My mother is a PWD and I'm her main carer, one of her attorneys (both Continuing and Welfare) with my sister being the other attorney, to act jointly and severally.
At the moment Mum lives in her own house and I'm there pretty much all day every day, with my daughter resident in the house in case Mum gets up in the night and wanders (she has on occasion got up for the bathroom, got confused, dressed and walked to the shop in the small hours). My daughter's starting a new job 150 miles away in a few months, though, so we've been working out where Mum wants to go from here. I live about 4 miles away on a smallholding with livestock to look after, so the time away is a strain. After discussion with Mum, she's decided that she'd like to sell her house and move in with me. That's absolutely fine with me, we get on very well and Mum likes being at my place, she was brought up in the country and enjoys feeding the ducks and collecting eggs and so on. Mum's pretty healthy other than her Alzheimer's and apart from things like forgetting how to cook and make cups of tea, plus the occasional confusion over walking on pavements rather than roads or going shopping at 4 in the morning, she only really needs supervision of meds, a bit of help getting her clothes laid out for bed and in the morning and someone to talk to and do things with, so I'm hopeful that care homes will be a few years off yet! She doesn't want to go into care and has said so on numerous occasions.
The problem is, I bought my place as a fixer-upper, so it's not ideal for a PWD! Mum's suggested solution to this is that she sells her house, I sell my place and we pool the money to get a more elder-friendly place that doesn't need work doing on it, with equivalent amount of land for the critters, putting the new property in joint names. I've no problems with the idea on my own account, but the questions that occur to me are:
1, is that questionable under Deprivation of Assets?
2. Is it a conflict of interest for me to act as her attorney to do this, given that I'll be living in any new place and continuing to care for her where she wants to be for as long as possible but also under the terms of her Will, I inherit any property she owns when she passes (she did this some years ago as she wanted to recognise that I've spent the last 15 years helping her care for my father in his final years and have been there to help her and spend time with her ever since, while my siblings live hundreds of miles away and therefore haven't been). It would be more inconvenient for my sister to act for her in the matter, given that she's the other side of the country, very busy running a business and not handy for solicitors and things but I daresay if Mum said loudly and clearly at frequent intervals, preferably in front of an independent witness, that this was her wish, I might be able to get my sister to take it on (she's inclined to assume she knows best and fail to ask Mum's opinion until I point out her rude behaviour).
At the moment Mum lives in her own house and I'm there pretty much all day every day, with my daughter resident in the house in case Mum gets up in the night and wanders (she has on occasion got up for the bathroom, got confused, dressed and walked to the shop in the small hours). My daughter's starting a new job 150 miles away in a few months, though, so we've been working out where Mum wants to go from here. I live about 4 miles away on a smallholding with livestock to look after, so the time away is a strain. After discussion with Mum, she's decided that she'd like to sell her house and move in with me. That's absolutely fine with me, we get on very well and Mum likes being at my place, she was brought up in the country and enjoys feeding the ducks and collecting eggs and so on. Mum's pretty healthy other than her Alzheimer's and apart from things like forgetting how to cook and make cups of tea, plus the occasional confusion over walking on pavements rather than roads or going shopping at 4 in the morning, she only really needs supervision of meds, a bit of help getting her clothes laid out for bed and in the morning and someone to talk to and do things with, so I'm hopeful that care homes will be a few years off yet! She doesn't want to go into care and has said so on numerous occasions.
The problem is, I bought my place as a fixer-upper, so it's not ideal for a PWD! Mum's suggested solution to this is that she sells her house, I sell my place and we pool the money to get a more elder-friendly place that doesn't need work doing on it, with equivalent amount of land for the critters, putting the new property in joint names. I've no problems with the idea on my own account, but the questions that occur to me are:
1, is that questionable under Deprivation of Assets?
2. Is it a conflict of interest for me to act as her attorney to do this, given that I'll be living in any new place and continuing to care for her where she wants to be for as long as possible but also under the terms of her Will, I inherit any property she owns when she passes (she did this some years ago as she wanted to recognise that I've spent the last 15 years helping her care for my father in his final years and have been there to help her and spend time with her ever since, while my siblings live hundreds of miles away and therefore haven't been). It would be more inconvenient for my sister to act for her in the matter, given that she's the other side of the country, very busy running a business and not handy for solicitors and things but I daresay if Mum said loudly and clearly at frequent intervals, preferably in front of an independent witness, that this was her wish, I might be able to get my sister to take it on (she's inclined to assume she knows best and fail to ask Mum's opinion until I point out her rude behaviour).
