Executor has mortgaged estate for personal gain

[Peridot]

Hi again,
You really need to extricate yourself. If you are unsure whether your sister registered any Enduring Power of Attorney or Lasting Power of Attorney, it may be advisable to contact the Office of the Public Guardian to check nothing has been registered. You can find their details here:- https://www.gov.uk/report-concern-about-attorney-deputy
You should have been informed by them if any document had been registered but with all the shenanigans that have happened in other areas and being a lawyer I would go down the belt and braces route if I were you and just check.
If you are certain the only authority you provided her was to deal with the utilities and you have contacted them already hopefully that is all sorted now.
It would be worth seriously considering sorting out LPA's appointing attorney's you 100% trust to deal with your affairs in the event you are unable to yourself but this can be done in due course.

[QueenGeek]

Hi again,
You really need to extricate yourself. If you are unsure whether your sister registered any Enduring Power of Attorney or Lasting Power of Attorney, it may be advisable to contact the Office of the Public Guardian to check nothing has been registered. You can find their details here:- https://www.gov.uk/report-concern-about-attorney-deputy
You should have been informed by them if any document had been registered but with all the shenanigans that have happened in other areas and being a lawyer I would go down the belt and braces route if I were you and just check.
If you are certain the only authority you provided her was to deal with the utilities and you have contacted them already hopefully that is all sorted now.
It would be worth seriously considering sorting out LPA's appointing attorney's you 100% trust to deal with your affairs in the event you are unable to yourself but this can be done in due course.

Many thanks, I have seen the LPA she wrote up for my Nan and I definitely did not sign anything like that for her to help me.
I'll contact the people on the link you gave me just to make damn sure she hasn't done something behind my back, she could have easily written something up and signed my signature as she has an example of it.
I was really unwell and close to a 2nd breakdown, but I've never been hospitalised and would never sign anything in that state.

Thank you for the link and the great advice.

Queen Geek

[Amethyst]

Many thanks, my Dad was a scientist and Mum was a Secretary - they were both very accurate - we were wondering how come they'd made an error in the calculations when it came to dividing up what the house was supposed to be worth. Eg it was valued at £140k but the amounts left to the beneficiaries only added up to £125k. But if the "amended" sums for my little sister and her kids were corrected as I believe they should have been then it does add up to the £140k. I believe my older sister was going to keep this additional £15k difference.

Just on this, normally a Will will have specific legacies - ie. £5000 to my sister, Jane Smith of 24 Whatsit Avenue - £10,000 to my friend Mr John SMith of 45 Peter Lane etc.... and then have residual beneficiaries who receive a share of whatever is left from the estate once any debts, tax, costs and the specific legacies have been dealt with. House prices/values change constantly so it would be tricky to expect testators to guess how much the estate might be worth at some unidentified future date.

[Peridot]

The relevant date is the date of death of the person whose Will it is. The property value is determined on the date of death ie if the property had sold on that day what was the likely sale price it would have achieved.
Wordings of Wills can be complex and will very depending on so many factors. The Testator's wishes (person writing the Will) can be complicated and particularly when home made wills are prepared. Although there may well be other considerations in this instance of course!

[QueenGeek]

Just on this, normally a Will will have specific legacies - ie. £5000 to my sister, Jane Smith of 24 Whatsit Avenue - £10,000 to my friend Mr John SMith of 45 Peter Lane etc.... and then have residual beneficiaries who receive a share of whatever is left from the estate once any debts, tax, costs and the specific legacies have been dealt with. House prices/values change constantly so it would be tricky to expect testators to guess how much the estate might be worth at some unidentified future date.

I think the house had been valued prior to the "Will" being written up as they had been planning to move to a bungalow as my Mum couldn't manage the stairs anymore. I think that is the sum they used as a base.

I've heard back and she hasn't got a LPA out for me, so thank you for that link.

Queen Geek

[Amethyst]

Good news there at least. Let us know how you get on with the Solicitor on Monday.

[QueenGeek]

Good news there at least. Let us know how you get on with the Solicitor on Monday.

Hi, it went very well with the solicitor on Monday. He trawled through all the paperwork I took over and is going to write to her (but get it hand-delivered as she refuses to accept Recorded Delivery items). He's also going to write to the witnesses and the solicitor/mortgage company who organised the mortgage for my sister. He agreed with all of you when he read the Wills and said they were pretty much rubbish, not clearly written and with the ridiculous £500 a month she's expecting to be paid as Executor! He also noticed the font on the altered pages was slightly different as well as the margins being justified instead of staggered (as she's probably used a different printer).

We're filling in the paperwork to get her back to Probate Court in the meantime to have her removed as Executor while we're waiting for her to reply to the request for accounts & inventory for the estate.

