“Not only does the abuser steal the older person’s property but will often raid the older person’s bank account to pay the stamp duty. If the older person is lucky, the property can eventually be returned but the older person will then have to again pay stamp duty when it’s transferred back,” Mr Webb said of the Duties Act.

The LIV is proposing that a stamp duty exemption is needed to protect victims of elder financial abuse, who may be subject to the duty twice over.

In one such case, a client in her late 80s transferred her property to her daughter under pressure. The daughter alleged her company held the property as a bare trustee, but was then sold and there was “significant uncertainty that the property had been used solely to benefit the client”. No costs from the trust or the stamp duty were recovered.

In another, a 93-year-old client with cognitive decline living in aged care was taken out for coffee by her son and convinced to sign a transfer of land form. Fortunately, VCAT administrators got involved and the property was transferred back, however, as it was worth more than $2 million, it attracted a considerable stamp duty cost.

“These are cases where elderly clients are disadvantaged by having to pay stamp duty after an inappropriate property transfer, even if lawyers are successful in having the property returned to the elderly person,” Mr Webb said.

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He added there is already an exemption under the Duties Act for transfers to property made solely because of a breakdown of marriage or domestic relationship. This could be used to create a similar elder financial abuse exemption, Mr Webb said.

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