My Mother is 96 and has had a M&S CC for many years, used for phone and online shopping which also gave her a feeling of independence as she rarely left the house. She began displaying signs of dementia late last year following a stroke, then fell at Christmas suffering a v serious head injury and was not expected to survive. She was eventually stabilised, though only after two scary doubt-filled relapses. It was then immediately clear that her dementia had deepened v substantially, and to make a long and very evil story short my Mother has in just a few weeks been replaced by someone who looks like her but has no memories, doesn't retain anything she is told conversationally for longer than 30-60 seconds, has no retained awareness therefore of her circumstances or where she is, who never has a yesterday to help her understand today, is confused on a good day and distressed on a bad one, doesn't recognise friends/some-family, and only occasionally recognises me when I tell her who I am. She is now in permanent residential dementia care where we continue to visit a very frail stranger unable to look after herself and needing help with all aspects of daily life, and that we love very much but can do nothing to help, only ... observe. Anyway ... I am dealing with her personal affairs. I would like to know please whether a card-issuer - M&S in this case - has legitimate recourse to family if the card-holder is neither competent nor capable and is unable to settle an outstanding balance, in this case just under £2K. Today the State takes all of Mum's pension and benefits to offset some of the £900+ p.w. cost of her Care, with the exception of a few pounds as so-called pocket-money to provide "personal treats" like toothpaste and replacement clothes/undies etc. Treats? There is no longer any possibility of the outstanding balance being settled by Mum from any source at all, she has no assets and had been getting by just okay on her State Pension+ small benefits whilst in a sheltered-housing bungalow since my Father died. I have been far too preoccupied to bother with the M&S reminder-letters over the past three months, but should take control before things escalate. I don't have any problem ignoring DCs if M&S moves it along, however I'd rather put the brakes on with M&S before that stage. So, to repeat my question ... I assume that in Law M&S would have recourse to income or assets, however there are none and I am wanting to know if In Law there is then permitted-recourse to family for the debt? If they try to make noise instead of writing the balance off, I am perfectly capable of berating M&S very robustly about pursuing a 96 year old woman in residential care with dementia! However, before then I want to be clear in my mind about the legitimacy of any other channels they may claim to be entitled to pursue for recovery. In reality they would actually be unsuccessful that way also as I am 71, retired with no assets and only state pension income, and with debts and obligations of my own already after a past business-collapse. I'm not concerned with that just now however, just in knowing whether M&S would be on solid ground if they should respond by saying that in these circumstances the debt becomes the responsibility of someone's family to settle if their assets/estate isn't able to cover it. So can someone advise on that one point please? Thanks! Howard

Hi all, This time last year my gran passed away. We have discovered this week after finally clearing out everything in the premises (extreme hoarder) that she was a customer of that lovely company we know as Provident. From the mountains of paper work I've looked through, I have found 23 legible statements first one with a date of March 2008 and last one December 2014 - The oldest of the paperwork (extremely water-damaged) have the provident logo's and date Nov 1999. We have counted every one of these and there's 121 (inc the 23 legible) - which works out at roughly 3-4 loans per year from '99! (statements seem to be 6mths each) From the 23 I can read the total value paid back £32k - they average approx £800 each one & have an APR 245% (or around that mark). (Agreements dated before 2013 £20k was paid back) and each time one was taken out there was a repayment within 14days. My Gran, left no will - and my mom acted as executioner(?) though nothing official (except for Hospital letters stating her as N.O.K). She was in receipt of disability / benefits/ pension for years - I'm 40 and I remember going to the post office with her to cash her giro when I was alot younger.. She never held a bank account - did'nt believe in them. the only time she had an account of some sort was when the DWP started to pay into a post office account. I'm aware that Provident are one of the many being investigated for IRL & I've seen other threads where people have refunded PPI on behalf of a deceased relative. My question are - and might seem stupid considering the length of time I've been on here (and successes I've had) 1) Where do I start - do I send a GDPR / SAR request to Provident - (is there any specific wording/template for a deceased relative). 2) Provident will probably only hold 6yrs of info, but what about the year's prior to 2013 where I have statements? 3) Is there a specific IRL template (for a deceased relative) 4) We only have a the death cert. no other paperwork - will this suffice or are we unable to go after them for IRL? It has come as a great shock to see these, and to know that she'd had multiple loans running at the same time with benefit as only source of income. What made it worse is she said she was putting money away for her funeral and family - but my mother had to take out a loan (with a reputable bank) to pay for all the funeral costs & money owed to DWP in over payments. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi all Nearly 6 months ago my Father in Law was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Palliative Care team at his Hospital immediately requested that the council fit a level access shower in his council flat. 4 months later, his wife had heard nothing so rang the Council up. Was told that the adjudication Panel had rejected the request! The next day his daughter phoned to plead with them to reconsider. They immediately phoned back to say they had granted the application. No reason was given for the refusal or the reconsideration. She was phoned in August to say they would start work on shower on the following Monday. They never turned up. No reason was given. He passed away mid-September. The shower was never fitted. For the last few months of his life he refused to leave the flat because he was worried that he smelled. This despite his wife washing him frequently using cloths and bowls of soapy water. I have registered a formal complaint and I'm awaiting the response. I have had a phone call from the Director of Adult Social Care who apologised but refused to provide any explanation. He told me to register a formal complaint if I felt his apology wasn't sufficient. I have made FOI request for the minutes of the Panel meetings. However, I am now considering legal action to seek financial compensation for his wife. Would she have a case and if so, how would I go about it?

