ending Bed Finance early? help dad going into Care Home

[jimmy mumu]

my father has just being declared unfit to make sound judgements of his care needs and financial affairs.

 

 

as his son I'm trying to sort through mountains of junk

 

 

have come across a credit agreement for nearly £6000 for a bed,

 

 

he still has 3 years to pay on this.

 

 

I know because its still on finance i can't sell it.

 

 

he has no assets and once he goes in to a care home he will have no funds to pay for it.

 

 

any ideas of how to sort this out please.

 

 

he currently owes about £3000 on it.

[dx100uk]

have a look on the back of the agreement

 

 

you should see voluntary termination rights?

 

 

dx

[jimmy mumu]

right found another finance agreement fot £2106 for a chair , on that one there is no voluntary termination rights printed, i'm still trying to find the full agreement for the bed. thanks

[ericsbrother]

If he has no other assets then just stopping the payments will focus their attention on whether they want a secondhand chair back or not.

My father had these sorts of people trying to sell him chairs and mobility equipment. He still has his marbles so went to a shop and bought them himself for a tenth of the cost you get charged by the carpetbaggers who come round. Still hate the look of the furniture though, they havent had a new design for 40 years by the look of things and that makes them worthless used.

[jimmy mumu]

no he has no other assets, less than 1000 in the bank now. just bought his funeral plan thank goodness.

[reallymadwoman]

Probably the most hassle free way to deal with this is to write to each company, set out in plain language the current and future situations and ask them what they want you to do with the items. Give them a deadline to respond (28 days would be reasonable) after which you will have no choice but to dispose of the items by whatever means are available.

 

I wouldn't recommend actually disposing of them, but it should focus their attention.

[neil6534]

I agree, write to them sending proof of what is available in the bank, then go on and clearly state all other debt your relative has. I'd also write to all other debtors at the same time. you will need proof that your relative is unfit to make sound judgments, you'll also need confirmation that you have the right to deal with their finances......write to all debtors and ask each one of them to write of the debt....i may have a few letters i can send you copies of which i used for my parents death after they passed away if that would help

[jimmy mumu]

that would be great neil6534 i'll pm you my email address.

[jimmy mumu]

thanks Neil. just another query . so far i only have a verbal agreement from the physio and rgn at the care home that my father is unable to look after his affairs, i have no power of attorney at the moment neither does social services. am i still ok to act in his best interests. as previously stated there are no assets involved other than the bed and chair.

[jimmy mumu]

really could do with an answer to my last question. don't want to put myself in trouble. thanks

[neil6534]

hi....you do not need to have power of attorney to deal with your relatives finance....you are not seeking control of their finances you are only looking to help them sort things out, so what you do need is a letter signed by your relative stating that they are allowing you to contact the creditors/banks/utilities etc and work out a resolution....something like " I John Boy, am notifying you that I am giving my consent for "Little John" to contact you in relation to my account with you" ....you may want to add when dealing with banks and any place your relative has any money saved something like" little john is not allowed to remove any funds from my account unless individual consent is given" ......we did something similar like this for my mum as you can appreciate some people although unable to deal with everything themselves still feel vulnerable if they give full consent and handover full control.......maybe someone on here has a better letter template for consent when dealing with debtors.....or try googling letter of consent for debtors

[jimmy mumu]

an update.. sent letters off for the chair and bed and not heard anything yet. new development though is, whilst my father has been in hospital i've been paying his bills , in november the respite home asked for an assessment re him going into a nursing home. it was decided he still had mental capacity but was unable to look after himself in a meaningful way so in to a nursing home he goes.

social services have been and done a financial assessment today and the council are paying for his care. then they informed me that i have to cancel his dla and pension credit and it should have been done before. the dwp will want around £4000 paying back but my father only has £3300 left because we paid for his funeral out of the money in the bank. what can i do now. will i be responsible for this even though it wasn't my fault.

[Mr.P]

You are NOT responsible for any debt in your father's name. If the DWP want their money back, they will have to recover it from any benefits they are paying (this includes any state pension). With £3300 left in his account, there would be enough to reduce the debt (if one exists) to a nominal amount (assuming a £4,000 overpayment), but before getting too worried about it, wait for the DWP to make contact. When they do, the first task is to ask for a mandatory reconsideration and try to get the total reduced.

[jimmy mumu]

thanks for that, i wasn't sure if me paying his bills meant i had any legal comeback. now he's in the care home he recieves £152 and out of that the carehome fees are £127 pw leaving him £24 for any needs. not much they can reduce really.