with him?

By the way, I suspect the solicitors might know something is wrong here. If there is an obvious spelling error they would normally just agree it, correct and initial it on completion. I might be wrong, but I wonder if they feel their client is vulnerable and acting under duress.

I think the solicitors have failed in their duty of care to be honest as well, eg. You have 2 years after a death to do a variation of deed, why didn’t they advise him to wait and see how he felt in a year’s time, or ask him what other family members thought about this large transfer of assets etc? They sound like they are just drawing things up without any proper advice or safeguarding.

I feel bad that I didn’t step in sooner but we were trying to gently advise him and he seemed so stressed that I didn’t want to add to that with pressure in the other direction.

But now he is in a panic and sharing how anxious he felt when she used all the threatening “legalise” on him (she is a lawyer herself). Her messages were along the lines of, “sign this deed or else I’ll come after the lot and I have a good claim”. Which is simply not true! And I did explain this but clearly didn’t overcome her messaging.