Power of Attorney - Selling Dads House

Hal17

My father has very recently gone into a care home and will not be returning to his house. I have POA for finance and am going to sell his house in order to fund his on-going care.

He is of sound mind and able to make decisions even though he is 92 years old. However, I assume that as I have POA I can sell his house and arrange all the paperwork with me as signatury on all the relevant paperwork.

He currently lives a 100 miles away so getting him to sign documents would be a long round trip. 

Brie

As long as it's a POA to deal with finances (as opposed to medical issues) and as long as you are doing things for his best interest (not implying that you are not) then as far as I'm aware you can do all the selling paper legwork.  Obviously any solicitor and presumable estate agent will need to have sight of the POA to ensure all is in order before they start.  I would suggest you start by finding a solicitor local to you to show them the POA in case there's anything extra they think is required.  Add to that a simple letter dated & signed by your dad stating "Dear Hal, sell the house for me please!" and I think you'll be of.  

Brie

fyi - I assume also that he has applied for attendance allowance.

elsien

Firstly, it depends on how the power-of-attorney is set up - whether you can use it with your fathers consent while he has capacity or if you have to wait until he loses financial capacity.

Is it an EPA or an LPA? 


Secondly, if the LPA is one that you can use now, it depends on how much of this process your father wants you to do for him and how much he wants to do himself. You can’t override his wishes.

Hal17

Thank you all for the prompt replies and good advice. That all makes perfect sense.

Good call on the attendance allowance, we have arranged that.

I am happy to proceed and I think I will get a covering letter from Dad just as a stand by. He is happy for me to do all the work in selling the house and is fully in agreement as he knows he needs to sell the house to fund his care needs. Thanks everyone.

flossymcfly

One wee thing to consider that I came up against - when I took over POA for my grandmother after my mother passed away, all the banks etc wanted a letter from my grandmother (witnessed by someone) to say she was happy for me to act and this had to be backed up by a doctor's letter to confirm she was able to make this decision for herself.

I was only able to even do this because the POA was set up in such a way that I could take control either when she wanted me to but still had capacity OR she had lost capacity (verified by a doctor). You will need to check the POA to make sure it has both situations covered