My mother is in her seventies and not in good health. My dad died two years ago and since then she has become very involved with a man from her past who now has a partner of 30 years. This man appears to be exerting a huge amount of influence on my mum, trying to persuade her to move house, discussing her legal set up like power of attorney and causing rows with my sibling who has expressed concern so she’s now no longer speaking to my brother. The fact this man isn’t very nice and it all seems a bit seedy with lots of sexting etc is one thing, I’m wondering about two specific incidents. Firstly the partner he has had a fitness to work review with HR at her job as she’s on benefits currently. This man persuaded my mum to go as a family friend for support, the story being that he couldn’t go because it’s his partner. It turned out after that the woman told the team my mum was a solicitor, after a few meetings they questioned it and corrected it. He also got my mum to tell him everything that happened in the meetings. My question is - is there ever a legal mechanism where someone can be prevented from attending but a friend can go? If they’re not married surely even if they live together, on paper they’re the same.
Secondly, my mum is completely besotted with this man. She believes everything he says. The couple have now split up and he claims he’s got a restraining order on his old partner but I don’t believe this, how easy is this to do?
Finally he has said he will set up the old partner in a house as he’s legally bound to do that. If they’re not married would a solicitor ever advise this?