Nothing tests a family’s patience like a registered power of attorney being waved away by somebody at a counter. The document is legally effective. The obstacle is a process, and processes have complaints routes.
A registered power is a grant of authority
Registration is what gives a lasting power its force, and the Act is blunt about the alternative: an instrument that does not comply with the section, section 10 or Schedule 1 confers no authority (Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 9, checked 1 November 2026). The corollary matters when you are being refused: one that does comply confers exactly that.
The Act also protects the people who deal with you. A transaction between the attorney and another person is, in that person’s favour, as valid as if the power had been in existence, unless they knew of the matters that would undermine it (Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 14, checked 1 November 2026). A firm relying in good faith on a registered power is not taking a risk by accepting it.
Find out the actual reason first
Refusals come from a handful of causes, and each has its own cure. The power has not been registered yet. The copy is not certified in the way the firm accepts. The attorneys were appointed jointly, so one signature is not enough. The account is in joint names. Or the branch staff have not seen the form before.
Ask for the reason in writing. A refusal you can name is one you can answer, and two of those causes are fixed in an afternoon: send the online access code instead of paper, or provide a properly certified copy.
Enduring powers are still valid
Older documents get refused on sight, wrongly. GOV.UK says enduring powers made and signed before 1 October 2007 can still be used, and that only after that date did donors have to make a lasting power of attorney instead (GOV.UK, Enduring power of attorney: acting as an attorney: Overview, checked 1 November 2026).
Registration works differently here, which is worth knowing before you argue. GOV.UK says an attorney can start using an enduring power at any time if it is legal and the donor gives permission, and must register it when the donor starts to lose or has lost mental capacity (GOV.UK, Enduring power of attorney: acting as an attorney: Overview, checked 1 November 2026). So an unregistered enduring power is not automatically invalid, unlike an unregistered lasting power.
Send the registration confirmation with the document where you have one, and say in a line that the form was replaced for new powers while existing ones continue. Staff who joined after 2007 have often only seen the newer forms.
Complain to the firm, in writing
The complaint is the step that unlocks everything else, because the ombudsman will not look at a case the firm has not had a chance to answer. Put it in writing, say what you asked for, what was refused, and what you want done, and use the word complaint so it is logged as one.
The clock is defined. A business has eight weeks to consider most complaints, and 15 days for complaints about fraud, scams, payment services and electronic money (Financial Ombudsman Service, Time limits, checked 1 November 2026).
Then the Financial Ombudsman
For a bank, building society or insurer, the ombudsman is free and its decisions bind the firm. You usually need to complain to the business within six years of the problem happening, or three years of becoming aware that you had cause to complain (Financial Ombudsman Service, Time limits, checked 1 November 2026).
The deadline that catches people is the second one. You have six months from the date on the final response to bring the complaint to the ombudsman (Financial Ombudsman Service, Time limits, checked 1 November 2026). Diarise it the day the letter arrives.
It is not a fringe issue for the regulator either. The Financial Conduct Authority has run multi-firm work on power of attorney and bereavement customer journeys in retail banking, sending an information request to seven banks and building societies about those processes (FCA, checked 1 November 2026). Quoting that in a complaint does no harm.
What the Office of the Public Guardian can and cannot do
The Office of the Public Guardian can help with how an attorney has acted since the power was registered, and whether an attorney made the power legally (GOV.UK, How we deal with safeguarding concerns, checked 1 November 2026). It can also only investigate where the person having decisions made for them lacks the capacity to deal with the issue themselves (GOV.UK, Report a concern about an attorney, deputy or guardian, checked 1 November 2026).
Nothing in that remit covers banks or surgeries, so do not wait on it to compel anybody. What it can give you is confirmation that the power is registered and valid, which is the single most useful piece of paper to attach to a complaint.
A GP surgery or a hospital
Health and welfare decisions sit under a different power and a different complaints system. Complaints about NHS services should normally be made within 12 months of the incident or of it coming to your attention, to the practice itself or to the body that commissions the service (NHS England, NHS England » Feedback and complaints about NHS services, checked 1 November 2026).
If that does not resolve it, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman takes complaints at the end of the NHS process (NHS England, NHS England » Feedback and complaints about NHS services, checked 1 November 2026). Since 1 October 2026 it has been called the Public Service Ombudsman (ombudsman’s announcement, checked 1 November 2026). Note the separate limit: a health and welfare power can only be used once the donor lacks capacity for the decision in question, so a surgery refusing to discuss a capable patient’s care with you is applying the law correctly.
When it has to go to court
The Court of Protection is the backstop where a refusal cannot be resolved and the decision cannot wait. It is slow and it costs money, so it belongs at the end of the list rather than the start. Our page on deputyship covers what applying to that court involves.
Before it comes to that, three things resolve most refusals: the online access code rather than paper, a formal written complaint with the eight-week clock named, and the Office of the Public Guardian’s confirmation of registration attached. For the day-to-day job once access is working, see managing a parent’s money.