Owners in Care Homes or residential accomodation
In Bristol we have an active CPO programme and we have several properties that have been empty for many years with the owner in a care home or residential accommodation where the owner may not have capacity to make a decision. we are thinking of starting the CPO process on these properties and would be grateful for any views / advice on whether / how to proceed.
Steve Low
Bristol City Council
- Forums
Have you tried your Social
Have you tried your Social Services Estates Team? They can usually tell you if they manage the persons finances, if the person has a social worker, if the person has capacity to manage their own finances or if someone else has been appointed to manage the persons affairs.
Owners in Care Homes or Residential Accomodation
Steve, we have had two similar cases here in St Helens where both owners were in care and not capable of dealing with their own affairs.
In the first case, without any forthcoming cooperation from the family, we pursuaded the manager of the nursing home to appoint a solicitor to apply to the Court of Protection to appoint a Deputy to deal with the individual's affairs. However, in this particular case, the Lady passed away before the matter was decided and the previous unhelpful relatives turned up out of the woodwork to inherit and the house is now being refurbished.
The second case was somewhat similar but we did pursuade a reuctant daughter to apply to the Court of Protection. In this case the Court appointed her to deal with her father's affairs and the property has now been sold to a local builder.
I would recommend that you explore other avenues as suggested by the previous post and also speak with the managers of the homes to find out if there are any families who would be prepared to help. I think you will find these way forward much easier than resorting to CPO.
Good luck. Ian
Onwers in care
1. Ask Comm Care if the person is known to Social Services. If yes, they will have records of NoK/carers/case manager/care home, etc
2. Within SS, find the team that deals with Court of Protection/Deputyship/Receivership. Is your own Council acting as Attorney?
3. Ask all the above whether the person has mental capacity. If they haven't, you really need to have an Attorney to work with. You'll look harsh serving papers on someone without mental capacity and without an attorney.
4. If no-one is looking after the person's affairs, and you feel something needs to be done, your own Court of Protection/Deputyship/Receivership Team may be persuaded to apply for Deputyship and deal with the issue. This is a slow process.
Nick P-G
Reading BC
01189373091
Owners in care - training
Thanks for this useful debate, everyone.
In South East London we want to run some training for EPOs which would tackle this tricky and growing issue of working with owners and their families to enable homes to be released for renting while they are in care.
Topics to cover in the training would include the Mental Capacity Act 2005, financial oversight for people who can't manage their own affairs, how income from renting the property would be treated in regard to paying for care, use of enforcement procedures. Another side to the training might be working with care home staff, and charitable advice services for older people, eg First Stop.
Does anyone have some great good practice in this area? Can you recommend a trainer on this topic - or are you a trainer yourself?
Many thanks,
Kirsten Firth, South East London Housing Partnership