Power of attorney

MoneySeeker1

My parents had originally told me I had "power of attorney" and then I moved and got told I had never had it (!!). I was told that someone else (who is married to a relative - but is not a close relative themselves) now has power of attorney.

My parents have now, regrettably, got to the stage where it has become necessary for this "power of attorney" to be exercised to manage their affairs. So this "person who isn't a close relative" has started doing so. It's obviously the case that they should information share with someone who is such a close relative (ie myself) about how things are going and, in return, I'm obviously prepared to do what I can to assist in this.

There is starting to be a bit of a problem with getting them to share information with me on this and I am wondering whether they can be trusted or no and do have some cause for concern on this.

So, there is a clear obligation for them to share information with a close relative like myself. But I am wondering whether I might need, at some point, to inform them about legal obligations to do so too (in order to ensure they do keep me fully-informed).

My question, accordingly, is to ask what are the specific legal obligations they have to share information with someone in my position (ie close relative and used to have this "power of attorney" myself until it was taken from me, so I'm told, after I moved).

(NB: Re what type of power of attorney it is - the one I was authorised on was done quite some time ago and is, almost certainly, the old-style type and I assume a copy of it is with their solicitors - but, to my knowledge, was never registered and my parents are denying it ever happened). The person telling me/my parents they have "power of attorney" now had it done very recently and tells me they've had it "registered" now. I think there is a good chance they do actually have a more recent power of attorney than me/it does need registering/they have had it registered - though I have no proof of that.

Browntoa

You can check with the OPG

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-public-guardian

They can tell you if it's been made active although many are live from the date of registration

elsien

MoneySeeker1 wrote: »

My parents had originally told me I had "power of attorney" and then I moved and got told I had never had it (!!). I was told that someone else (who is married to a relative - but is not a close relative themselves) now has power of attorney.

My parents have now, regrettably, got to the stage where it has become necessary for this "power of attorney" to be exercised to manage their affairs. So this "person who isn't a close relative" has started doing so. It's obviously the case that they should information share with someone who is such a close relative (ie myself) about how things are going and, in return, I'm obviously prepared to do what I can to assist in this.

There is starting to be a bit of a problem with getting them to share information with me on this and I am wondering whether they can be trusted or no and do have some cause for concern on this.

So, there is a clear obligation for them to share information with a close relative like myself. But I am wondering whether I might need, at some point, to inform them about legal obligations to do so too (in order to ensure they do keep me fully-informed).

My question, accordingly, is to ask what are the specific legal obligations they have to share information with someone in my position (ie close relative and used to have this "power of attorney" myself until it was taken from me, so I'm told, after I moved).

(NB: Re what type of power of attorney it is - the one I was authorised on was done quite some time ago and is, almost certainly, the old-style type and I assume a copy of it is with their solicitors - but, to my knowledge, was never registered and my parents are denying it ever happened). The person telling me/my parents they have "power of attorney" now had it done very recently and tells me they've had it "registered" now. I think there is a good chance they do actually have a more recent power of attorney than me/it does need registering/they have had it registered - though I have no proof of that.

I'm not sure there's a legal obligation for them to share anything with you, as such. Their obligation is to act in the best interests of your parents, whatever that may entail. There are times when that may require sharing information and times when it doesn't. They are still entitled to confidentiality, and whatever the reasons, possibly practical if you are further away, they did decide to give the power of attorney to someone else.

Is it a financial power of attorney? How involved have you been with helping your parents with finances up till now?

What powers you used to have are academic if these are no longer in place.
When you check with the OPG they will tell you if there is more than one attorney- it may be that two were appointed but this person is taking the lead.

MoneySeeker1

Thank you.

I've contacted the Office of the Public Attorney and will be checking whether this person has the power of attorney they say they have.

Rather scary that this Office tells me there aren't any legal safeguards by the look of it to check how responsible/or otherwise this person is being!

Thankfully there is a safeguarding team I can report this person to if I find cause for concern. But it is very scary that they don't seem to be legally accountable currently even to close relatives and it looks a bit like it would be official complaint "after the event" if I find out they are abusing this power and so there is an onus on me to do the best I can from a distance to keep an eye on them to do what I can to ensure they don't.

It looks like all I can do for now is sign up for this Office's newsletter (which I have done, as at least I'll find out if or when the law changes on this) and I'll be checking whether this person has the power of attorney they are telling me they do.

Browntoa

Facebook is a powerful tool to spot sudden changes in people's circumstances. Look for sudden expensive purchases etc that are out of character , expensive holiday , car , furniture etc

Most people flaunt things openly without thought.

As they say " keep your friends close and your enemies closer"

Any concerns can be passed on to the safeguarding team

pattycake

When your parents appointed this person as their Attorney, they clearly trusted them. Why don’t you? Have you grounds for your suspicions or are you merely unhappy that you were replaced?

pphillips

Your parents were no under any obligation to get the previous power of attorney document registered and have a right to choose someone else to act as their attorney, even if all the evidence shows that appointing that person was an unwise decision.

pattycake

pphillips wrote: »

Your parents were no under any obligation to get the previous power of attorney document registered and have a right to choose someone else to act as their attorney, even if all the evidence shows that appointing that person was an unwise decision.

The OP has not mentioned any actual evidence that the Attorney is not acting in the best interests of his parents.

MoneySeeker1

I have seen some very flash spending over time on their public Facebook account and noticed they have removed all those posts pretty recently and there are only extremely innocuous ones there now. I've also wondered whether the flashiest bit of spending of all got removed before or after I mentioned that I knew about it in response to a lie they had told me. The fact I know they do tell lies is one of the issues that concerns me.

I have been wondering whether to put in a request to be a Facebook friend of theirs and see if it gets accepted. I used to wonder what that phrase of yours meant of "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer" and realised what is meant by that and it is a valid point. But they are aware of who I used to work for, ie an employer that they probably know is used to using social media to keep an eye on wrongdoing.

Keep_pedalling

If you live up to your user name, then perhaps there was a very good reason your parents appointed someone other than you.

The attorney has no obligation to consult you on anything, their only obligation is to your parents. Unless you have firm evidence that they are abusing their position then there is nothing you can do.

MoneySeeker1

Just putting in a thought in case anyone else is/ever becomes concerned whether someone with this can be trusted or no.

I googled under "power of attorney abuse cases UK" to see what would come up and there looks to be a good amount of information there.

One of the first articles I came to was:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/101199

which is a very clear article and I was pleased to note that it's my own firm of solicitors that has written it.

Worrying to see that there does seem to be a noticeable amount of abuse of this type happening, so I'm certainly not being unrealistic to worry that it might be a possibility, but "forewarned is forearmed" and I'm aware the close relative that is married to the person concerned has a bad track record and I have to assume that their spouse (the attorney) knows about what they've done and could even have put them up to it.