Brother staying in Mum’s house

[tiredofworking]

My mum is in a nursing home and has no capacity. She has savings and 2 properties. Currently she has CHC funding but this is obviously subject to review.
All 3 of her children have POA. One sibling never left home, he is now 41. He paid a token amount of board. My father died and he continued to live with Mum.
As my mum will not be coming home I assumed we would sell main house but he has issued legal letter stating he will be staying there long term. All owner expenses to be paid from mum’s money.
My sister and I are fuming he is living on the cheap like this. I’ve reported him to office of public guardian but they won’t help.
What can I do without spending a fortune on legal fees???

Do you gave access to a free legal helpline, via your home insurance? Nearly all insurers include this.
Getting some general advice now will at least give you something to go on.

My insurers free helpline was an absolute godsend when I was dealing with my late mum's executor from hell. It was available 24 hours, and the first time I was absolutely beside myself after a malicious call from the executor, I called them at 10pm, and got the loveliest lawyer who was incredibly helpful and reassuring, and talked me down!
There was no limit to how often I could call them, and I honestly don't know what I'd have done without them.
Once I had all the facts, and their advice, I was able to start instructing and paying a solicitor to take it on.

Did the public office clarify what they meant be “tangible evidence” and of what?!

His letter or even a solicitors doesn’t mean a thing. He has to go to court for it to be legal.

Do you want him out on the streets? If you had lived there all your life you wouldn't want to move either.

Presumably you can let him stay as long as he funds his own bills and upkeep of the house? If mum has left money for him in will then obviously he can use that however he likes.

But do you desperately need the money from this house? I'd be more concerned that my brother had a roof over his head.

I think it’s a great idea to find out the market rate of rent he ought to be paying - send him that letter, and point out that it is in your mothers and her estates best interest - then see to it that this is deducted from his share of the estate when it’s finally distributed

my goodness - the number of people who live off other people and then make it legal. Your Mum got full funding by the state and yet your waste of space brother has made his claim to the house.

How has he managed to get away with living like this? Did your Mum let him?

Was she just sectioned under s.2 or was she sectioned under s.3 at any time?

I deal with the OPG a lot through work, their responses can be ..... variable but ultimately they are pretty toothless. They just refer to the Court of Protection for a decision after they have investigated (and they do so very rarely) if you have concerns you can make a referral directly to the COP yourselves anyway.

I'm not sure why some posters feel he's got any rights to remain there, adult social care certainly wouldn't see it that way if he's under 60 with no vulnerabilities.

As a mininum he needs to be paying all the bills/council tax etc himself as your mother cannot be responsible for any of them if she is not using them and if she lacks capacity it could be seen as financial abuse. If you as LPOAs allow that to continue it could have consequences for you as well.

As already stated, we offered him another smaller property but he refused. He has managed to live off my parents all of his life. My mum wanted him to leave but wouldn’t go through with it because she felt guilty. This despite the fact he’s a grown man. We do not need money yet and haven’t asked him to leave but he’s sought legal advice to stay and claim a beneficial interest in house. This is the most outrageous bit for me- you pay £50 per week then try and claim a share of the house!!

Yes but what “tangible evidence” do the public office need? And of what?

She was section 2 in hospital. Under DOLs in home now

I have no idea what evidence they need- I’ve written back to them asking them to clarify. The cherry on the cake is he hasn’t paid any money - not even £50

Ok so they’ve said they won’t be able to help without “tangible evidence”.

Yes, first task is to obviously clarify what they mean!

Do you have access to your mums bank accounts? Has POA been enacted with the banks ? Have any utilities etc been changed from your mums name?

Things like her still being named on the council tax bill and utilities would be a start.

Evidence that she is still paying for them in a bank account only in her name.

Evidence that she is in a care home

Evidence from land registry that she is the sole owner of the house.

All that proves is that she is the owner. Presumably the op said that to the public office by way of back ground

No - anyone who is in a care home shouldn't still be paying utilities and council tax just because another grown adult is choosing not to. Evidence of utilties being used whilst someone is in care, the person in care paying for utilities despite not having the benefit of them, proof of ongoing ownership with no rent bring paid etc IS the 'tangible evidence' being requested by the OPG.

Otherwise it's just words on a screen to them - they don't have direct access to bank accounts and utilities bills they need the person doing the accusing to provide them with the proof of what they are saying before they will begin to seriously investigate.

If the OP provides that then they will probably open an investigation.

Odd then that the public office didn’t just say - we need one of these xyz docs!

I was being polite in an earlier post when I described them as toothless.

In reality I've reported many instances of blatant provable abuse and never have I ever seen them take any significant meaningful action.

The OP just needs to protect her own LPOA for now and demonstrate she has taken action to try and resolve it. If her and the other LPOAs can't agree and a time critical decision is required then it can go to the COP for a decision and they don't need the OPG for that, they can just make a direct application to the COP.

If not time critical the COP would want to see that mediation/ OPG etc had all been tried to resolve the dispute first. OP needs to go through the motions for now if it's not urgent.

You have reported many instances of abuse of the same person?!

I'm a social worker - lots of different people and situations as and when required through the process of my work.