Lasting Power of Attorney - informing relatives query

growler834

We have EPA for MIL and, due to my mum's sudden illness & death, we have agreed that Health & Finance LPA's for my dad & uncle would be a good idea. They are both currently healthy in mind but have bodily health issues.

My question is regarding informing relatives of registration of an LPA. My 88 yr old uncle is a widower (he was married to my dad's sister) and they had no children. His only surviving family are nieces & a nephew to his late siblings. Their family have never been close, despite the nephew living opposite uncle. Some years ago the nephew & his sister fell out with each other & my uncle regarding their mother's funeral arrangements & the nephew hasn't spoken to uncle since. The nieces appeared unexpectedly at my aunts funeral 4 years ago and one of them has rung uncle twice since then but other than that there has been no contact from them.

Uncle always says that he considers my dad, late mum, my brother & I more as his family as we have always been there to help him & are in regular weekly contact with him. He has reflected this in his will where he has left small monetary sums to each niece (nothing to the nephew) and the rest of his estate is to be divided between us (his late wife's family).

Due to all this I'm wondering whether we have to inform his nieces & nephew of the LPA's. I realise that legally they are his next of kin but as they appear to have no interest in his welfare & uncle has made his thoughts about them plain in his will (even to the extent of telling us his funeral wishes etc) I would hate to think that they may decide to oppose the LPAs and they try & make decisions as to where uncle should live should his health fail etc.

Are there any hard & fast rules as to who should be informed and would the OPG think uncle's relatives have a valid reason to oppose given their lack of communication & fall out over the years?

RAS

We had fun with an LPA rather than EPA.

The family member living closest to the donor objected to the fact that "their interests were not represented" and demanded that they should be appointed attorney instead of others who had been providing support but lived further away. The complainant had actually refused to visit the donor within the last year.

There was a bit of a ding dong (OPG asking for reponses to views and allegations and then sending the letters the other party) which delayed the registration by about 4 months.

One of the factors that the OPG took into account was that the donor had asked that we did not inform the complainant because the donor did not want them involved but we had to in order to comply with the rules. We had hoped not to tell the complainant that the dislike was mutual.

growler834

Thanks RAS. I have been informed on another forum that I don't need to tell uncle's family members if I get 2 people to witness the LPA so that is the way we will proceed. We just want to ensure, should it be needed, that uncle's wishes are followed as to his choice of care.