I am executor of my brother's estate, who for the last six years before his death, had assigned his eldest daughter POA over the family home and two rental properties and the management of payments to for all his assisted living and all other financial affairs. Before anyone knew she had squandered all his savings and the proceeds from the sale of two of his rental properties on her gambling addiction and now she has moved into the family residence which was left to two siblings in the will. The siblings are in desperate need of money and want to sell the family house which is now owned by them exclusively (left to them in the will) but the errant ex POA daughter will not move out and the courts are not performing evictions due to covid etc. The siblings cannot obtain access to prepare the house to sell and are having to borrow money to pay the property taxes etc.
The extended family has decided against filing charges of elder abuse as they don't want to see her go to jail even though everyone is highly incensesd.
The errant ex POA daughter has no apparent income or means of support and will likely become homeless as no one in the family will now take her in.
What suggestions or advice can I give to the siblings ?
She won't necessarily end up incarcerated. Often, in cases such as this, instead of jail, the person is offered a period of probation, and is ordered to make restitution; she will also probably be ordered to go to Gamblers' Anonymous (or some such program), which may or may not help her in the long run. Even if she never has the the ability to pay back in full, the courts can garnish any future earnings she makes to at least give something back to the estate.
I would also think leveling charges will make getting her out of the house much, much easier. Remember, the moratorium against evictions is for non-payment of rent; I believe the courts are (virtually) starting to hear other eviction cases that aren't due to non-payment - as is the case here (owners of the home wanting to sell the property).
That she has behaved in such a manner that "she will become homeless" - as harsh as this may sound, it is on her that she has burned her bridges with her behavior; if her family allow this to continue, they might all end up in serious financial distress, and then they may all find themselves in that situation.
Tell them to call the police and start the process. If she abused her position as POA and stole from the estate, she should be held accountable.
Also, why can't the new owners of the home move in? If criminal daughter doesn't own the home, and there's no written lease agreement, what's to prevent the new owners from moving in and making her stay there very uncomfortable while fixing up the place and waiting for a court date? This may be a question for an attorney as I'm sure laws on this differ from state to state. If they did move in they'd need to lock up everything of value, especially their IDs.
This woman will go on to victimize others eventually. She needs to feel the full impact of her choices and have a very clear deterrent to reoffending. If there is no justice this sore will continue to fester in the family forever. If you prosecuted her and she were convicted and got some sort of probation but then KNEW that if she reoffended she'd be a full-on felon and THEN go to jail, she might change her trajectory or maybe just prevent someone else from becoming her next victim.
It’s a whole different situation than what an eviction would be.
Sissy might have had an agreement with Dad & been a tenant of her Dads but he is deceased so that agreement & relationship doesn’t exist anymore.
This is more, in my experience, sheriffs Dept action than the police. I’d suggest that you approach both sheriffs office AND start to find a very experienced Realtor who is used to dealing with difficult properties. I would not have your sibling try to FSBO the house, they need a Realtor who will deal with the property and the Realtor will know of a no BS property management group that will look after the property & often. Yes it will cost but $ can all be paid from the Act of Sale proceeds. To me, your gonna have to get outsiders involved as y’all were flat not willing to get tough with her in the past & she knows that you have no spine.
I would not hesitate in getting this going cause sounds like she’s a bad addict & if she’s that AND mean spirited, I’d be concerned she can find a shady house flipper & they can craft paperwork to “own” the property via an LLC and then flip it to another scumbag LLC.
I just looked up squatters rights in our state.
This does shed new light on the situation.
I went to Attorney General, local Police and multiple lawyers and ALL said it is a civil case and that he committed no crime that the government can go after him for. We cannot bring criminal charges against him only the government can do that.
We can sue him in civil court which would cost us thousands with no guarantee that he would pay the judgement anyways.
The system is in the favor of those that commit these obvious criminal acts but leave the victims to fend for themselves.
Change the locks when the tent comes off, call the police to meet her when she comes back, and voila -- problem solved.
I too think she should be brought up on charges. I would also see what can be done about her being evicted since there are new owners of the house.
If she was a stranger who had robbed your family you would not hesitate to press charges.
It may also help the eviction process to have her in jail.
The money's gone and not recoverable, so the best thing is to prosecute and not spend another dime on her if possible.
local police and detectives dealing with criminal elder abuse in the "special victims unit" and their response is that the errant daughter DID have legal authority to sell properties and access bank funds as POA and though she may have misapproptiated the assets, the owner of the assets is now deceased and they said in order for them to prosecute a crime there must be a victim and the victim is dead so they cannot prosecute. My reason for contacting the police was to set up a pre packaged situation that the owner siblings merely had to agree to in order for prosecution to proceed so the POA thief daughter could be removed from the property by arrest. The silly detectives recommended that
the matter be pursued civilally with a law suite which is just plain stupid.
Apparently it is pretty easy to get away with elder abuse and now the thief daughter in possession of the house without permission of the current owner siblings now wants to challenge the will which left the property to the other siblings. FYI. There have been zero dollars charged or paid for executor fees.