It's all moving forward, and her local Police are involved now - I've forwarded a more detailed explanation of events and also a copy of a text she has sent to someone whereby she's saying she is going to move and I will be unable to trace her (she changes her name & address to evade creditors), so they are aware she is a flight risk.

She continues to deny she has done anything untoward to anyone who will listen and is aggrieved that I would even question her actions.

Many thanks for all the help you have all given on this forum. I'll continue to update when things happen and I hope this never happens to another family.

Thank you so much.

Queen Geek

[Amethyst]

Good, I'm glad the Solicitor could see what was going on and is going to help you take the correct action to put a stop to things progressing any further and hopefully takes steps to get things back to how they should have been before your sister decided to, basically, commit fraud, and your parents actual wishes are carried into effect.

Did the Solicitor suggest putting an interim restriction or anything on the property to stop her disposing of it ?

[QueenGeek]

Good, I'm glad the Solicitor could see what was going on and is going to help you take the correct action to put a stop to things progressing any further and hopefully takes steps to get things back to how they should have been before your sister decided to, basically, commit fraud, and your parents actual wishes are carried into effect.

Did the Solicitor suggest putting an interim restriction or anything on the property to stop her disposing of it ?

Hi Amethyst, there has been some movement in this saga over the past few days after months of nothingness.

My sister (who if you recall was the Executor for my parent's estate and who changed the Will and re-registered the house in her name in order to use it as collateral in order to buy herself a nightclub), was interviewed by the Police at the end of June.

She refused to provide them with authorisation to allow her solicitor and accountant to provide the Police with the documentation surrounding the purchase of the nightclub, and she refused to provide the information herself.

3 months ago the Police emailed me to let me know they were applying for a Production Order to force the documentation to be made available. This week I find out it was never applied for.

My sister's company has a compulsory striking-off order on Companies House, she has put the nightclub up for sale, and my deceased parents' home has been put up for auction by the receivers to collect their debt.

The auction company and the receivers have been contacted to let them know about the active Police investigation into the Executor Fraud, but they have chosen to ignore both myself and my younger sister who has also contacted them. We even gave them the Police references & contact name, to no avail.

My solicitor got nowhere either, she simply ignored his letters as she did mine and we had to stop when he told us it would cost upwards of £7.5k to take my sister to Probate Court to get the estate accounts & inventory and get her removed as Executor. We would have been able to pass on these accounts & inventory to help with the Police case.

I have no idea where to turn now. The Police have not applied for the order and I have no doubt that if the club sells, my sister will change her identity and move as she has done time and time again in the past. Her debts will be taken from my parent's home and she will start up again elsewhere.

I and the rest of the family are considering complaining to the Police about the handling of this case as things have not been done in even a remotely timely manner, but are concerned that this will impact badly on their willingness to even look into the matter further. I have been made more and more unwell by the dragging on and lack of action while my sister remains able to continue to enjoy the fruits of her fraud.

Is there any way we can stop the sale of the house if aren't listed as the owner, but that name is only there because of fraud?

Many thanks for any advice you can offer.

QueenGeek

[Amethyst]

Oh goodness this must be so stressful.Â*what did your solicitor do / advise you do ? No charge on the house or court application ? What came back from your parents solicitors on the will ?


Why are receivers involved ? She secured the loan to buy the nightclub against the house? or did she mortgage it to get cash to buy the nightclub ? Has she gone bankrupt or the company ? Or both ?Have a look on the land registry and see what charges / restrictions are on there.Â*
What's the reason for the compulsory strike off of her company ?

https://www.gov.uk/object-to-a-limit...ing-struck-off

Â*

[Peridot]

Hi again,
You really need to go back to the solicitor. As amethyst mentioned there need to be restrictions in place against the property as a matter of urgency and the police need to be investigating the fraud aspect.
I appreciate the costs seem insurmountable but without taking action now the whole of your parents estate could be lost.
So sorry it has come to this but court action would appear to be the only way forward now.

[QueenGeek]

Oh goodness this must be so stressful.Â*what did your solicitor do / advise you do ? No charge on the house or court application ? What came back from your parents solicitors on the will ?


Why are receivers involved ? She secured the loan to buy the nightclub against the house? or did she mortgage it to get cash to buy the nightclub ? Has she gone bankrupt or the company ? Or both ?Have a look on the land registry and see what charges / restrictions are on there.Â*
What's the reason for the compulsory strike off of her company ?

https://www.gov.uk/object-to-a-limit...ing-struck-off

Â*

Hi Amethyst, thank you so much for taking the time to look at this.

Our solicitor wrote to my sister twice to request the Estate Accounts & Inventory - she simply ignored the letters (as she had ignored my letters and emails etc requesting the same things). The solicitor then told us the price for taking things further and I just got too unwell to carry on at that time, but am feeling a little stronger now. He didn't suggest getting any sort of injunction to stop the sale of the house, as at that time it had settled down. My sister must have convinced the receivers that she was getting rent and paying them off, but it appears that she cannot afford to do this anymore and it's all kicked off again.

