UK Lasting Power of Attorney Whilst Resident in Spain

cfw1994

Leodogger said:

squirrelpie said:

Is it really a joint account, or is it his account that you treat as a joint one? If the latter then organize a proper joint account and you will have control as well. If you wanted you can include your daughter as part of the account so she can manage it as well.

We have a proper joint account and Santander have already told me they will not accept either a Spanish POA or a letter.   It has to be a UK POA !

It’s a joint account 🧐
Why can you not do anything & everything you need to do on that - that is the point of having a joint account 🤷‍♂️
What exactly are you unable to do?

p00hsticks

cfw1994 said:

Leodogger said:

squirrelpie said:

Is it really a joint account, or is it his account that you treat as a joint one? If the latter then organize a proper joint account and you will have control as well. If you wanted you can include your daughter as part of the account so she can manage it as well.

We have a proper joint account and Santander have already told me they will not accept either a Spanish POA or a letter.   It has to be a UK POA !

It’s a joint account 🧐
Why can you not do anything & everything you need to do on that - that is the point of having a joint account 🤷‍♂️
What exactly are you unable to do?

Re-reading the OP, I think it is more to enable the daughter to act on behalf of the parents with the bank, as if the OP was incapacitated for any reason the father would not be able to communicate on the phone to the bank. 

In which case I believe Santander are correct - you'd need a UK POA set up in favour of the daughter in order for her to gain access to the UK bank account. 

Brie

Leodogger said:

Ms_Chocaholic said:

Does your husband ring the bank often or is he able to use the app? If the latter I can see no reason why he cannot continue to use the account well.  Usually LPA only comes into force if someone loses CAPACITY and going deaf does not mean you lose capacity.

No my husband has never used a computer and doesn't even use a phone, I have always dealt with everything which was easy when we could go into a branch and he was present.   The last time I tried to get access to information on his pension payments on his bank account, he had to provide his date of birth on the phone and his name and then they were happy for him to hand the phone to me to deal with, it seems all that has changed !

But if you can use a computer perhaps you could sit with your husband to show him how to log in and then you could assist him to do any needed transactions.  At least until the POA is sorted.  It should make no difference who is typing - it is an accessibility issue after all and Santander has to be reasonable about dealing with his "disability".

Leodogger

eskbanker said:

Even though longer term health issues could (so LPA is worth doing), deafness shouldn't prevent him from accessing his account?  As with any other business, Santander are required to make reasonable adjustments:

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/accessibility/support-if-you-are-deaf-or-have-hearing-loss

Edit: you can do the LPAs yourself for £92 each if you don't want to pay a solicitor:

This guidance is about LPAs that will be used in England or Wales. Read about power of attorney in Scotland and power of attorney in Northern Ireland.

You do not need to live in the UK or be a British citizen. Your LPA will be legally binding only in England and Wales. For example, if you’re making a property and affairs LPA, it can only be used for your properties and assets in England and Wales.

https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/make-lasting-power

Finally, have you checked that the pensions can't be paid directly into a Spanish account?

As I have said previously, Santander have refused to allow access to my husband's account to a second person without a LPA.    I know I can get one done but when I tried to go onto a comparison website, it refused when I said I was resident OUTSIDE the UK.  Also we can get the pensions paid directory into a Spanish bank account but we are at the mercy of currency exchange rates on the date it is paid, whereas if paid into a British account, we can decide when the rate is right to transfer the cash into our Spanish bank account.

Leodogger

Keep_pedalling said:

There should be nothing stopping you accessing your joint account, and going deaf is not a disability that stops you accessing a bank account, so I can’t understand why they are saying this.

Well I rang Santander and they said you can't access his account without an LPA.

Leodogger

cfw1994 said:

Leodogger said:

squirrelpie said:

Is it really a joint account, or is it his account that you treat as a joint one? If the latter then organize a proper joint account and you will have control as well. If you wanted you can include your daughter as part of the account so she can manage it as well.

We have a proper joint account and Santander have already told me they will not accept either a Spanish POA or a letter.   It has to be a UK POA !

It’s a joint account 🧐
Why can you not do anything & everything you need to do on that - that is the point of having a joint account 🤷‍♂️
What exactly are you unable to do.

