Lasting Power Of Attorney

With effect from 1st October 2007, there are now two types of Lasting Powers of Attorney available. The first type of power gives your authority to your attorney to deal with your property and financial affairs, which includes managing your domestic accounts, paying bills on your behalf and ensuring that your investments are properly looked after. Your attorneys are also able to pay your mortgage payments (if any) and keep your property properly insured and repaired including selling your property and buying another smaller property should you so require.

The second type of power deals with your personal welfare and can only be used once you lose your mental capacity. It can deal with decisions as to where you live, and what medical treatment you should or should not receive and indeed who should have contact with you at any time.

Your Attorneys

As with any Power of Attorney it is important that you appoint someone that you trust and who has the time and the skills to make the correct decisions on your behalf.

It is advisable to appoint at least two attorneys since in the event that you only appoint one, and that person becomes unable to continue for whatever reason, the power will fail and the Court of Protection will, at the time, have to intervene.

Assuming, therefore, you do appoint more than one attorney, a further decision has to be made as to whether or not your attorneys are to act on your behalf “jointly” which means that both must sign everything, or “jointly and severally” which allows either of your attorneys to sign at any time without the other’s counter signature. This may of course be helpful when one of your attorneys is either away on holiday or unwell.

Many attorneys, however, prefer it to be joint, for their own protection as they may not wish to make any unilateral decisions. The downside of an appointment of joint attorneys occurs when one of the joint signatories is unable to sign for whatever reasons, in which event the Lasting Power of Attorney will again fail, as if, only one attorney has been appointed in the first place. It is therefore prudent, should you wish your attorneys to be appointed on a joint basis to appoint a substitute attorney, and in the word if the Act a replacement attorney who can take over wither one of the attorneys at any time in the event that one attorney is unable to continue. A replacement attorney has no power until such time as his, or her, appointment is activated at the Office of the Public Guardian. This ensures that a joint attorney appointment will not fail, whilst there is a replacement attorney registered and available to take over.

Contact our Lasting Power Of Attorney team