Lasting Power of Attorney - accessing my mum's bank accounts

wishiwasinliverpool · 8 January 2013 at 8:34PM

Hi everyone

A few months back I posted on a dilemma I had regarding paying for my Mum's care. She is in a care home in Liverpool and I'm down in Bristol. My sister is a third party signatory on my mum's bank passbooks (she has four separate accounts with what were once building societies and they're not cheque accounts they're savings accounts) and she has the bank books, but she doesn't visit Mum at all or keep in touch with her, thanks to old family grievances she's decided to wash her hands of her and wanted me to apply for Power of Attorney some time ago and become next of kin. Following helpful advice on the MSE forum I finally obtained Mum's permission to obtain LPA before she lost capacity (she is 86 and has schizophrenia) and it is in the process of going through.

My question is, once it is all finalised, what do I do about obtaining access to Mum's accounts in order to pay for her care? She's anxious to go back home to her own flat but I can't allow that without 24/7 private care which will need to be paid for. I was even hoping to have her moved to a home near me.

I've been surfing the net for answers and I've come across some horror stories about banks like Santander (one of Mum's, actually) refusing to allow the attorney to have a bank card etc. Mum never dealt with cards or cheque books, always with cash. Is it just a question of me obtaining the books from my sister and going to the bank with the LPA certificate to withdraw money? If so do I need to do it at her Liverpool branches or can I do it in Bristol? Would I even be able to open an internet account on her behalf?

I've had to jump through hoops as it is to get this far. Am I looking forward to more of the same with the banks?

Any advice or experience gratefully received.

Cheers

le_loup · 8 January 2013 at 8:56PM

Register the POA with the banks.
Ask the banks how you can draw on the money.
Draw the money.

Most banks will not give you any problems. The ones that do get commented upon. The ones that don't, don't!

dalesrider · 8 January 2013 at 8:57PM

TBH.

Get together with your sister and talk to Santander about it. No matter what advice you get here.
They are the ones you will have to deal with.

Might be a idea to put everything into one account if you can get your mother to agree.

rb10 · 8 January 2013 at 8:58PM

The bank will need to register the POA on their systems.

The process at Halifax is (or at least, was) that you would need to take the passbooks and POA documentation into any Halifax branch, they would then send it all off to an administration centre to be applied to the account.

A short while later the information would be sent out to you in the post. You would need to visit a branch again to add your signature to the passbooks. From then on, you would be able to withdraw cash from the accounts just using the passbook, in the same way as you mother would if she could get to the branch.

I'm not sure whether they will show up on your own internet banking or not, sorry.

patanne · 8 January 2013 at 9:00PM

Unfortunately it is not as simple as walking in and sorting it there & then. The documents have to go to their legal dept first. The Nationwide was a breeze & took about a week. The Skipton took a little longer as someone changed the contact address too soon but they were very apologetic & sorted it very quickly. Even Barclays weren't too bad & I now have online access & my own debit card too.

Nationwide would have done that too but it didn't have much in & was very quickly gone. Even the DWP for Attendance allowance were very easy to deal with. I went into the local job centre (they say it is best to make an appointment so someone with sufficient authority can do it for you. They just did what the banks did - photocopied the documents & signed every page. The only difference was the banks faxed & the DWP had sent me an envelope to send to them.

Why don't you try a local one and see if they can do it local to you. It makes any possible running around easier. I was dreading doing it after some of the things I had read but it really wasn't so bad & even Santander may get it right first time!

flexrider · 8 January 2013 at 9:01PM

AS above said we did (Family) the same in 2005 when my OH mum was dying and frail we had to sort out her finances between the family and funeral expensives ect... What she did was get a POA and took it into the bank(AT the time HSBC) no problems as long as you are suggested you are the direct POA stated by the attorney/solictor (Beneficiaries the word is they use on the form)
not easy to do but speak to your solicitor legal Representative they be more informative and on the ball about things.
Hope that helps
Flex

dzug1 · 8 January 2013 at 9:01PM

Well it should just be a matter of taking the LPOA document into the bank and allowing them to copy it - you shouldn't need it again after that.

You should be able to do it all in Bristol.

Do not if you can possibly avoid it let the original LPOA out of your possession - some institutions are very lax about returning it.

But what should be and what is do not always match up......

katsclaws · 8 January 2013 at 9:13PM

You need to get certified copies of the LPA to send off to various institutions. As a previous poster said do not let the original LPA be sent away. Certified copies have to be signed on each page of the LPA by a solicitor.
Some banks allow debit cards. I keep spreadsheets of all amounts withdrawn and receipts for everything.

wishiwasinliverpool · 8 January 2013 at 9:16PM

Thanks, everyone. So it's a question of going to the banks with the passbooks and proof of POA. Does Mum need to be with me? If so that's going to be difficult. I work in Bristol.

Problem is, dalesrider, I'm estranged from my sister. Too much bad blood over this business so there'll be no getting together I'm afraid. It's a non-starter.

I did want to put her money into one bank account to make life easier. There is another issue, though: with her having four accounts with four ruddy banks what happens if one of them loses the blessed certificate before I have a chance to present it to the next bank?!

I haven't even got that far and I can feel the stress levels rising! Maybe I'm looking for problems that aren't there, but these newspaper articles are pretty damning.

wishiwasinliverpool · 8 January 2013 at 9:20PM

Thanks again for your replies. I was in the process of writing my reply when yours dropped in.

What I might do is ring up the banks in the first instance and tell them my circumstances. With any luck they'll give me the correct advice.

Thanks again for your help

grumbler · 8 January 2013 at 9:22PM

wishiwasinliverpool wrote: »

...So it's a question of going to the banks with the passbooks and proof of POA. Does Mum need to be with me? ....

I think the only point of POA is to allow you doing everything without your mum.

Lasting Power of Attorney - accessing my mum's bank accounts

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