Mother needs nursing home: we suspect she has granted a right of residency to a son?

[headphones]

Long story short: my brother has 'watched over' my mother and used up all of her (substantial amount of) money for himself. She is in poor health and very easily manipulated.

Finally we have been able to step in to try to get him out of the picture. Parents are separated, my mother owns her own house. However, since going through her papers we think she may have granted a right of residency in the last month or so to my brother. As of last monday week, it wasn't showing up on the land registry but it may be just in processing.

We will confirm with the solisitor tomorrow but, does anyone know anything about this? Can she revoke it?

She needs to sell the house and go into a home. We are still trying to see and get a hold of her other bank accounts social security cards etc.

Its all a big mess and the right of residency would complicate matters.

Any other advice appreciated.

 

[ajapale]

Re: Mother needs nursing home: we suspect she has granted a right of residency to a s

You need to engage a solicitor to act on your behalf.

 

[twofor1]

Re: Mother needs nursing home: we suspect she has granted a right of residency to a s

She needs to sell the house and go into a home. We are still trying to see and get a hold of her other bank accounts social security cards etc.

Any other advice appreciated.

Have you considered the Nursing Home Support Scheme, this would give your mother access to nursing home care without having to sell her home.

http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/Campaigns/nhss.shortcut.html

 

[j26]

Re: Mother needs nursing home: we suspect she has granted a right of residency to a s

I think there's a complicated story behind all of this, so you really need professional advice on this one.

The general principle though is that if she granted a right of residence by deed (which is what would be required to register in the Land Registry) then she cannot just revoke it at whim unless there is a specific provision to do so. Given that a grant of right of residence is intended to protect the grantees interest in the property it is rare that such a clause would be inserted. This leaves the only options as to either get the brother to release it, or get the court to set it aside on the grounds of undue influence. To do that the court will look at all circumstances, such as who is providing care, your brothers current living arrangements (e.g. did he give up his own property to avail of the right of residence) etc.
On the other hand, if your mother died, your brother could not hold up a sale by the executors, provided reasonable alternative accommodation is provided for him.

If she needs to go into a home the new system where the costs can be secured on the property and paid out of the estate is due to come into effect soon, so would this not be an option where the brother can retain his right of residence, but the costs of the home are taken care of?

Edit: It appears from the poster above it is in effect already

 

[headphones]

Re: Mother needs nursing home: we suspect she has granted a right of residency to a s

Thanks for the replies - yes it is a complicated one. We are in the process of applying for the fair deal scheme (hopefully we're sending in the form tomorrow). The trouble is, from what I can work out with the fair deal scheme, based on my mothers assests, the amount she will have to pay will either be 600+ ish a week (if she can get the nursing home loan) or 900+ a week if she can't get the loan. Her name is jointly on another property too.

Currently her income is only about 450 a week so there is a short fall which we can't afford either. So she has no option but to sell the house.

But what I'm reading is that, if the right of residency is in place, we are going to have a lot of trouble selling the house More trouble caused. This is just horrible, horrible, horrible.

We don't know for sure if it is in place - we just found a letter yesterday from my mothers solisitor asking her to come in and sign the form to grant it to him and to get the doctor to sign a form saying she was ok to do this. It was dated in October. So we're not 100% sure if it is in place but possibly it is.

 

[Yorrick]

Re: Mother needs nursing home: we suspect she has granted a right of residency to a s

This could get very messy. Firstly as regards the Fair Deal Scheme I think you may be reading it incorrectly and I advise that you get advice on that issue.
As regards the right of residency you may have a situation where your mother wills the house to you but includes a right of residency for life for your brother. This certainly would be troublesome if you wish to sell as you would have to come to some arrangement with the brother.
t will be very hard to prove that your mother was under undue pressure. The brother will be well able to give a list of all the times he looked after etc etc and now that she is ailing the rest of the relatives come looking for her assets.