Am I liable for emptying a deceased's relative's flat of unwanted furniture? My auntie recently passed away I very rarely seen her and was shocked that I had a phone call on the weekend saying she passed away in hospital, as I'm her only living relative, I contacted the housing association about giving her flat up, they told me I would need to clear the flat I told them I can't due to other commitments and living too far away, they told me I would be liable to pay then so much for 3 items, can they do this? Am I liable for any costs?

Hi Caggers A friend of mine is in private rented property the six months tenancy is up for renewal on 6th April, he is reluctant to sign for a further six months due to a few problems he is experiencing with the estate agent. He told the estate agent over a month ago of his concerns and they have still not put matters right. Today he phoned the estate agents and the problem has still not been resolved. My question is can he legally just give them notice of his intent not to renew the 6 months tenancy agreement. Thanks xx

Good evening, My auntie used to own a timeshare with Sunny Coast Malta and died over 4 years ago. Since then her sister (my auntie) and my dad have been receiving debt collection letters for the annual maintenance fees for the timeshare. They were not aware that the timeshare would become their responsibility in the event of her death and have not signed anything in respect to the ongoing fees or use of the timeshare. Since her death they have been ignoring the charges. Just recently they have now started to receive letters from Network Credit Services threatening further debt collection. Please could anyone advise what steps they should now be taking? Should they just continue to ignore? Any advice would be fantastic as it is getting to a point where my auntie is starting to feel ill with it all. Many thanks in anticipation

https://www.northumbria.nhs.uk/media/press-releases/2014/04/07/discussions-conclude-regarding-hospital-parking

Can anyone help This is really very important and urgent. A very close relative has dementia. Spouse today took relative for a Nhs hospital appointment and “apparently” relative became aggressive – threatened to kill the doctor and spouse !! This, of course, is part of the illness - and also because of a current bladder infection which can cause aggression in anyone. Relative is not normally like this. The trouble is that the hospital Doctor “sectioned” relative. They will now not allow him out of the hospital. The specialist doctor, to whom he was aggressive, will now not be back in the hospital until Tuesday. And it seems they can legally – potentially – keep relative in the hospital for months. I just do not know what to do. But am trying to be practical and quickly ask as many people as possible I know - who work in the medical and legal industry – how we can extract relative from the Nhs hospital system ?? And back into a known environment with a carer. He is in an open ward surrounded by other mentally ill people. Just last week he was staying perfectly well with family, with a carer, in a normal home environment and loving family surrounding him and helping - and was absolutely fine. Family have Power of Attorney over all affairs and physical well-being. But the hospital have "sectioned” relative under a certain Act, stating that relative turned up at the hospital of “own free will” - despite it being for a regular assessment appointment and not for an admission. Which seems to infer that family - even with Power of Attorney - can do nothing. At this very late hour trying to research all avenues. Can anyone offer advice on the correct steps to take to very quickly extract relative from this distressing environment. When compos mentis this is the very situation relative demanded family ensured never happened. Can someone help? Please. xx

So I am single with a 2 year old son I have been renting my 2 bed flat privatley from a landlord for 2 years using housing benefit/dss to pay the majority of my rent, he has recently put the rent up so I am planning on leaving this flat and looking for a new one when my tenancy ends in feburary. So my brother is a landlord who has 2 other one bed flats and a 2 bed house which would be perfect for me to move into, its been rented out constantly for the last few years, i belive also with tenants claiming dss and it will be free for a new tenant around febuary. So he said why dont i move into his flat that he would prefer someone he knows to live in it, and told me it would be no problem the fact that we were related. I just wanted some advice on this I'm living in Brent and I feel they can be quite suspicious and strict on dss, so I'm wanting to know would renting from him be possible I would be paying a deposit, a reasonable rent for the area and he would be advertising the flat fairly

Hello everyone, I have had a look at all the threads but I have unusual circumstances so ask for your kind advice (but sorry if I am just repeating what has been asked before): My partner is the executrix to an estate The deceased passed away in October 2008 The main beneficiary is my partner's daughter (grand daughter of the deceased - paternal side of the family) We have a number of credit agreements (see example below) and they form the debts of the estate as they were (completely) unpaid during deceased's lifetime Agreements were taken out in 2003 No substantial payments were made and they all went into default pretty quickly Our daughter's biological father is contesting the will and we have had to go to the High Court to get our daughter what was left to her We have spent 4 years in litigation to win probate for our daughter's inheritance (which thankfully should happen before Christmas - ) at great expense Probate for the estate has been handled by a solicitor Litigation of the dispute was handled by a different solicitor (thankfully!) The probate solicitors have communicated with the creditors directly on the executrix's behalf. They are not hassling us yet but will do when we sell the house because the debts have "equitable charges" against the house (which is the only real asset of the estate). We did not want to try and clear the credit agreements in case we lost the case over the validity of the will Now we are close to getting probate, we need to try and get rid of these debts (or at least the punitive interest) on them Interest has been charged throughout at 20% I now need to know how much interest has accrued over the course of the litigation so must write to the creditors now for statements of account to enable us to calculate costs that we can attribute back to our daughter's numbwit father. (Sensible?) Here is an example of a First National Bank credit agreement in question (we have 3 of these all of the same format and some others that are similar in structure) [ATTACH]38602[/ATTACH] The only route I can think of is that the agreement does not have the total credit charge, only the amount of credit agreed and then monthly repayments. Thanks