My mother-in-law made her daughter POA after having a stroke. She is going to revoke POA now that she is recovering very well. What I want to know is how difficult is it to rescind some actions made by her daughter. For example:
1. Cancelling a credit card her daughter had put into both their names.
2. Getting her car put back into her name instead of her daughters.
3. stopping the sell of her home that was on a reverse mortgage.
IF your mother is competent, she can now rescind any POA she granted.
To be perfectly safe and certain your mother should see an attorney, elder law, to write a letter discharging her daughter as POA. If she did not simply ADD her daughter to title of car, which is what she should have done, but instead transferred title, that will not be so easy. If she calls her credit card company she can easily remove her daughter from the card, and/or transfer the card. The home is complicated. If it is in the process NOW of being sold you would need a real estate attorney as well as the elder law one, and it may or may not be stopped. If it is not now for sale the daughter cannot act to sell the home once the POA has been taken away.
Truth is that a POA acts for a competent senior ONLY AT THEIR DIRECTION, so once your MIL tells daughter she is not to make a move on anything at all, then the daughter must stop.
This is ALL assuming your MIL is competent. If she is not competent and the daughter has moved to do all this BECAUSE the MIL now needs her POA to act for her it is too late.
Being POA means that you have a fiduciary responsibility and you can not personally benefit from decisions made on behalf of the person you are representing. You are only entitled to payment if the POA specifically says that you can be paid for doing POA actions.
Not knowing what the intention of the SIL was makes this difficult to help with. Because on one hand she could have been acting in the best interest of her mom. Sell the house to have the money to pay for care, be able to use the credit card to buy mom what she needs, transfer the vehicle to ensure that mom has transportation to appointments without the expense of owning a vehicle or it could be that she is trying to liquidate the assets and increase her savings account.
I would find out what the intentions were before going after her but, I would go after her legally if she was using her POA to benefit herself by taking these actions. Because your MIL will be the one to pay the price, she will also have to be the one to file charges, nobody can do that for her.
A springing POA should state exactly what causes it to kick in and what happens when that criteria is no longer met. Every single one of use should have a POA in place, so what is the plan for MIL in the event that she suffers another stroke and has revoked the POA?
She obviously trusted her daughter to do the right thing. Why has that changed or has it?
(edit: misread the post)
I wonder about the reverse mortgage as well.
If no sale has taken place, the PA would also state what needs to be done to terminate the relationship with the realtor and remove the house from active participation in the real estate market.
Generally as to the POA, was it a springing one, and if so on what conditions? The wording and authorizations in the POA itself are critical.
This brings up some questions?
How long is how long was M.I.L. considered unable to make her own decisions?
Did a doctor tell the daughter her mother was not going to recover?
I would seek an elder care attorney as quickly as possible for the revocation of the POA as anyone can revoke those rights at any time as long as the person is considered mentally competent.
The elder law attorney maybe able to assist or help stop the other actions.
The credit card could constitute fraud. If purchases were made on the credit card during the time that M.I.L. was considered unable to use and purchases were not for the person who your sister in law was in charge of.
How was the Social security money being used? Was it paying the bills for the person who was under the POA at the time of incompetence/illness? Fraud like that happens all the time when the power of being a POA goes to someone's head, or when someone is inexperienced with what the role is.
Make sure the elder attorney looks at what the authority of the POA was at the time all changes were made.
The POA’s actions on behalf of the principal are pretty much the same as if the principal had done them herself. So it is like she did it herself and changed her mind.
So, canceling the credit card shouldn’t be a problem if there is no balance. Call the number on the back of the card and ask.
Transferring the car back will require the current owner to cooperate and there will be a fee and maybe an inspection. Some jurisdictions require a valid driver’s license and/or insurance to own a car.
Cancelling the sale of the house depends on the contracts. The reverse mortgage probably requires owner occupancy; can she meet the requirement in the time frame specified? Is there a contract with a real estate agent and what does it say about cancellation? Is there a contract with a buyer and how much will it cost to cancel it?
Opening a CC in both names seems VERY odd. I could understand opening one in my own name and then using MIL's assets to pay for items purchased FOR her.
Transferring ownership of the car? For what purpose? When it was clearly not safe to allow our mother to continue driving (severe hearing loss, Mac Deg and dementia), I sold it as POA and put ALL of the funds into HER account.
Selling her house? WTF??? Even with stroke, MIL very well could return home. One would need to take time to consider how well she might recover. If it was only a few weeks, a month or 2, hold your horses! If it has taken 6 months or more, maybe, but seriously,,,
A POA is supposed to act as if they ARE the person, not act however they want.
There isn't a lot of info provided, such as MIL's age, how long she was incapacitated, what her recovery has been, etc. Just based on what we do have for info, seems like daughter is jumping the gun.
Since there isn't a lot of info provided, it sounds like the cancelling is because daughter is selling everything out from under her mother. A POA is supposed to act as if they ARE you, not act willy nilly however they want.
The questions posed by OP does need more input. MIL's age. How long incapacitated. Is she considered competent (FWIW a stroke doesn't necessarily render one incompetent! My mother was already in MC due to dementia, for almost 4 years before she had a stroke. THAT incapacitated her right/dominant side, and made swallowing and speech more difficult, but it did NOT impact her in any other way - she was still at the same cognitive ability as before the stroke.)
Based on limited information, I'd want to revoke that POA as well!
Car and home may be another matter and MIL may need legal assistance.
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