Thank you so much for the gov.uk link.

The receivers are involved as the mortgage company has instructed them to start proceedings against my sister's company. She secured the loan for the nightclub on my parents' house as it was mortgage free, and she had the Deeds so she transferred the house into her own name and at the same time upped the value on Land Registry in order to borrow around £200k. It is actually 2 houses knocked into 1, she stated their value separately as £150k and £120k in order to borrow against them, yet they were valued together prior to my parent's deaths at only £140k for the both. Not sure on the legalities of misrepresenting the value on the Land Registry or why the mortgage company allowed her to borrow so much money without actually checking the value for themselves.

This woman has never had a proper job so was unlikely to be a good candidate for any kind of mortgage - hence her need to use the house as collateral.

She has no assets of her own to use as she has her own dodgy mortgage organised by her accountant/financial advisor in which she took over someone else's mortgage after they were on the verge of repossession, she paid them a few thousand and moved into their house, The Land Registry still shows the original owner for the house she lives in. It appears she has tried to put this house into her own name, but there is a clause on the LR showing that in order to change the name she needs to prove she is the person named on the form - which she cannot do as she paid the original owner off. It's all very dodgy, and it even appears that that has fallen through now as we have seen different people coming in & out of "her house" and she's apparently living in the club.

The Land Registry for my parent' house shows the charges from her solicitor, the 2nd mortgage company (as she remortgaged), plus an additional CCJ from January this year. My sister is listed as the owner and the mortgage/finance company have a Restriction listed on it in case of sale.

Companies House have listed the Companies Act 2006(3) to the reason for the striking off order, but she's still trading as far as I know (but the pub is up for sale as she's trying to dig herself out of this), She hasn't done the annual confirmation required by Companies House either.

I can only presume she isn't perhaps aware of the striking off order as I'm not sure she can even get her post anymore - the order shows her home address on it, but I'm not certain when she moved into the club.

It's a complete and utter mess. The Police were supposed to be getting a Production Order for her documents over 3 months ago and they still haven't requested it. Now all this has happened and I honestly don't think we can stop the auction in time - although we have contacted the receiver and the auction company and been ignored.

I will reply to Peridot's questions now, but thank you so much.

Warm regarda

QueenGeek

[QueenGeek]

Hi again,
You really need to go back to the solicitor. As amethyst mentioned there need to be restrictions in place against the property as a matter of urgency and the police need to be investigating the fraud aspect.
I appreciate the costs seem insurmountable but without taking action now the whole of your parents estate could be lost.
So sorry it has come to this but court action would appear to be the only way forward now.

Thank you Peridot for taking the time with this saga.

I will have to try to locate a solicitor who can perhaps get an injunction to prevent the auction of the house for the immediate future (it is in the sale on 12.12.19), I've looked up the cost and they're estimating around £500 which isn't unattainable, but this estimate might be off due to the dragging on that my sister does when refusing to engage with any attempts at communication.

You're right in that dragging her to court is the only way we can get any sort of answers, I will make contact with the same solicitor (as he seemed really good, and was patient when I was so stressed out and crying in his office). I'll figure out a way of paying the debt off if it means the estate is saved and my sister doesn't get to profit from destroying our parent's legacies. I can only hope that this same solicitor can sort out an injunction for the house in time.

The Police have been investigating the fraud aspect since the case was passed onto them in late March. They interviewed my sister in late June and have now informed me (after I emailed to tell them the house was up for auction and the business was being struck off etc), that my sister refused to authorise her solicitor/accountant to provide the Police with the information they required to progress the investigation. They told me 3 months ago they were applying for a Production Order to force the companies to provide the documentation, but it appears this was never done as in the email of a few days ago they mentioned applying for it as if it was a new thing.

We have lost a lot of faith in the Police as things just seem to be left unless we are emailing asking for updates.

Many thanks for everything, I will let the rest of the family know what advice you and Amethyst have given as it is a way forward for us all.

Thank you

QueenGeek

[QueenGeek]

Hi again,
You really need to go back to the solicitor. As amethyst mentioned there need to be restrictions in place against the property as a matter of urgency and the police need to be investigating the fraud aspect.
I appreciate the costs seem insurmountable but without taking action now the whole of your parents estate could be lost.
So sorry it has come to this but court action would appear to be the only way forward now.

Hi Peridor and Amethyst
I made contact with the solicitor today and he's written to the receivers to explain that the house is in dispute due to the fraud and subsequent Police investigation, he has requested that they remove it from the market whilst the case is ongoing. We'll see what happens now but fingers crossed. Still no word from the Police though. We're also going to re-start the proceedings to have my sister removed as executor and will have to find the money from somewhere.
Many thanks for all your help.
Queen Geek
Â*