Enduring Power of Attorney

ThemeOne

Does anyone have experience with using an Enduring Power of Attorney?

This is the older power of attorney i.e. pre 2007.

I am the attorney for my father who is ill in hospital, and he's asked me to activate it. The solicitor who drew it up has told me this will cost £470 and will take 6-8 weeks for the process to complete. I've discovered this could be reduced to the £110 fee if I do the work myself.

I've now read that activation, or more accurately registration with the Office of the Public Guardian, is only needed if the donor starts to lose mental capacity (which he hasn't) and that it can be used as is straightaway.

The only problem is, stupidly, I never kept a copy when it was drawn up, so presumably will have to request a copy of the signed document from the solicitor. Assuming they send me a copy, is it then just a question of showing it to my father's bank etc, in order to be able to deal with them on his behalf?

aardvaak

ThemeOne wrote: »

Does anyone have experience with using an Enduring Power of Attorney?

This is the older power of attorney i.e. pre 2007.

I am the attorney for my father who is ill in hospital, and he's asked me to activate it. The solicitor who drew it up has told me this will cost £470 and will take 6-8 weeks for the process to complete. I've discovered this could be reduced to the £110 fee if I do the work myself.

I've now read that activation, or more accurately registration with the Office of the Public Guardian, is only needed if the donor starts to lose mental capacity (which he hasn't) and that it can be used as is straightaway.

The only problem is, stupidly, I never kept a copy when it was drawn up, so presumably will have to request a copy of the signed document from the solicitor. Assuming they send me a copy, is it then just a question of showing it to my father's bank etc, in order to be able to deal with them on his behalf?

The solicitor who drew it up has told me this will cost £477

That is absolute rubbish he is probably quoting drawing up a new lasting power of attorney (the new type)

As you have found out you can do it yourself applying to the Office of the Public Guardian at a fee of £110 it may however take up to 6 weeks.

Stay very clear of solicitors

ThemeOne

Thank you - I shall be registering it myself. I've also now got a copy of the EPA from the solicitor and it has a restriction that authority can only be exercised after registration, so there's no way round that and the attendant 6 week time scale.

monkeyspanner

Each bank and financial organisation has a different proceedure. Some are pretty organised others can cause problems. We had a lot of difficulty with Santander who cancelled my MIL's debit card as soon as we registered the EPA with them. We had to deregister the EPA with them so she could retain her ability to draw cash with her debit card. Lloyds bank were much better and allowed dual access. I would recommend you ask to see someone senior as many of the junior bank staff are not aware of what a power of attorney is never mind the difference between EPA and LPA.

p00hsticks

aardvaak wrote: »

The solicitor who drew it up has told me this will cost £477

That is absolute rubbish he is probably quoting drawing up a new lasting power of attorney (the new type)

As you have found out you can do it yourself applying to the Office of the Public Guardian at a fee of £110 it may however take up to 6 weeks.

Stay very clear of solicitors

Although the OP has since come back to say that in his particular case it states that the PoA cannot be used unless activated (i./e.e lodged with the Office of the Public Guardian) in most cases I don't believe that even this this is necessary unless - as stated in the original post - the person starts to lose mental capacity.

We had an Enduring Power of Attorney drawn up for my OH to have POA for his mother before the rules changed (there was quite a lot of publicity at the time about how much more complicated and expensive it was all going to become.

She's perfectly compis mentis but housebound, so it was useful for him to have POA to be able to deal with her finances - they simply both signed it and he has copies of the document which he has presented to the bank, DWP etc

G_M

My mum set up an EPOA years ago, well before needed.

As she gradually deteriorated, we just gradually started registering it with institutions (banks, investment companies, utility companies etc) as and when it became obvious mum needed or wanted help with certain tasks.

Never went near the Office of the Public Guardian.

In your case, since it stipulates this must be done, it is simply a matter of whether each institution requires it. Many don't really read/understand or enforce the conditions.

eg mum's listed 3 attorneys (me + 2 siblings) and stipulated 2 out 3 must agree, but in practice not a single institution required more than 1 signiture.

Biggles

ThemeOne wrote: »

Thank you - I shall be registering it myself. I've also now got a copy of the EPA from the solicitor and it has a restriction that authority can only be exercised after registration, so there's no way round that and the attendant 6 week time scale.

1. Is it a 'certified copy', ie has the solicitor's stamp and signature on every page stating that it is a genuine copy of the original? If not, it will be no use.

2. There is no 'restriction', an EPA can be used in its present form without registration. Who says there is a restriction, the solicitor? He's probably still hoping for some fees.