Lasting Powers of Attorney

An LPA is a document in which you give a person of your choice the authority to make decisions for you in relation to your property and finances, or health and care decisions, in the event that you are unable to do so for whatever reason.

It might be that you have an accident or suffer a sudden illness and become temporarily unable to make decisions and need someone to step up for you. Or it might sadly be something more permanent

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney; one for Property and Financial Affairs and the other for Health and Care Decisions.

The perception of LPAs is that they are only for the elderly but this is absolutely not the case. People in all age groups should have them. We all have them here at Vine and lawyers are traditionally rubbish at getting their own houses in order!

In the absence of a valid LPA, if someone becomes unable to make their own decisions because of a lack of capacity, an application must be made to the Court of Protection for the Court to appoint a Deputy to act.

Lasting Powers of Attorney can be tailored to your individual needs. If you run a business you can draw up a second LPA for Property and Financial Affairs so that the business can stay active if you can’t run it. This second LPA is commonly referred to as a Business LPA.

This LPA can only be used by your attorneys if you lack the ability to make decisions for yourself. This is because the decisions made under this type of LPA are so personal that if you are able to, you should always make them for yourself. This covers decisions like where you live, what medical treatment you receive, even down to the types of foods that you do and don’t want to eat.

Although Health & Welfare LPAs are only used as a last resort, most care homes now require one to be in place so that they can properly care for each individual in the way that they know the person would have chosen for themselves.

Sometimes you just need to appoint someone to look after your affairs for a brief time, such as if you are travelling abroad. In this type of situation, we can draw up a General Power of Attorney for you which authorises your chosen attorney to take action on your behalf.

If you need a General Power of Attorney, give us a call and we will give you quote. We usually charge a fixed-fee for these.

If you have not drawn up a Lasting Power of Attorney and for some reason become unable to manage your own affairs, an application will need to be made to the Court of Protection so that someone can be authorised to act on your behalf.  

We can help with this application but would always advise our clients, where possible, to have an LPA in place so that they have assistance from day one if needed. Applications to the Court of Protection are more costly than drawing up an LPA and are often lengthy which can lead to difficulties in the short term.

Prior to 2007, it was possible for individuals to put in place an Enduring Power of Attorney (an EPA). An EPA appointed an Attorney to act on the individuals behalf and the EPA could be used (unlike an LPA) without being registered. However if the donor of the EPA loses capacity these should be registered with the OPG in order to continue being used.

We are able to provide advice and guidance to attorneys about the management of the donors affairs.

If you need some help with fulfilling your role as attorney, get in touch with us for a chat about how we can help you.