Barclays and an Enduring Power of Attorney

[stevens21]

HI

 

I was an EPA for my father, who was in hospital, so asked me to sort his finances out.

The EPA was legal from the 26th July and the only people i had problems with were Barclays with whom my father had a sole current account and a joint savings account with his wife (seperated but not legally, so Father wanted his money moved somewhere safe)

 

This should have been simple but turned out not to be.

 

First of all we told them that his wife was writing out cheques using Fathers signature and i was told that unless the amount is over £1000 they dont check the signatures anyway. I asked that they put a stop on the cheque book but they refused, even after i told them what she had been doing.

 

Then the assistant manager rang to say there was a problem registering the EPA as my Fathers signature didnt match what they held on file. I told them, " have a couple of strokes and be in hospital for 15 weeks, then see if your signature matches".

The EPA was stamped on the 16th Oct by Barclays, i had filled in the form the assistant gave me and they were saying the signature of my father didnt match, yet were letting cheques go through that i had told them were being done without his knowledge.

 

They asked that Father write a letter confirming the EPA. He couldnt because of the stroke. I asked that someone from Barclays go to see him and the assistant manager said she would visit him at the nursing home on the monday.

Thursday of the following week, after hearing nothing, i rang and spoke to the manager who informed me that the assistant manager had no intention of visiting my Father, she didnt work mondays anyway and was going to phone him instead. I told her not to bother as he had been taken ill and couldnt speak to anyone at that moment.

 

On the 30th Oct my Father died. I went straight to Barclays after getting the death certificate and spoke with the assistant manager. She kept talking about a general power of attorney (which doesnt deal with finances) and i showed her my EPA with Barclays stamps all over it to which she replied "I havent seen this" and promptly registered the EPA with the finance side (weird as an EPA dies with the person who it was intended for) and told me to hand over any receipts that i had had to pay out for as i couldnt access any of Fathers money to get the things he needed. The amount totalled just over £1000. I still wasnt told how much was in the account but was also told to put in for the funeral expenses, which i viewed pretty much like writing a bouncing cheque as i didnt have a clue how much was in the account.

 

Next i get a phone call from Whetstones who deal with the deceased accounts after Barclays pass it over. I am told i wont be getting any money from Father account to cover the bills i had to pay on his behalf because i couldnt access his account. After explaining it all to Whetstones, i was advised to ring the branch and speak to the manager who also informed me that she hadnt seen the EPA either, to which i replied, "do you not know what paperwork passes through your own branch!" Then came a conversation where she was basically covering her own and the assistant managers backsides. Like i wasnt expecting that.

 

The upshot of it all is, that i was not allowed access to any of my Fathers money while he was alive..........and i should have been under the EPA.

Barclays is saying that his wife will get whats in the joint savings account by default and if theres any left in the sole Barclays current account after funeral expenses, she will get that as well.

At the moment the account is frozen until i send in the funeral expenses, which i havent recieved as yet.

 

I think Barclays has been a pain all the way along. Has not checked paperwork. Has stopped me from doing with Fathers money what he wanted doing with it and it ends up with his wife by default, even though my Father wanted it moved out of her way.

 

I believe Barclays has been negligent. I was certainly given the wrong information about receipts. They were under the impression that i had general power of attorney not an enduring power of attorney but how long would it have taken them to check paperwork?

Five times i had to take time off work to go to their branch 60 miles away and still ended up nowhere. I am self employed, so time is money to me.

 

Is there anything i can do about this and who at Barclays should i make a formal complaint to?

 

Thanks

[saintly_1]

Welcome to Barclays forum

 

I am sorry about the loss of your father. What an dreadful way to be treated at such a time. I have asked the team for further help with this

[saintly_1]

Did your father leave a will? and where you named as executor ?

[Trucker]

Good point saintly... exactly what i was going to ask.

 

Stevens21.... if a will is present the first thing i would be doing is instructing a solicitor. All your fathers estate will now be frozen until probate is obtained. If a Will is present then this will not be a problem as the estate will be divided in accordance with the Will.

[stevens21]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Unfortunately, Father did not have a will. Before he went into hospital, he discussed what he wanted done with his money while his wife was present. (he had 6 children and grandchildren that he wanted the money split between as well as funeral expenses paid) The idea was that they visit him at home but as he was taken ill a week later and admitted to hospital, that never happened. When i was made EPA, the money was made payable to me as executor by the Nationwide, after Fathers death.

 

When it became clear that Father had to go into a home, his wife wrote him a letter saying their marriage was over and didnt visit him anymore.

A divorce and a will were top of his list but due to illness the solicitor was put off and he never recovered enough to get things sorted out.

 

I made the funeral arrangements, as agreed by his wife, as she knew my Father had given the money to me, to bequeath his "wishes" and funeral expenses.

 

My main gripe being that Barclays did not act on the EPA. Gave me wrong information. Gave me the wrong paperwork. Gave me the wrong advice regarding bills and receipts.

 

I wish to take it further with Barclays as this is fully their fault, although they were told several times it was an EPA but chose to ignore it or just not check details.

[slick132]

Hi Stevens,

 

What troubles me here is that Nationwide paid out money to you as Executor when there was no will to appoint you as such. The EPA ceased to have any effect when your father died.

 

Although, of course, you knew your father's wishes, you were not entitled to deal with the distribution of his estate or assets because:-

 

1) There was no will, so your father died Intestate. Rules apply as to what happens, who inherits what, and who can apply to deal with the estate.

 

2) In the absence of a will, your father's wife may be entitled to some or all of his estate, regardless of their seperation.

 

3) No money should have been paid to you after your father's death except perhaps to pay for funeral expenses.

 

You may well have left yourself liable by acting without proper authority, particularly if your father's wife chooses to query the matter.

 

I would seek guidance from a solicitor immediately so you can establish how best to remedy these issues and avoid leaving yourself financially exposed.

 

I think the situation re. Barclays is something of a side issue by comparison.

 

Slick

[stevens21]

Hi slick the money from nationwide was paid to me two months before my dad died and not after as stated by my wife , the epa had been in force for one month before so three months in total all the best mike.

[slick132]

Hi Mike,

 

Thanks for the explanation re Nationwide.

 

If you want to pursue the issue with Barclays and have had no satisfaction at branch level, tell them you want to take your complaint further and get contact details accordingly. If this fails to bring satisfaction, you could go on to complain to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service).

 

It's clear from your account of matters that the bank was not helpful to you when you were trying to sort out financial arrangements at the same time as your father was gravely ill.

 

Perhaps if your father had the time to instruct a solicitor, he could have protected his assets in the way he wanted, with regard to his wife, his children and grandchildren, his will, funeral expenses, bank a/c's, etc.

 

However, this did not happen because of the speed of his decline.

 

I wish you well in sorting it out with the bank at this difficult time for you.

 

Slick