A “friend” of my aunts has decided that she needs help and attempted to move in with her last year. We were able to get the friend to leave the first time after my aunt said the boyfriend (that was moving in as well) of the friend made her feel uncomfortable. We believe they prevented my aunt from contacting us ( house phone disconnected and cell phone doesn’t ring anymore). They have seemed to exert undue influence and have moved in again. They have also taken her to a lawyer to make a trust, and also file a beneficiary deed on her house to put it in the trust. I contacted dhss so they could investigate them on possible financial exploitation. The last time we saw her, she couldn’t pay her bills on time, remember what city she lived in and we would have to repeat things over and over because she couldn’t remember. I’m just not sure what to do. I am still waiting to hear from the investigator. We plan on going to see her tomorrow while the “friends” are at work. I just really hope the investigator can see that she is incapacitated/incompetent and we can get them out of her house so family can help her get what she needs. Has anyone had experience similar to this? How did it work out?
The problem is that her home is now the grifters' legal residence. But if they haven't changed over the deed to the house to themselves, if your Aunt is still the homeowner, then this will be helpful. It sounds like these grifters know what they're doing. I'd talk to a lawyer if I were you. You will need to somehow prove she was cognitively incapacitated when she was signing all the paperwork for the Trust, etc. I'm sure they probably made themselves PoA for her. When you visit you will need to search for documents and proofs. Take pictures of the home if it is unkept. Check her medicine cabinet (or theirs) to see if she's taking or being given meds for anything. Take pics of their license plates or any other info they have laying around for possible background checks. Maybe talk to about emergency guardianship through the courts. Consider staying there as a house guest to make the grifters uncomfortable. If your Aunt owns the home and the PoA is not active (assuming they have it) then they cannot force you to leave because you're her guest.
You will need to work smart, legally and fast.
"My aunt was paying them. But she would often complain that they would come over more than what she agreed too and she felt obligated to pay them. This was before she started to decline. I do have bad news though. We had to have the police do a well check and they have put her in a nursing home and got her to sign a dpoa so they could live there. We found out from my other aunt (her sister) who is also in the same nursing home that the family friend told her that they had to get dpoa to live in the house since the city doesn't allow houses to stay vacant (which I do not think that is true, as long as the yard is mowed and house not falling apart I don't think the city cares). They are also refusing to let us see her saying she doesn't want to see us. The timeline we have is that some of these legal signings have happened after she was put in a locked down memory unit. I have relayed this to the investigator and they said they are going to the nursing home tomorrow. The investigator also said her team is good at what they do and not to give up hope yet. It's also been unsettling because they are claiming they have proof of us doing "something" negative in regards to her. There are also some other things such as 3 of her pets dying and her car being stolen that make this all seem even more suspect. It's just so hard to sit and wait knowing she is in nursing home she never wanted to be in and that she had told me over and over years ago that she had money/annuities to pay for a private room if she needed a nursing home. I want to thank you for listening. This has been a horrible ordeal that is just beginning.
Please, when you have time... let us know how this transpires. We all learn so much from the actual experiences of others. This type of abuse/opportunism is extremely common and families need to know what they can do about it.
Wishing you success in protecting your Aunt and punishing the grifters so that they cannot go on to victimize others.
Fast forward, I pulled the house up online, and it was in a shambles for years until a man bought it in 2010 and started fixing on it again. I don't know what happened to the con artists that took the house. More than likely, they got old themselves and died out of the picture, or couldn't afford the upkeep and moved out. Who knows.
According to the realtor, the man who purchased the house in 2010, got old and couldn't continue the work on the house. I spoke with the original realtor who told me the history of this house after it left my grandma's possession after her passing.
Back to the old man who bought the house; he sold it, and a realtor took over the house, fixed it, and flipped it. A family bought it in 2023, and now it is in liveable shape again.
It just shows how needy elderly get taken advantage of. Grandma should have gone to a home where she would have been safe from harm. Dad never pursued this and was too busy with his new wife and her family to worry about his mother. Oh, dad did the same to his family after his passing.
From my experience Elderly Affairs is useless and does nothing to help