Lasting power of attorney
A lasting power of attorney lets someone you trust make decisions for you if you cannot. There are two kinds, one for property and financial affairs and one for health and welfare. These guides cover the forms, the fee, and what to do when an attorney, a relative or a firm gets it wrong.
Tools
Guides
Changing or removing an attorney
A donor who still has capacity can end a whole power of attorney with a deed of revocation, or remove one attorney with a partial deed of revocation, sent to the Office of the Public Guardian with the original document. Adding an attorney means making a new power. Death, bankruptcy and divorce can end an appointment automatically, and once the donor lacks capacity only the Court of Protection can intervene.
Cost
The registration fee is £92 per LPA. Guarantee Credit and five other benefits make it free, income of £12,000 or less halves it, and a rejected form costs £46 to resubmit.
Deputyship
If someone has already lost capacity, an LPA cannot be made. The route is a Court of Protection deputyship: £432 to apply, a security bond, an annual fee, and a court order that says what you may do.
LP1F walkthrough
What each of the 15 sections of form LP1F asks for, the one choice that only this form has, and the box that is filled in for you by law if you leave it blank.
LP1H walkthrough
What each section of form LP1H asks for, the life-sustaining treatment choice that must be signed and witnessed before anything else, and why this form can never be used while you have capacity.
Managing a parent's money
What a registered power of attorney lets you do day to day: getting the bank to accept it, using the online access code, keeping the money separate, paying the bills and care fees, and the strict limit on gifts. A third-party mandate is not a power of attorney and stops working when capacity goes.
Misuse
An attorney must act in the donor's best interests, keep the money separate, keep records and not benefit themselves, and gifts are limited by statute. Anyone can report a concern to the Office of the Public Guardian, which can investigate and ask the Court of Protection to revoke the power. The routes, in order, with the numbers.
Power of attorney forms
Two forms, 24 pages each, and a fixed order of signatures. Sign them in the wrong order and the Office of the Public Guardian cannot register it.
Selling the donor's assets
A property and financial affairs attorney can sell the donor's home, at market value, in the donor's best interests, with the donor involved as far as they can be. A sale to yourself or a relative needs the Court of Protection's approval even at full price. A deputy needs the court's permission unless the order gives it. And where the attorney is also the other joint owner, a second trustee must sign or the sale cannot complete.
When a company refuses it
A registered power of attorney is a legal grant of authority, and a firm that will not deal with it is making an operational decision you can challenge. The order is the firm's complaints process, then the Financial Ombudsman for banks and insurers, with the NHS route for a surgery. The Office of the Public Guardian can confirm the power is valid but does not regulate firms.
When a relative refuses
Nobody can make a power of attorney for somebody else, and an adult who has capacity is entitled to refuse. What helps is understanding why they are refusing, showing them the control the document gives them, and being honest about the alternative: a Court of Protection deputyship, which costs more, is supervised, and is applied for by somebody else.