I don't know much about Lifetime Mortgages and we don't know what the rest of the Will says, who owned the property at the date of your father's death or even if she is an Executor so I can't give any specific advice and agree with lolerz that you should discuss this with the soliciitor.

What I understand a lifetime mortgage to be is essentially a loan facility secured on the property from which you can borrow money which is repaid from the sale of the property when you die. So a type of Equity Release. So if you are going to sell the house soon then I would anticipate that the loans she has taken will have to be repaid from the sale proceeds. That will reduce the amount left in the Residuary Estate and so the amount the beneficiaries will inherit. She may be able to transfer the loans to the new house she is moving to with her new partner - if she has any ownership in it....

Whether you can adjust what she receives from the Estate to take account of the loans she has taken out is something you need to take legal advice on. It depends, for one thing, whether she is a Residuary Beneficiary at all. Is she? And is she an Executor? If she is she could obstruct your attempts to reduce her share of the Residuary Estate. You have Probate presumably. Is she named on the Probate document as an Executor?

I would question whether she had the right to borrow further money under the lifetime mortgage after your father's death if the house had been owned solely by your father. It could even be fraud because you can generally only borrow secured on property that you own, not on property owned by someone else (at least not without the owner's consent). I wonder if she has told the mortgage company that your father has died?

The Will Trust appears to say that from the date of your father's death the house is legally owned by his Trustees. She is one of them but that doesn't give her the power to act unilaterally and take out further loans. And in any case Trustees have to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries as a whole and I believe Trustees are forbidden by law to use Trust assets as security for their personal benefit. These are potentially serious criminal offences, I wonder if she realises that?

It might be legal to raise a loan secured on the house to carry out repairs but (a) that would have to be a decision of all three Trustees and (b) it would be done only if the repairs could not be paid for from other Estate assets.  Surely if the repairs needed were so large that a new mortgage loan was needed you would have known about the condition of the house?

Who was the registered owner at the Land Registry at your father's date of death? Is it now registered in your three names as Trustees? It might be worth you getting copy of the Title document for the house from the Land Registry to show the solicitor. It costs £3 and you get a downloadable pdf. Search for land and property information - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)   It's only the Title Register you need to get, you don't need the Title Plan. If it's the first time you've used the Land Registry site it will ask you to set up a (free) Land Registry account before you can do the download.

I think you have uncovered a serious issue here that needs professional legal advice. 

Incidentally, I assume you are an Executor so do you have a copy of the "life time mortgage ... that her and my dad opened before his death"? As Executor you have it because the liabilties your father incurred under it are part of his Estate. Ask her for a copy.
 

@Karalius  any updates on this/

The type of Will Trust that you describe is common in principle but can be complex in practice (especially for tax) so I agree that you need to consult a solicitor specialising in wills, probate and trusts (not all firms of solicitors have such a specialist). 

I've twice been Executor in a Will that established a Trust. In both cases we had advice from a specialist solicitor. In one case the Will Trust needed to be registered with HMRC, in the other (the case which was similar to the one here) it didn't.

So sharing my experience, and what I learned from the solicitors advising me in the past (but not giving expert advice)...

Will Trusts do not usually need any other documentation or 'setting up'. The Will, as long as correctly drafted, is also the "Trust deed" that sets up the Trust and nothing else is needed. The Trust then automatically comes into effect on the death of the testator. The Will needs to state who the Trustees are. Commonly the Executors are also the Trustees in the sort of Trust described here but the Trustees can be different people. Does the Will say something like "I appoint ...X... and ...Y...  and ...Z... ("my Trustees") to be the Executors and Trustees of this my Will"? Or are the Executors and Trustees named separately and aren't all the same people?

Registration of Trusts is usually only required for tax purposes, ie registration with HMRC's Trusts and Estates department. There is nowhere that holds a register of Trusts in general. Not having registered a Trust with HMRC is unlikely to invalidate the Trust as such but could get the Trustees into trouble and expose them to penalties with HMRC for non registration. 

Not all Trusts have to be registered, for example Trusts that are unlikely to produce any taxable income or capital gain. The Trust you describe here may fall within the category of Trusts that don't need to be registered (only may - take advice). See the seventh bullet point under the heading "If your trust is not liable for UK taxes" here: Trusts and taxes: When you must register a trust - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

It sounds like your dad's wife is one of the Trustees (and an Executor?) and believes, or has been advised, that the Will Trust needs to be registered with HMRC so is taking steps to do that on behalf of all the Trustees. DoB and NINO of all Trustees is information HMRC will require. The implication is that there may be some tax to be paid, possibly CGT from the date of your dad's death to date of sale, but you would need a Trust taxation specialist to give you advice on that. And maybe a late registration penalty. (I have learned that the taxation of Trusts is horribly complex!)

