Rogues and vagabonds

[cragmaid]

I know I'm not an expert, but I don't think that debts can be recovered from relatives ( other than those of a joint account or if the survivor stood as a guarantor) via a will. But if there is a negative balance, beneficiaries do not receive their legacies.

 

[molobezi]

things are disapearing

my husband has vascular dementia. He goes for long walks and doesnt always lock the door (althoough he says he does).On two occasions "someone" has entered our hall way and helped themselves to small articles. Once, 2 months ago it was my handbag and purse, and yesterday it was a picture I had taken down that morning to re-hang when my husband came back in. He came home, I was making lunch and after a while I noticed that the picture had gone. Have search the house and no sign of it. Could he be taking these things or do I have an intruder. I have informed the police on both occasions and they were very helpful. Any help would be most gratefully received

 

[Witzend]

Lord, how awful for you to have all this on top - as if dementia isn't enough of a worry anyway. So many evil b*st*rd con men about.

Only thing that happened to us was fil being talked by some so-called financial adviser who came to the door, into putting a hefty sum into some 'product' that was totally unsuitable for anyone of his age. Luckily he wasn't too bad then and was uneasy enough to tell a son who works in finance before the cooling-off period had expired.

Luckily my mother had always been of a naturally suspicious nature and would very likely have told anyone coming to the door to b*gger off. (not perhaps in those very words )

But there was a cheque for £4K that went missing (cashed) and we still haven't a clue how on earth it happened. She never had paid carers except for her wonderful long-term cleaning lady, who I would stake my life on being above suspicion. I guess someone must have managed to talk their way in, and by the time her memory was bad she'd have forgotten it pretty quickly.

 

[Witzend]

I have experienced similar from charities making phone calls after receiving donations, I give them short shrift.

I donate to several charities but never dish out my phone number even if they say they 'need' it for such and such a reason. The only reason they 'need' it is to phone and badger you, or to pass on to other orgs. I know my address has been passed on a lot but none of them have ever phoned me. (helps that we're ex-D)
I get endless post, though, raffles, etc. Very often my mail consists of nothing else.

 

[ggma]

It is awful that so many people suffer from these con men. We realised too late that the £20,000 that my mum had after moving from the family home to a bungalow was all gone, and nothing to show for it. It is too lenghty to go into, but she was scammed really well by a number of people, and Mum was quite aggressive in her defence of managing her money.

Mum was hooked on competitions from abroad that ask you to send money to claim a prize and also bought loads of potions that were suposed to improve her brain.

We put up a camera in her hall focusing on the front door so we knew who was going in and out, and one along the front drive, we found the gardener we paid for 2 hrs was sleeping in his van for an hour and a half, no wonder we were doing the weeding!! Neighbours knew and had not like to tell us!!!!!!!!!!! The cleaner again paid for 2 hours work, was on some days staying 20mins and never more than half an hour.

We learnt too late to put the POA in action, and just give mum enough cash to keep her happy and able to go to local shops each day.

This is one of the real problems of people with dementia living alone, and I would urge anyone to do their utmost to protect their relatives financially, the story of people taking someone to a bank to draw out money is not an isolated case - it is all so sad and distressing.