Court directs nieces of man in nursing home to account for house sale proceeds

Two UK-based nieces of an elderly man in a nursing home here have been directed by the president of the High Court to account for the entire proceeds of the sale of his house in the north of England.

Ms Justice Mary Irvine also sought undertakings from the women on Thursday that the funds from the £160,000 sale not be dissipated until further order of the High Court.

The man, aged in his 90s, has advanced dementia. He lived in the UK house before he was moved back to an Irish nursing home last year. He had lived in the UK since he emigrated there as a young man.

The directions, sought by the HSE in the context of intended wardship application concerning the man, arose after Ms Justice Irvine was told the UK property was sold in January this year.

The man was visited by a court appointed medical visitor earlier this month. The medical visitor had reported he was satisfied the pensioner would not have capacity in relation to the sale of the property or the making of a bequest.

Ms Justice Irvine was told the man and a niece did not now want him assessed for long-term care and wanted him to go and live with his elderly sister in Ireland.

In an affidavit, HSE solicitor Katharine Kelleher said the man had returned to Ireland from the UK in 2019 to be close to his family. Prior to his arrival in the Irish nursing home, he had been in long-term nursing care in the UK due to alleged extreme self neglect which resulted in malnutrition and he was living in very poor living conditions.

A medical report from September this year said the man lacked capacity to make informed and independent decisions regarding his medical, personal and financial affairs and this placed him at risk in terms of financial abuse.

Ms Kelleher said the man’s former home in the UK was sold for £160,000 last January. Queries relating to the property sale had been raised with his two nieces by the Fair Deal Nursing Home Support Scheme office and the women had failed to deal with them.

She said the HSE remains very concerned about the man’s welfare and it is proving extremely challenging to try to ascertain his true financial position to enable his Fair Deal application to be completed.

The case will come back before the court next month.