I believe HMRC will require all the Trustees named in the Will to sign the HMRC form registering the Trust, although mostly when I was involved HMRC subsequently dealt only with me as the "Lead Trustee", ie the person authorised by all the Trustees to act on their behalf.

If the three of you are the Trustees named in the Will then I would expect it to need the agreement of all three of you to sell the house, subject to any specific provisions of the Will.

Hope that's of some help.

22 hours ago, mrk1 said:

Hello. Just a quick thought. 
I uncovered this info. 
Are these people referring to the same people??

Just a moment...

WWW.YELL.COM

What do we think guys? 

There is a genuine court enforcement office at that address with that phone number listed on the gov.uk courts database:

But there is a scam warning there that fraudsters may be mimicking genuine court phone numbers and email addresses.

It seems the issue is now being publically acknowledged...

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/royal-mail-investigating-barcoded-stamps-after-gb-news-exposed-counterfeit-charge-scandal/ar-BB1kY4BJ

Hullet & Benton [2022] is an Australian case (*) so not relevant here. Family courts always put the child's interests first and will not just delete OP from this role without some agreement on who is going to fill it. Without a 'go between' the whole Order ceases to function.  It's not clear when the OP first found out about being named in the role but the court may want to explore why she did not take steps to be removed immediately she discovered it. That's why OP needs advice from a family lawyer.  

(*) EDIT And it's about property settlements in a divorce/separation, not children.

Rely on a family lawyer's opinion not mine! 

14 hours ago, stuggling said:

Thank you I'll delete the image, and get s family lawyer 

I've hidden the post that contained the image of the court order to ensure the confidentiality of the child

I don't believe you can get a family arrangements order changed just by writing to the court and saying you don't consent to be included in it any longer.  You will need to make a formal application to the court for a variation to the order. A family law specialist will best be able to advise. Bear in mind that family courts will consider first and foremost what is best for the child and will encourage the family to discuss it and bring proposals to the court.

As CAFCASS are already involved it might be worth starting by talking to them, to whoever wrote the report referred to in the court order.

I really haven't the first idea what this is about so some more explanation would be useful, but as a general comment I'm surprised you can be named in that role in any court document without your consent. The obvious solution would seem to be to go back to the court or whichever agency is involved (Social Services? CAFCASS?) and ask to have your name removed.

Are they jointly and severally liable for the cost of damage to the property? I can't see any reference to that in the document you uploaded. Tenancy agreements are usually joint and several liability so you could pursue just one of the tenants for the whole amount. Useful if you suspect only one of them has enough assets to pay a judgement.   Shelter Legal England - Joint tenancies - Shelter England

Because you permitted two tenants to leave mid-tenancy and two others to move in you may have a dispute in court about how much of the cost can be assigned to each tenant. Proceedings against a tenant who has been there the full period of the tenancy might avoid that problem.

I suspect you may need professional legal advice on this.

Student lets typically require them to provide a guarantor, usually their parents.  Do you have guarantors?

Can you confirm they have actually vacated the property and you have now regained possession.

Yes, Hotpoint UK has been a subsidiary of Whirlpool for over 20 years. And unlike some domestic goods manufacturers you can buy from them direct and I believe they employ their own service engineers, Is that your situation? You bought direct from Hotpoint and Hotpoint sent out their own engineer?

@F18 the issue that may come up is that ECP will probably say that you have to submit it through their formal appeals process. ECP, like most of the PPCs, have it as a condition of submitting an appeal that you name the driver, otherwise they won't accept the appeal. On the ECP page you linked in Post #21 it says "Please review our FAQs before submitting an appeal", go to the FAQ about appeals and it says [my bold] "All correspondence must include the Parking Charge Notice reference number, your vehicle registration mark, your name, address and the name of the driver (if different) and any supporting evidence."

That's one reason why we normally advise people never to appeal, it's how PPCs try to force you to reveal the driver when you aren't legally required to do so. You then lose important legal protections. (The other reason for not appealing is that they rarely accept them!)

You can complain to the NHS Trust that runs the hospital, either directly or contact their PALS service  (Patient Advice and Liaison Service). Details will be on the hospital website.

Compensation? Doubt it but you could ask if your injuries are serious enough to justify a personal injuries claim. If you are going to pursue this for money you need to get an independent medical reprot now to confirm the injuries you have suffered (which will need to be a medical report at your own expense).

They have form for this HB. A few years ago there were lots of complaints about phone waiting times and the Parliament committee reviewing them told them they needed to dramatically reduce the number of callers waiting more than 20 minutes. HMRC were proud that a year later they had achieved this - by changing their phone system so that after 20 minutes callers just got cut off!

Ultimately though this is all the result of years of government cuts to public services and a government obsession since 2010 with everything being "digital" irrespective of whether that is actually more efficient or whether people would in fact rather talk to a human being. HMRC have been forced to shed staff, or redirect them away from helping people, because of reduced funding. Real people on telephone helplines are expensive, chatbots are cheap.

