power of attorney

hendragon

if you have elderly parents or relatives you may need some form of power of attorney to enable you to manage their affairs. I have recently had to do this for my own mother due to her having a stroke.
I keep reading (most recently on thisismoney.co.uk) that you need a solicitor to do this (from £100 to £300). I have also seen net ads for the papers to do this at some £70. This is all untrue. The forms and explanatory notes for EPA are available to download free from the public guardianship office https://www.guardianship.gov.uk. They also have a helpline should you need it.
These forms are easy to complete, legal, proper and also free. Should there be a lot of money involved or if you need specialist advice then by all means go to a solicitor. If you simply need means of managing a bank account etc etc then these free forms may solve the problems for you as they have done for me

JennyW_2

I personally feel wary about these on-line forms only purely because my husband and I are just about to set up a power of attorney. We want to buy and sell within the next few months and my husband is in the HM Forces. It's going to cost us £80 through a solicitor which I feel safer about as this document needs to go to our mortgage company. Just my personal feeling

hendragon

I understand your reservations. The on-line forms are from a government agency however.

jenniferpa

Bear in mind the difference between a power of attorney, and an enduring power of attorney. I'd have no problem going the DIY route for the first type, but for an EPA, which continues to operate if the individual becomes mentally incapacitated, I would hesitate, particulaly if 1) there were some doubts about the individuals mental capacity at the time of making the EPA, and 2) there were other people (family) who might take issue with it. A solicitor will conduct a brief mental capacity test to ensure that the individual understands what they are doing. It saves problems down the road.

I've recently done the same thing via a solicitor, it cost me £98, but it was worth it to ensure that if I need to register it in the future there will be fewer problems.

Jennifer

hendragon

I think the moral of this tale is that "one size" does not fit all. My main disagreement with those that offer advice on this topic is the failure to mention the free option. If ,like yourself, people make an informed choice that is fine. It is the failure to mention these choices that annoys me!