R
riseatdawn
Guest
my first post, and i have a tricky puzzle and hope some of you ultra bright legal experts may give me a helpful steer.
what i have is a complicated case, but i suppose they make for the most interesting.
my father seperated from my mother back in the 1970s, leaving my sister and I in his wake. the three of us got on living our lives. the father had differing partners over the intervening years until settling down with one and buying a property about 15 years ago. our part of the family(mother, sister and I) have been estranged from him and made minimal contact barring funerals in the last 30 years. he developed dementia apparently 4 or 5 years ago, and his partner was caring for him. in a twist of irony that partner died in early 2008. the upshot is that, the property is now totally his(due to her willing her share to him).
that is the background, now the complication surfaces. soon after his partners death, the dementia became much worse.his family and his former partners family deserted him after the death of his partner, because frankly they did not want to take responsiblity for him and would be unsure about any reward they would get from a future will. the health services became very agitated and basically forced my sister and I back into the picture because, apart from our mother, we were the next of kin.
3 months ago he was put into a public nursing home on the call of a combination of his physician/social worker/community officer. in fairness it was the only safe option.
you might call it cold or callous, but the 3 of us choose minimal involvement in the last 14 months(this was a man that deserted a young wife and 2 kids and never paid a dime in maintenance in tough times in 70s/80s).
in the last week the various health/social workers have returned to us asking to consider the option of seeking a ward of court. the fathers house, quite a nice property, is lying idle and deteriorating. there are outstanding legal proceedings which are certain to have a positive outcome for my father, but these proceedings have stalled because his legal team cannot take instructions from him due to his mental capacity.
the advantage of taking out ward of court, i assume would be to allow us the latitide(as the appointed committee) to rent out the property, and also give instructions to his legal team to finalise that outstanding case.
on the flip side, we do not know what is contained in his will, and we do not know if his late partner influenced him (while in the early stages of dementia) about that will, and if she did, the possibility abounds, that we could be totally written out of it.
as i mentioned the gov depts currently involved, want us to engage in the ward of court process( no one else from his family will touch this hot potato): the ultimate question then is as a trio, would we be best to spent the money on the ward of court for the reasons outlined, or alternatively do zero, sit back and wait for him to pass away and then see what awaits in his will.
in the event of selecting the latter option(doing nothing), who becomes responsible for the upkeep of the now vacant property?, and does the outstanding legitation case die a death with my father, or on his death can we still persue it.
sorry for the complexity, i look forward to your responses.
what i have is a complicated case, but i suppose they make for the most interesting.
my father seperated from my mother back in the 1970s, leaving my sister and I in his wake. the three of us got on living our lives. the father had differing partners over the intervening years until settling down with one and buying a property about 15 years ago. our part of the family(mother, sister and I) have been estranged from him and made minimal contact barring funerals in the last 30 years. he developed dementia apparently 4 or 5 years ago, and his partner was caring for him. in a twist of irony that partner died in early 2008. the upshot is that, the property is now totally his(due to her willing her share to him).
that is the background, now the complication surfaces. soon after his partners death, the dementia became much worse.his family and his former partners family deserted him after the death of his partner, because frankly they did not want to take responsiblity for him and would be unsure about any reward they would get from a future will. the health services became very agitated and basically forced my sister and I back into the picture because, apart from our mother, we were the next of kin.
3 months ago he was put into a public nursing home on the call of a combination of his physician/social worker/community officer. in fairness it was the only safe option.
you might call it cold or callous, but the 3 of us choose minimal involvement in the last 14 months(this was a man that deserted a young wife and 2 kids and never paid a dime in maintenance in tough times in 70s/80s).
in the last week the various health/social workers have returned to us asking to consider the option of seeking a ward of court. the fathers house, quite a nice property, is lying idle and deteriorating. there are outstanding legal proceedings which are certain to have a positive outcome for my father, but these proceedings have stalled because his legal team cannot take instructions from him due to his mental capacity.
the advantage of taking out ward of court, i assume would be to allow us the latitide(as the appointed committee) to rent out the property, and also give instructions to his legal team to finalise that outstanding case.
on the flip side, we do not know what is contained in his will, and we do not know if his late partner influenced him (while in the early stages of dementia) about that will, and if she did, the possibility abounds, that we could be totally written out of it.
as i mentioned the gov depts currently involved, want us to engage in the ward of court process( no one else from his family will touch this hot potato): the ultimate question then is as a trio, would we be best to spent the money on the ward of court for the reasons outlined, or alternatively do zero, sit back and wait for him to pass away and then see what awaits in his will.
in the event of selecting the latter option(doing nothing), who becomes responsible for the upkeep of the now vacant property?, and does the outstanding legitation case die a death with my father, or on his death can we still persue it.
sorry for the complexity, i look forward to your responses.