We had a query about his pension payments into the joint account but because the payment was made to him they wanted him to deal with the query.   This time, it was his new debit card being issued.    They sent an email to say that his debit card had been despatched to the address on the account.   Well I have only recently changed the UK address on there to our Spanish address because they wanted all sorts of proof for him and I only recently got our new passports and Visa renewed.   I rang to check that they had changed the address on his account to ensure it had gone to the right address but they refused to tell me.   They said I can tell you what the address is on your account but not your husband's without speaking to him (even though it is a joint account!).   As I told them he is very deaf, they just said more or less that is too bad but you must have an LPA to allow you to speak on his behalf.  So I have had to hope that the address has been changed, as it has been on mine apparently !   What I don't understand is why your address is not shown on your account online when you check your current account?  The only place it is shown is when they despatch your statements 🙄

eskbanker

Leodogger said:

eskbanker said:

Even though longer term health issues could (so LPA is worth doing), deafness shouldn't prevent him from accessing his account?  As with any other business, Santander are required to make reasonable adjustments:

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/accessibility/support-if-you-are-deaf-or-have-hearing-loss

Edit: you can do the LPAs yourself for £92 each if you don't want to pay a solicitor:

This guidance is about LPAs that will be used in England or Wales. Read about power of attorney in Scotland and power of attorney in Northern Ireland.

You do not need to live in the UK or be a British citizen. Your LPA will be legally binding only in England and Wales. For example, if you’re making a property and affairs LPA, it can only be used for your properties and assets in England and Wales.

https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/make-lasting-power

Finally, have you checked that the pensions can't be paid directly into a Spanish account?

As I have said previously, Santander have refused to allow access to my husband's account to a second person without a LPA.

Which is why I was distinguishing between the short term issue of deafness (where there shouldn't be any need for anyone else to act for him) and the longer term one of loss of mental or physical capacity (where the answer would indeed by LPA, as stated).

Leodogger said:
I know I can get one done but when I tried to go onto a comparison website, it refused when I said I was resident OUTSIDE the UK.

Perhaps the comparison site you chose has its own rules over and above the actual legal constraints?  Have you tried the gov.uk LPA route or are you keen to pay a solicitor?

Leodogger said:
Also we can get the pensions paid directory into a Spanish bank account but we are at the mercy of currency exchange rates on the date it is paid, whereas if paid into a British account, we can decide when the rate is right to transfer the cash into our Spanish bank account.

Up to you obviously, but if the only reason to spend hundreds of pounds on UK LPAs is to support ongoing use of a UK bank account (that would otherwise be avoidable) then that probably ought to form part of the financial analysis?

elsien

Also wondering whether, given that some banks are cracking down on people who are nonUK residents still having their British bank accounts, whether at some point if the bank clocks this they may choose to close the account anyway? 

Leodogger

p00hsticks said:

cfw1994 said:

Leodogger said:

squirrelpie said:

Is it really a joint account, or is it his account that you treat as a joint one? If the latter then organize a proper joint account and you will have control as well. If you wanted you can include your daughter as part of the account so she can manage it as well.

We have a proper joint account and Santander have already told me they will not accept either a Spanish POA or a letter.   It has to be a UK POA !

It’s a joint account 🧐
Why can you not do anything & everything you need to do on that - that is the point of having a joint account 🤷‍♂️
What exactly are you unable to do?

Re-reading the OP, I think it is more to enable the daughter to act on behalf of the parents with the bank, as if the OP was incapacitated for any reason the father would not be able to communicate on the phone to the bank. 

In which case I believe Santander are correct - you'd need a UK POA set up in favour of the daughter in order for her to gain access to the UK bank account. 

No, it also applies to me the Joint Account holder, even though it IS a joint account, they told me they could not confirm if the address had been changed on his account because of course we have statements sent in each of our names electronically by email.    

Leodogger

elsien said:

Also wondering whether, given that some banks are cracking down on people who are nonUK residents still having their British bank accounts, whether at some point if the bank clocks this they may choose to close the account anyway? 

No actually, when we moved to Spain I was told you need to tell them so that they can change your bank account to a BASIC current account which means you don't get access to things like overdrafts etc. but you can still keep the account to receive payments like pensions into it .   Funniest thing is Santander is Spanish owned yet they told me the Spanish branches are nothing to do with the UK ones 🤔