Selling House LPA

Neversurrender

Hi

My wife and I are filling out application forms for the Financial LPA

I will be her main attorney, and she will be my main attorney, and we will each have two replacement attornies ( Same 2 people)

I keep hearing conflicting advice about what needs to be in place in this scenario.

If I lose mental capacity and my wife for what ever reason, needs to sell our house which is in our joint names, I have heard that she cant sell the house because two signatures are required to sell it, and as in this scenario, I have lost mental capacity, I cant be one of the signaturies.

So apparently if I had 2 main attorneys instead of just my wife as attorney, then it could be sold.

Problem is we dont want 2 main attornies each just each other.

Ive heard so far, that if my wife is my only main attorney she would have to get a trustee and then apply to the court of protection. Before she could sell our house.

    ON THE OTHER HAND

Ive heard from 2 solicitors Ive phoned, that both say this isnt true, and a replacement attorney could be used as a trustee, to act with the main attorney without the need for the court of protection to be involved.

So after extensive research on this I have 2 different stories as above.

I would be grateful if anyone in the know could clarify the above please, and if my wife did need to appoint a trustee what is the rough cost and timeline for doing this please.

Your help very much appreciated

Thanks

Keep_pedalling

I do not believe this is true, your wife can sign for herself and for you as your attorney.
Who are your back-up attorneys? If they are your children then rather than make them back-up I would make them joint attorneys able to act jointly and severalty. This has the advantage that they can step in if your spouse is temporary indisposed or needs help with the burden that comes with dealing with a spouse with serious mental imparement.

Neversurrender

Keep_pedalling said:

I do not believe this is true, your wife can sign for herself and for you as your attorney.
Who are your back-up attorneys? If they are your children then rather than make them back-up I would make them joint attorneys able to act jointly and severalty. This has the advantage that they can step in if your spouse is temporary indisposed or needs help with the burden that comes with dealing with a spouse with serious mental imparement.

Hi Thanks for the reply, our joint attorneys are

Niece

& A Best friend

They will be set to act as Jointly & Sevrely

elsien

Just for clarity, the court of protection isn’t just around who signs the paperwork. 
Selling the property would need to be for a reason that is in your best interests so theoretically there may be times when there is a conflict between what the LPA wants with themselves and what is best for the donor. So in those circumstances or if there was a dispute then it may end up in court. 

Further guidance here. Ignore the bit about deputies and scroll down to the section about LPA

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b17e930e5274a1908919e64/cop-gn2-eng.pdf

elsien

Your original question was around who is allowed to sign what paperwork for the house sale. I was pointing out that outside of this there may be other circumstances which require an application to court.
read the link I posted with regards to trustees.

Savvy_Sue

I don't know who you've heard the 'other' advice from, but I'd tend to trust what I hear from a solicitor more than what I hear from "someone down the pub". And once I was PAYING said solicitor, I'd definitely rely on what they said, if only because I'd be in a position to sue the pants off them if they got it wrong ...

Neversurrender

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know who you've heard the 'other' advice from, but I'd tend to trust what I hear from a solicitor more than what I hear from "someone down the pub". And once I was PAYING said solicitor, I'd definitely rely on what they said, if only because I'd be in a position to sue the pants off them if they got it wrong ...

The other you refer to, was Which Wills, and several online solicitors, including the government sites

What makes you think it was advice from down the pub?

And what qualifications do you have?

user1977

Neversurrender said:

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know who you've heard the 'other' advice from, but I'd tend to trust what I hear from a solicitor more than what I hear from "someone down the pub". And once I was PAYING said solicitor, I'd definitely rely on what they said, if only because I'd be in a position to sue the pants off them if they got it wrong ...

The other you refer to, was Which Wills, and several online solicitors, including the government sites

Can you point us towards the advice?

Neversurrender

user1977 said:

Neversurrender said:

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know who you've heard the 'other' advice from, but I'd tend to trust what I hear from a solicitor more than what I hear from "someone down the pub". And once I was PAYING said solicitor, I'd definitely rely on what they said, if only because I'd be in a position to sue the pants off them if they got it wrong ...

The other you refer to, was Which Wills, and several online solicitors, including the government sites

Can you point us towards the advice?

Why?

What will that achieve?

I asked a simple question

"If I lose mental capacity and my wife for what ever reason, needs to sell our house which is in our joint names, I have heard that she cant sell the house because two signatures are required to sell it, is this true?"

Keep_pedalling

Neversurrender said:

user1977 said:

Neversurrender said:

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know who you've heard the 'other' advice from, but I'd tend to trust what I hear from a solicitor more than what I hear from "someone down the pub". And once I was PAYING said solicitor, I'd definitely rely on what they said, if only because I'd be in a position to sue the pants off them if they got it wrong ...

The other you refer to, was Which Wills, and several online solicitors, including the government sites

Can you point us towards the advice?

Why?

What will that achieve?

I asked a simple question

"If I lose mental capacity and my wife for what ever reason, needs to sell our house which is in our joint names, I have heard that she cant sell the house because two signatures are required to sell it, is this true?"

It is not such a simple question, and after a bit of research the answer is not so simple either. 

If the house needs to be sold after you have lost capacity your wife can still sell the house but as she is both your sole attorney and only capable trustee of the property she would need to appoint a second trustee to act with them in order to sell, which needs to go through the CoP.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b17e930e5274a1908919e64/cop-gn2-eng.pdf

To avoid this extra loop to jump through (and the costs associated with this) you could make at least one of your backs-up attorneys a primary one instead to be able to act jointly and severally with your spouse. 

Keep_pedalling

Neversurrender said:

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know who you've heard the 'other' advice from, but I'd tend to trust what I hear from a solicitor more than what I hear from "someone down the pub". And once I was PAYING said solicitor, I'd definitely rely on what they said, if only because I'd be in a position to sue the pants off them if they got it wrong ...

The other you refer to, was Which Wills, and several online solicitors, including the government sites

I would strongly advise you to use face to face solicitors to make your wills as after a face to face meeting the solicitor will have a much better understanding of what a suitable will to fit y your individual needs are. They will also go through all the what if situations you may never had considered. 

This is one of the most important documents you will ever make and it is not something to penny pinch on.