Lasting power of attorney

HUMBUG

Hi All
Just thought I'd inform people not to make the stupid error I made yesterday when I paid £119 for an online service that was promoted by MSE yesterday (Which? Wills) . For some odd reason I thought that I needed a solicitor or some legal bod to draft up all the forms , etc . So when I enquired via our local solicitors they quoted £1500.:eek:
So when I saw the discounted costs via Which?Wills (using some voucher code agreed with MSE) I thought 'great' , about £1000 cheaper for this online service . Yesterday I paid and opened up an online account and completed the forms (up to 96% completion because I didn't know the middle name of the planned witness one needs - ie. my mothers doctor). I was expecting the forms to be some customised legal drafts specifically made up by Which?Wills but they looked very standard to me.
Today , I delved a bit more on the HMRC site as I think my mother can get a discount for the registration fees £110 because she has such low annual income (less than 12k ). Lo and behold I found that HMRC have a similar 'FREE' online account system to the WHICH?WILLS online service . So all WHICH?WILLS have done is replicated the HMRC site and customised it for their own use so that they can forward the forms to some paralegal team to do a quality check. I thought to myself , what are they actually checking ? Spelling mistakes , whether specific attorneys can sign this or that etc? This is all made clear on the HMRC site who should sign which section,etc, so is this what I've just paid £119 for? Plus there are all sorts of clauses saying Which?Wills will not be accountable for this or that etc and may not be liable to check for all errors that may be made on the forms. So basically not liable for anything really and I may as well have completed the forms free on the HMRC site.

Luckily , because I didn't complete the WHICH?WILLS forms up to 100% , I can ask to cancel the service within 14 days of paying (which I've just done today). If I had known the middle name of our doctor , I would have completed the form 100% and that would have EXCLUDED me from a refund (according to their terms and conditions).

So, I have been a stupid idiot by not reading the 'self service' option that MSE described but one can easily be confused these days by the process complexities of 'lasting power of attorney'.

Heather57

Humbug you are by no means stupid. I did alot of research after problems getting POA for my mother in law. forms all filled in from online templates got her to sign them witnessed but did not get her gp to sign the relevant part at the time. then when she became poorly he would not sign them because he said she did not have capability to understand.
So when my husband began having afew mild memory issues we did his POA ourselves and the doc signed it, We then registered it with the Guardianship offices here in Scotland where we live, fee at that time 3yrs ago was 70 pounds, but we had an exception because he was on certain benefits. The lady at the offices did find one error and we got hubby to initial changes and returned paperwork, a week later we had the registration certificate all stamped and sent to us.
SO the upshot is.... You can DIY a POA just take your time.

dollydebs

Heather I have PM'd you - need a wee bit of help!