Can my adult son access savings without his trustee father?

[AInightingale]

My son is nearly 19 and has £5K in a bank account opened for him when he was a young child. His father is listed as the trustee/nominee on the passbook. We have had no contact with him for a couple of years, it's not an easy situation.
He still lives in our old home (which is the address the bank would use) and doesn't forward on post. It was an Abbey FlexiSaver kids
account, not a JISA.

We went to the bank (now Santander) with the passbook, photo ID and proof of address, and were told that he couldn't access the money (he wants to take it out and place it in his new account). Cashier told us that his father must authorise the closure/transfer. Is this right, now that he is an adult? I asked an AI app and it advised that this type of account is effectively a bare trust, where the minor is entitled to access at 18 and that the adult trustee is basically redundant at this point. Anyone in a similar position or working in banking, any thoughts? Thinking of visiting another branch in case this was advice given in error.

You need to check the exact legal status of the account with the bank.

It's a ridiculous situation. The money will just be locked away for years and no-one can access it! I really don't want any contact with the father but it is my son's money, Christmas and birthday money, gifts from gps etc.

Are you able to get a copy of the T&C's of the product from the bank so you can see what it says about accessing the funds? If you have the name of the product from the passbook you should be able to request the T&C's.

Where I work child accounts with a registered contact mature when the child turns 18 and the registered contact is removed from the account - the child then becomes the main account holder and can do what they want with the funds.

I thought that too @scoobydeedoo I mean once someone is an adult, why does their parent have to give permission? Different if my ex had opened the account in his own name, but it just says 'trustee/nominee' on the passbook. Deffo my son's account.

As for the t&cs, the bank doesn't even exist any more! (Abbey) Obviously it's now a Santander account, but I'm finding it difficult to find any info on it. Had problems last year trying to locate my parents' house deeds which had been in the Abbey Deedsafe - got the feeling they don't really want to know about Abbey stuff.

It really depends on the account. Do you know which bank it is with? If so I would get DS to contact the bank explain the situation and see what they suggest. You will not be the first to have this sort of situation so they will easily be able to tell you what can and can't be done and how to do it.

It sounds like an account we had for our two dc. When eldest turned 18 I contacted Santander and was told that I still had control of the account. I used the online service to transfer the money into my account. They didn't check anything with 18 year old dc. Obviously my dc got the money but there wasn't a process in place with Santander to ensure this.

If you haven’t already I would get your son to open a Santander current account online. Once he has access online sometimes old accounts appear under the same profile. If this old account doesn’t appear on his profile he could ring the bank and tell them he wants to see it online under this profile. Maybe approaching it this way may mean he can just withdraw the money/transfer it to his current account? Maybe worth a shot!
to add: my dc nationwide child accounts worked like my example above

An adult having 'control' of another adult's account makes no sense. There is very little chance of the father agreeing to this, he hasn't spoken to us for years.

Is it possible he'll have removed the money and kept it ? That would be my concern.

Mine too. I could kick myself, but when we were at the bank, I didn't even ask the balance on it. (I think they should at least tell him that, it is his money ffs.) We are going to go to the main Santander bank tomorrow (the one we visited was just a little local branch) and see if we can discuss it with someone. We have the passbook but that doesn't protect the account against withdrawals, you just have to make up a yarn about losing it, and
'oh I want to buy my son a car for his 17th birthday as a surprise' or something like that. It's worrying.