Property Transactions with the mentally impaired

Buying and selling a property can be a stressful experience for even the most relaxed and informed of people, but for those with learning difficulties or suffering from some form of mental impairment it becomes an almost insurmountable task.  For the agent it also presents a wealth of problems and to an extent, ethical questions in itself.

Over the past 3 months at YourHome we've been dealing with a client who suffers such difficulties. As far as equity is concerned they have a lot having inherited the property, and require only a very small mortgage.  The transaction in itself should be a simple one, however the condition of the seller has thrown up a number of questions.

To get help with the financial side of things from social services the person with the problem has to ask for the help, it cannot be imposed upon them.

The person however does not have the mental faculty to know that they need financial help, and that in itself cannot be established until someone has looked at their accounts. A catch22 situation.

The client, unable to read or write, is also unable to make sense of important documents and in order for somebody to look at their accounts has (in this case) handed over everything in the hope we can make sense of it.  This in itself leaves them vulnurable to identity theft. With information we previously held, less trustworthy individuals could have easily conned such a vulnurable individual into signing over their entire house and endowment policy and they'd have been none the wiser.

The questions we have asked have been;

Should there not be a social services system authorised to look after the affairs of such vulnurable people prior to them handing over information to relative strangers who could take advantage of them? If an agent encounters such a person, should there not be an obligation to immediately refer it to a social services department capable of dealing with property sales for those with mental disabilities?

The client is known to social services so how is it that they can end up dealing with this on their own?

In a targets driven industry is it right for an agent to charge a person with a disability significantly more to make up for the additonal time and effort involved to see the transaction through to completion?

Should there be a seperate party involved looking out for the specific well being of the person in question?  Okay, yes we are a trustworthy agency and have ensured a good price has been achieved for the property, but what if we were not, and had decided to aquire the property ourselves at 90% below the market value knowing we could sell it on for thousands more and make 60 times the fee? Who would have been looking out for them in that scenario?

It is our opinion from this experience that there is no clear process in place within social care for dealing with this sort of situation and it leaves vulnurable people open to being taken advantage of, potentially losing their home, savings and security.