New power of attorney guide

JanRoy_3

Hi,  I'm a joint Power of Attorney but am not being told anything which the other Attorney is doing both with finance and health re the donor . What is the situation with this please ? Any help appreciated

Keep_pedalling

JanRoy_3 said:

Hi,  I'm a joint Power of Attorney but am not being told anything which the other Attorney is doing both with finance and health re the donor . What is the situation with this please ? Any help appreciated

Presumable the POA has been set up so that both attorneys can act jointly and severally and the other attorney is doing the latter. Providing the other attorney is acting in the best interests of the donor they are not doing anything illegal, but is foolish of them not to keep you in the loop as if anything happened to them you would need to take over.

Primrose

Contact the other attorney and ask to be kept in the information loop because as pointed out if Attorney 1 cannot act for any reason you won,t know what is happening and that is not acting in the best interests of the donor which is a requirement for all attorneys.
I stipulated in my document that my attorneys should maintain regular contact with each other to uodate each other on any activity for this reason. 

starcounter

My parents are wanting to set up both Financial and Health LPAs.  If they opt for the Financial LPA to come into effect immediately am I right in thinking they can still continue to make their own financial decisions its just the attorneys can HELP where necessary and speak to organisations on their behalf, always acting in their best interest of course.  What I don't want is for my parents rights to make a financial decision be taken away and replaced by the Attorneys' decisions.
Thank you in advance for any advice given

Rosie1980

Yes, they are still free to do everything themselves and then the Attorney can step in if they want them to or when they need to due to loss of mental capacity.

Primrose

Yes this is correct.  Your parents are still free to act in their own right.  It is only when an individual loses mental capacity that their attorney has to acts for them.  If your parents just want occasional administrative assistance, lodging the P of A should work efficiently.

.   Having said that the staff at some banks and other institutions are still sometimes poorly  trained in how Powers of Attorney actually work , and there have occasionally been incidents quoted on this forum, possibly in other threads, where once a P of A has been lodged with a bank, they seem to insist that only the Attorney has the right to operate the account.   So my suggestion is, whenever lodging a P of A with a bank, try to do it in person and involve the Manager in the process  rather than a possibly lower trained member of staff, to ensure that there are absolutely no misunderstandings between you all in how the process will operate. 

Keep_pedalling

starcounter said:

My parents are wanting to set up both Financial and Health LPAs.  If they opt for the Financial LPA to come into effect immediately am I right in thinking they can still continue to make their own financial decisions its just the attorneys can HELP where necessary and speak to organisations on their behalf, always acting in their best interest of course.  What I don't want is for my parents rights to make a financial decision be taken away and replaced by the Attorneys' decisions.
Thank you in advance for any advice given

They should register both LPAs even if they not be needed for years. Not registering Am LPA is risky as at best it means you will not be able to act for 8 weeks until it is actually registered, at worst the LPA may be rejected if there is an error in the paperwork.

Registering an LPA makes no difference to there ability to manage their own affairs, either on their own or jointly with their attorneys, unless they lose mental capacity.

Primrose

Absolutely agree with this.  It was taking around 8 weeks to register a P of A even before Corvid and I imagine the delay is now massive so register it as soon as it,s prepared and then you're  all set to go any time .  Life is unexpected.  A sudden stroke or incapacity can happen at any time and these events are incredibly stressful for relatives to deal with, without then suddening finding that a Pof A cant be registered by Office of Public  Guardian because there,s an error in the way it's been prepared.  Far better to register It immediately and then It can gather dust in a drawer until it,s needed! 

Mrs_Tiggywinkle

Would Attorneys be allowed to redecorate or renovate a donors (parents’) house if/when the parent goes into care? We are named Attorneys for my My Mum who has dementia & has done nothing to her house by way of decorating or repairs since the 1970’s. If she moved into care then we would need to sell or rent out the house to finance the care, but we feel that we would get a better price & more chance of selling/renting if we did it up, but we couldn’t do this at our own expense. My partner is a plumber & heating engineer & my brother has building & decorating experience, so we could probably do the work ourselves but would need to use Mum’s money to pay for materials and fittings. Would this be permitted? 

Primrose

My own instinct would be that if it was in your mum,s best interests to get a better rent for her property or a better selling price to add to the assets available to pay her care home fees then this would be a reasonable expense as long as the improvements were modest in scale and she still had enough miney for her care home fees to be laid.   Others may have a different view thiugh.