LPA....lasting power of attorney

devonpaul

Relative needs to have a LPA.
Stuck on appointing Certificate Provider as says in guidance "can't be employee of the donor"
She wants to appoint as certificate provider a long term friend who has on occasions done gardening for her for pocket money. Can this person be a certificate provider as I cant think of anybody else!

Pollycat

devonpaul wrote: »

Relative needs to have a LPA.
Stuck on appointing Certificate Provider as says in guidance "can't be employee of the donor"
She wants to appoint as certificate provider a long term friend who has on occasions done gardening for her for pocket money. Can this person be a certificate provider as I cant think of anybody else!

Logic says to me that this would be OK but you need to get it 100% right otherwise the LPoA application can be rejected.

What about the donor's GP as Certificate Provider?
They would probably charge a fee but you would know there would be no doubt about it.

tyllwyd

I don't think casual work like that would count - if all he is doing is a few hours work now and again, it sounds as if he is more likely to be self-employed and providing gardening services to her.

Are you doing the LPA yourself? We got an LPA done for my MIL and the solicitor who organised it acted as the certificate provider. I don't know if solicitors are willing to be certificate providers if they aren't doing the rest of the work, but I would have thought they would be willing to do it for a fee.

Journey

Hi. I'm mainly a lurker but crawl out occasionally when I have a bit of a clue!

I'm a legal secretary and deal with LPAs every. single. day. Our information sheet that we send out to people says the following about cert providers....

The certificate provider(s)
· You must choose a person to act as your certificate provider. The role of the certificate provider is to certify that you understand the nature of the document which you are making and the extent of the powers which you are granting to your attorneys.
· The certificate provider must be:
§ Over 18
§ Someone who has known you for 2 years OR
§ Someone who because of their professional skills and expertise is competent to make the judgements necessary to give the certificate (e.g. a solicitor or doctor)
· The certificate provider cannot be:
§ A member of your family
§ Related to your attorneys(s)
§ Your business partner or a paid employee
§ An attorney appointed by you under this or another power of attorney
§ The owner/manager/employee of a care home in which you live (or a member of their family)

Hope that helps. Most people either have a solicitor or their GP. It doesn't matter if they are retired.

And just to clarify, I am not a lawyer...

J.

Pollycat

Journey

All that information is on Part B of the LPoA form - that's the part that the Certificate Provider signs.

I think it's just that the OP is concerned because the donor has, at some stage, given small amounts of money in return for gardening help to the person who they want to be Certificate Provider and so is worried about this bit:

Your business partner or a paid employee

fluffnutter

Having a casual arrangement with someone whereby they provide you with a service in return for goods or cash, e.g. a cleaner, gardener, etc. does not make you the employer and them the employee.

Pollycat

I agree, fluffnutter, but having looked at the forms and the guidance notes :eek:, I can see why devonpaul asked the question.

FWIW, I think employee means someone on your payroll.

zzzLazyDaisy

To be honest, I would not personally ask a friend to be a certificate provider. Partly because this involves sharing a certain amount of confidential and personal information (though I accept that this may not be a concern in OP's case) but mainly because it is asking a lot of the ordinary person to certify that the donor understands the nature of the document and the extent of the powers they are granting their attorneys when, very often, the ordinary person does not fully understand these issues themselves. Also, in the event that the PoA were to be challenged, the friend might have difficulty persuading the Court of Protection that s/he was able to make that judgement call. For this reason I would use a doctor or solicitor, or some other independent professional to act as Certificate Provider, so as not to unwittingly put the friend in a potentially difficult position.

But as I say, that is just my personal take on it, having been involved in assisting my father to make a PoA (in his case, we did use an independent solicitor, for the reasons outlined).