LPA - questions about capacity

izoomzoom

My mother has agreed that I can get an LPA to handle her property matters.

Mum is in her 80s and moved back to this country this year, so doesn't know anyone who is not family.

Thus we are going to have to go to a solicitor / Dr for them to be the certificate provider.

However, I know my mum is going to struggle. She doesn't hear well and is forgetful (when we had her Will done, she knew who she wanted to leave estate to BUT couldn't answer general questions about captials / priministers / her child's married surname / birthdate etc).

Can anyone give me an idea of what type of questions the GP (who doesn't know her because she hasn't needed to go to the surgery) or Solicitor is likely to ask.

She understands what the LPA is from my simple explanation. She will not be happy that we have to pay the solicitor / GP fee!!

G6JNS

izoomzoom wrote: »

My mother has agreed that I can get an LPA to handle her property matters.

Mum is in her 80s and moved back to this country this year, so doesn't know anyone who is not family.

Thus we are going to have to go to a solicitor / Dr for them to be the certificate provider.

However, I know my mum is going to struggle. She doesn't hear well and is forgetful (when we had her Will done, she knew who she wanted to leave estate to BUT couldn't answer general questions about captials / priministers / her child's married surname / birthdate etc).

Can anyone give me an idea of what type of questions the GP (who doesn't know her because she hasn't needed to go to the surgery) or Solicitor is likely to ask.

She understands what the LPA is from my simple explanation. She will not be happy that we have to pay the solicitor / GP fee!!

It sounds as if it is borderline as to here having capacity. It seems to me that you are just going to have to accept what the professionals say.

konark

They seem to like asking about dates and similar.

What day is it today?
What month, year etc
What is your date of birth?
Also;
Where do you live? How many children do you have?

Unfortunately my mum never got past these questions, and after receiving some rather random answers they just gave up!

G6JNS

konark wrote: »

They seem to like asking about dates and similar.

What day is it today?
What month, year etc
What is your date of birth?
Also;
Where do you live? How many children do you have?

Unfortunately my mum never got past these questions, and after receiving some rather random answers they just gave up!

Quite reasonably too. If a person cannot answer simple questions like that then they clearly don't have capacity.

izoomzoom

konark wrote: »

They seem to like asking about dates and similar.

What day is it today? She won't remember. Why does she need to know? (this is what she will answer).
What month, year etc Might remember that it is July.
What is your date of birth? Hopefully she'll remember.
Also;
Where do you live? How many children do you have? She'll say her sibling, and suburb, but probably not street address. She knows how many children she has.

Unfortunately my mum never got past these questions, and after receiving some rather random answers they just gave up!

Ive put my mum's probably answers above. Its going to be borderline

G6JNS

izoomzoom wrote: »

Ive put my mum's probably answers above. Its going to be borderline

Borderline? Those are just the easy questions. Unless she can answer those promptly and without hesitation then it is very unlikely she will be able to answer the more difficult ones.

Person_one

izoomzoom wrote: »

Ive put my mum's probably answers above. Its going to be borderline

She needs to know what day it is because being able to retain information you are given is an important part of having capacity to make informed decisions. Not remembering what day it is is a pretty good indicator that you might not be able to retain new information.

Its not cut and dry, she may still have capacity for certain decision, but a very in depth assessment will be required to determine that.

If she doesn't have capacity, there are still options for you to help her, but it will be more complicated.