Mother blackmailed into signing over her share of property

[Bob.23]

Hi,

I have only recently discovered that my sister has entered an IVA which started in Sept. 2008. She and my mother live together, and before the IVA, my mother owned 67% of the property outright in her own name, my sister the rest on a mortgage.

What concerns me, is the way my mother, 86 at the time, was blackmailed by the people arranging the IVA into signing over her portion of the house (a half share of which should have been my inheritance) to my sister in entirety, telling her her daughter (who has a young son) would be sent to prison for the debts if she did not comply. My mother's health has deteriorated considerably since that time, due to the stress. I was not involved, or informed about any of this at the time.

My mother has received absolutely nothing in return for her share of the house (approx. £160,000), and I have been disinherited, since my sister is now sole legal owner, and will undoubtedly use the remaining house value to max out her credit as soon as she is clear of the IVA.

I understand that the creditors would have had absolutely no legal claim over my mother's portion of the house value, as the debt's were all created by my sister for her own benefit. They insisted on her voluntary signing over of the deed's of the house, before allowing my sister to enter the IVA.

So I am asking if this is acceptable, legitimate behaviour, and if not, what, if any, recourse do I now have to claim the pressurising of my mother to hand over her life savings (as invested in the house) to cover her daughter's debts, was illegal and unethical? Can that arrangement be nullified because of undue pressure exerted by the IVA practitioners on a frail, 86 year old lady whose obvious weakness was understandable concern for her daughter and grandson?

I have now managed to obtain many of the documents concerning the whole affair, so if you need further info I can hopefully supply it.

I look forward to your reply.

Bob James.

[ginger3232]

You may find it was restriction - placed on the property and registered with the Land registry - This is Not the same as signing the deeds over.

Perhaps you need to speak to your Mother - and find out what she wanted !!!
If it is your mothers property she entitled do do as she wishes with it - and unless you can prove she was "blackmailed or forced" into this - you may just have to accept the situation

[plasticdaft]

Double post?

[plasticdaft]

Bob what documents do you have exactly? And what evidence of blackmail?

Paul

[kallis3]

Looks like it is a duplicate. I think we do need to know exactly what was signed as ginger may well be right.

[Bob.23]

Thank you for your responses, and apologies for the duplicate post - didn't realise my inquiry was going to be posted on the same forum.

I will look through what papers I have and see if there is any proof in writing of these requests. Also establish the exact nature of handover - though it looked pretty complete when skimming over.

Until I can establish wrongdoing, I am unwilling to publicly name the company involved.

I am in a difficult situation insofar as my mother doesn't want any more stress and bad feeling to be stirred up, and my sister doesn't want the overseer riled - fearing they may somehow make things worse for her.

Nevertheless I feel that regardless of my own loss, this is appalling behaviour. All my mother 'wanted' was to keep her daughter out of prison. She is deeply resentful of having to lose her home to my sister's profligacy, but has to live with her.

In the end there may well be nothing to do but accept it. However if there is any way of rectifying these abuses I would at least like to know, so I can then discuss it further with the family.

[plasticdaft]

I really dont think there is much you can do,I am sure no one held a gun to your mothers head and to prove that she was forced to sign the house over will be nigh on impossible.

Unethical,totally but you can partly blame your sister for that as she allowed this to happen.

Paul

[Broke of London]

I think we need to know exactly what your mother signed before assuming there has been any wrong-doing. If she is as frail as you say, her memory and accuracy will probably not be complete. If she signed an RX1 form then she still owns her share of the home. If you think the property was transferred to your sister or included as an asset in the iva, then check the proposals and chairman's report for the acceptance meeting as it will be listed under Assets. Though do bear in mind that the property can be listed and may only refer to your sister's share of any equity. I'm not sure whether you think the property was made over to your sister or to the creditors, but it may be worth checking the deeds or the land registry to see if your mum is still an owner. I can't see your sister being able to afford a gift of that value prior to entering an iva as the tax bill would be huge. You need to find out exactly what happened before jumping to any conclusions.

[KAYKAY]

BOL.... very wise words indeed. I agree all possibilities need to be checked out thoroughly, before any further action is taken or conclusions jumped to.

[Bob.23]

I have now trawled through the masses of papers, and established that in fact the events I describe above took place about nine months before the IP got involved or the IVA was setup.

My mother's account only relates to 'men in suits' who came round to the house - she thought they were from the bank. It now appears the people responsible were agents for the "bad credit history not a problem" re-mortgaging firm my sister had applied to, who on finding she wasn't the sole owner, then applied pressure to my mother rather than lose the business. My sister's share of the house being insufficient to cover her debt's.

Needless to say her new huge mortgage payments were unsustainable leading to the setting up of the IVA only nine months later, the last three of which were due to my mother's refusal to hand over the deeds to the house, which she did eventually. My sister is definitely now the sole owner. Obviously she would have been better to have entered an IVA at that point and kept her half-share of my mother's portion out of the hands of the creditors. It is now listed as an asset in the Chairman's report.

So to reassure others here that there is no rogue IP at loose - The IP and firm involved had no part in this tawdry affair. I am now seeking legal advice regarding the selling practices of this company, and possible action over the transfer of assets at an undervalue.

Thanks for all your advice.

[kallis3]

Duplicate thread so am locking it to just concentrate on one of them.