I appreciate none of this directly helps the OP @gerson  but the background might be useful for others in the future.

According to this article HMRC's cunning plan to avoid long waits to get through to them by phone is that they are going to close down the phonelines!

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/hmrc-to-close-phone-lines-over-summer-permanently/ar-BB1k9jw2

For which debt has your car been clamped? You need to give us more specific information about why Marston (I think that's who you mean, nor Marsdon or Marsfon) have clamped your car. Has the debtor taken you to court and won judgement against you?

It's not easy to work out from your post what has happened.

To judge by media stories you were lucky to find a NHS dentist at all! The shortage of them probably does mean they can be picky about what they are willing to do, and they are independent businesses not NHS employees even when carrying out NHS dentistry.  I've no personal experience but I suspect the reality is you do it his way or you'll end up with no NHS dentist at all and have to go back to private.

As far as visits to the hygienist are concerned the NHS rules seem vague and open to interpretation. NHS funding covers  "a scale and polish if clinically needed"    but does that mean that routine hygienist visits are covered? I suspect not, scale and polsh is only covered if for clinical reasons it has to be done by the dentist not the hygienist, ie it needs the skills of a qualified dentist for reasons specific to your dental health. Understanding NHS dental charges - NHS (www.nhs.uk)  Just my guess though, I'm not an expert on this.

In theory there are various complaint procedures you could use but I suspect using them would result in the dentist refusing to have you as a patient any longer. It's the market place at work. Most dentists have new customers queuing to registered at the practice whereas we all know how hard it is for people to find an NHS dental practice that is accepting new patients.

OK, so this is a council Penalty Charge Notice now at the 'further notice of enforcement' stage as, for whatever reason, you didn't get any correspondence from them after you submitted an initial appeal. Did you move house after the PCN was issued? Did you write tell them your new address? I guess from your previous parking posts here that you are aware that councils have greater powers than private parking companies for PCNs.

Collegues on here may suggest any actions you could take to challenge it, but it seems that you don't dispute the offence and knew you had parked in a street you weren't allowed to park in, and had seen and understood the signage,  but were appealing it on 'extenuating circumstances' grounds - new to the area, medical condition, urgent hospital appointment, etc - but council did not accept it. Is that correct?

The answer might actually be to pay this before it escalates further. From what you say it's not obvious you would have any defence if it went to court.  Are you able to pay it? I ask that mindful of what you say about your declining mental health and the extra stress that challenging this further might put on you.

Is your car now correctly registered to your current address with DVLA, ie your current address is what is shown as the Registered Keeper on the car's V5C registration document/'log book'? Because when council and baliffs attempt to contact car owners they use the address of the Registered Keeper as recorded by DVLA.

Is your partner's mother the sole executor?

Was she aware that money was owing to the plumber when her husband died and she was dealing with his Estate?

Please clarify one important point: do you accept that your partner's father owed money to the plumber at the time he died? And if so is the £5k about right, eg in line with estimates/quotes given before the work started? Or is the £5k disputed?

As executor she could be personally liable for the £5k if she distributed the Estate without paying her husband's debts. It's irrelevant whether there is any money left in the Estate now, the question a judge would ask would be whether the Estate was solvent and able to pay the debt at date of death in February 2021. 

We need more information from you to understand what has happened, a bullet point timeline please. It's completely unclear from what you have posted why the debt wasn't paid, who owns the house now, who owned it when the work was done, what correspondence has passed between the plumber and the family. How many houses are we talking about? Is the house your partner's mother lives in the one the work was done on? Or was the work done on the a different house that you and your partner now live in? When was the work carried out?

And please upload here a copy of the letter you have received (after covering up all information that would identify you including court reference numbers) as a single pdf.

Who was executor to your partner's father's estate?

Did your partner's mother offer to pay make clear she was offering as executor as it sounds like she had no personal liability to pay?

Has plumber been sent a copy of the death certificate?  Does he even know that your partner's father has died?

If the MA has sent you the whole contract then it must state who the parties to the contract are. It wouldn't be a legal contract if it didn't. Who is named in the contract document?

You mention passports and ID. When I was sorting out my mother's affairs after she died I didn't use the 'Tell us once' service (didn't know it existed) and simply wrote to all the separate government departments she had dealings with sending a photcopy of her death certificate and her passport etc. That was all that was needed. You can ask for the passport to be returned to you if you want to keep it, although they may only send to a UK address. Even with DWP that's all I did, it was just HMRC that was a bit more convoluted. 

If someone dies in the UK then DWP and the NHS get notified automatically by the Registrar of Deaths but presumably that doesn't happen if the person died outside the UK.

I hope you get it sorted without too much hassle. Bureaucratic hurdles are the last thing you need at a sad time like this.