Power of Attorney Solicitors

There are two types of LPAs, as follows;

Property and Affairs LPA

A property and financial affairs LPA can name attorneys to act on your behalf in relation to your property and finances. This means they can help with matters such as paying bills, dealing with house insurance, buying and selling property and accessing your bank accounts and savings. As long as you have mental capacity, your attorneys would be able to use the LPA document with your consent to help you. In the event you were to lose mental capacity they would be able to support you as far as possible with managing your finances and property affairs, and ultimately take over if you were ever completely incapacitated.

Health and Welfare LPA

If you sign a Health and Welfare LPA, this means your attorneys can make decisions on your behalf about your health and personal welfare. This could involve decisions about your medication and care, surgery and where you live, and ultimately, if you give them such permission, they can deal with issues relating to life sustaining treatment on your behalf. This document can be used only if you have lost mental capacity and not before.

In order to make an LPA, the donor must have sufficient mental capacity to do so. Once the document has been signed by all involved, it must then be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. We believe in most cases it is a good idea to do this straightaway to activate the LPA, therefore we would deal with this on your behalf as part of our package of work for you.

Where an individual loses mental capacity and they have not made a power of attorney, other people may need to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a deputy in order to make decisions on your behalf. This is a more costly and time consuming process during a period when you need help, and it can add to an already stressful time for your relatives, friends and carers. You would also lose control, as the court would appoint someone you may not have chosen yourself. Therefore it is preferable to have considered making an LPA to prevent this situation from arising.

To make sure you are protected in the future, contact our team to ensure that a suitable LPA is in place.

Watch our simple animation below to learn more about Lasting Powers of Attorney.
 

An EPA is an older style of power of attorney which were made before LPAs were introduced to replace them, on 30 October 2007. EPAs which were validly prepared and signed before then remain valid, but no new EPAs can be made. EPAs deal only with property and financial affairs and have no similar arrangement in place to deal with health and welfare decisions. EPAs can be used without being registered, where the donor has mental capacity. However, as soon as the attorneys believe the donor is, or is becoming, mentally incapable the EPA must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. We can deal with the registration of an EPA and guide the attorneys through the process.

It is not possible to amend or update any existing EPA, so if you wish to make any changes to it, you will need to sign a new LPA. Even if you are happy with your EPA, it is advisable to make a Health and Welfare LPA to sit alongside it.

To find out more about our Enduring Power of Attorney services download our factsheet.

For any queries about EPAs, please get in touch with our experienced team.

An ‘ordinary’ or ‘general’ power of attorney is a legal document in which the donor gives the attorney the right to help them make decisions, or take decisions on their behalf. It can can only be used if the donor has mental capacity. A general power of attorney is useful when it becomes temporarily difficult for the donor to manage their affairs, for example because they’re:

• unwell
• recovering from an injury
• travelling abroad

The donor can limit the attorney’s powers under a general power of attorney, for example, they can authorise them to only deal with their financial affairs. The donor can still make decisions for themselves if they want to. A general power of attorney ends if the donor either cancels it using a deed of revocation or loses mental capacity. For this reason, it is not a good idea to rely upon this as a long term option and instead an LPA should be put into place. We sometimes advise clients to sign a general power of attorney at the same time as an LPA as this tides them over during the registration of the LPA, which can take up to four months.