Grandmother needs help please

ps .. sorry to keep this short and readable i have most likely missed lots of information out .. but tried to keep it short

A verbal contract is binding in law, as far as I know, and you mention a witness in the person of the agent who arranged the mortgage. I think you/the grandmother should seek further professional advice.

Is your relationship with your daughter such that she would take no notice of anything you say about this unfair and shoddy treatment of your mother?

unfortunately my daughter will not listen to reason.. her mindset is simply she had it and was entitled to it.. and why should she pay for having it .. she does not see that having it in advance has left her grandmother with bills she cannot pay if she is forced to either rent another property herself or return to her own house (losing her tenant and rental income that pays the morgage0

the solicitor i spoke to last week deemed the verbal contract to be irrelevant .. i assume she was implying that it would be to difficult to prove,,
one thing i am wondering is how does granddaughter MAKE grandmother leave the house .. can she just change the locks and say farewell .. or does she require an eviction order.. if the latter then grandmother could hold her ground and put her case as a respondent in court to the eviction request...
my mother is so worried about this she will not leave her room in case she gets locked out

Get further professional advice, mentioning the agent who arranged the mortgage. He must have a record of the whole transaction.

How on earth does granddaughter think that all the entitlement is hers and none of the obligation? She agreed to give her grandmother a home in exchange for the money to buy that home.

The solicitor you spoke to is afraid she will have to work a bit at proving that there was a verbal contract. Try a different one and don't forget to tell them about the person who arranged the mortgage in your initial consultation. I presume you know the firm who arranged it and the date?

Surely you too, and other family members, even perhaps some of the lodgers, can testify to the terms of the verbal agreement?

"Things have not worked out well"

And you're surprised about that?

Did the grandmother really have no inkling of what a scheming, money grabbing person the granddaughter is?

If solicitors cannot help what makes you think we can?

jO8 .. they were best of friends before all this .. i did tell me mother i was concerned it would not work but she did not listen.
and i'm asking here as i find it hard to believe the solicitor was right.. it was just a brief telephone call to them..

An inheritance is what you inherit once the original owner is dead.

If granddaughter refers to what was spent on her as early inheritance and not as a gift, then she is tacitly agreeing that she is not morally entitled to unrestricted use of it while grandmother still needs support.

Check what the position would be if grandmother needed benefits. Giving away your money so as to avoid being liable to pay toward your care is not allowed, so perhaps there is also some regulation which makes the receiver of that money responsible for the support of the person who gave it to them. Grandmother's bank statements would have the amounts and dates recorded.

What a shabby way your mother has been treated by your daughter, when your mother arranged the finances on her own home surely the mortgage company did not advance the full value of her property on a remortgage which this was, only a % of the value is raised,cannot the equity that is left in her property be used to give your mother an income for "rest of life" and so ease her burden,talk to an experienced advisor asap and get legal advice from Age UK.

You really need to see a solicitor and put all the facts before him. Put it all down clearly in writing. You will have to accept the fact that you or your mother will have to pay for legal advice.

What Elegran is referring to is Deprivation of Assets you should take a look as it will be relevant at some point if the grandmother should need care.

Perils of mixing buisness with pleasure, but there is no need to be rude jo8
I agree. Solicitor - try to get a recommendation as they do vary a lot in their approach.

i agree she does need a solicitor .. but she needs ones who will listen and do what they can and not just shrug it off..
my opinion is she 1st needs to prove contract .. i think the best way is a solicitors letter saying an agreement was made that she could stay there because of the 60k that was given... in other words see if granddaughter denies the agreement in reply .. assuming if she confirms the agreement but gives a reason she does not want to carry it on then by admission we have a case that can be argued.. otherwise it becomes a case of 1st proving a verbal agreement ..

could anyone perhaps recommend a good solicitor that would cover our area.. Redditch worcestershire

she may be limited to what aid she can get as funds in the pot are pretty non exisitant

Be aware legal aid stops in April so you need to get moving asap.

legal aid stopping .. uh ? i've been living abroad myself so very behind on the new ... not wishing to take the thread off topic but WTH ? they doing away with legal aid for everyone ?

Just check on their web-site for up to date information I would hate to give you wrong info,but I am sure I read it was stopping,again Age UK have good advisors so try to speak to them asap.

simon there is no point going over why this happened, it did. I agree that you need a specialist solicitor and wonder if perhaps Age UK or CAB could advise you of a suitable one? Perhaps someone on here will know.

You are a witness to the contract, do you have a wife or other siblings who are also aware? The agent and your Mother could confirm it too. How does the boyfriend feel about this? Does he know? I would have thought he would be very upset to find his girlfriend behaving in this way.

I think that if you get the right solicitor a strong letter may welll be enough to make you daughter think again.

Good luck. Please let us know how it goes.

No written contract that is the problem. Very complicated, you are allowed to gift money to relatives, to a certain amount in any financial year, but not to the extent that it eats into your assets. Should the grandmother need care then strictly speaking granddaughter should be liable for the cost.

A verbal contract is still a contract, just a bit more difficult to prove.

I think there will be an inheritance tax issue as well, if your mother dies within seven years.