Separation/ property/ ownership

Okay, a difficult one. I'll keep it simple and *any* advice would be very helpful. Just pointers would even do, I don't expect anyone to have complete answers.

Married American couple, living in the United Kingdom. He has dual Irish/ American citizenship, she only has Canadian.

Living in a house owned by his mother- a resident of the United States.

When couple separated, husband's mother placed a portion of wife's property into storage, without her consent, written, spoken or otherwise.

Rest of wife's property held at house.

Wife now being charged for storage of property, and being refused entry into house to reclaim other items. Mother of husband threatening legal procedings if she tries to reclaim property.

Wife has no contact with husband, and husband is soon to move abroad. House is up for sale.

Is it legal for husband's mother to stop her from reclaiming property, and to charge her for storage?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Steve

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

I am assuming wife is here on green card or visa?

Well, regardless, her property is her property. The mother had no right to store it, etc, and prevent her from getting those items or any other items.

This is called conversion: the wife is entitled to the property (doesn't have to pay storage charges) or is entitled to the value of the items at the time the property was converted or kept from her. She will have to prove value via receipts, etc.


Regardless of who owned the house, the wife and husband were in essence tenants of the house at the time they lived there. As such, they had every right to privacy in their items.

Many thanks for this. Very, very helpful as a reassurance that this is *not* what it appears to be. Does anyone else have any comments?

SteveH said:

Many thanks for this. Very, very helpful as a reassurance that this is *not* what it appears to be. Does anyone else have any comments?

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Yes, get an attorney.

Not quite so helpful, but good advice all the same. Cheers.

By the way, when I wrote "she only has canadian" I meant "American"- I have canadians on the brain it seems- after watching 'Canadian bacon' last week. Sorry about that.

SteveH said:

Not quite so helpful, but good advice all the same. Cheers.

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I know.. but there is nothing else you can do. You see, she owns the property and there is no legal way you can enter that place and take the items. There is very little that can be done without an attorney which will be successful. Sometimes, one letter from an attorney is enough to show a person you are serious and they are about to face full legal action. Until that time, they can do what they want.