Lasting Power of Attorney – Your Questions Answered

As well as a Will, it is important to have a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) in place when preparing for the future. This allows you to nominate a relative or close friend as an Attorney who will be able to make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to make them due to failing mental faculties or poor general health.

If you are thinking about putting an LPA in place for yourself or considering setting one up to help a relative manage their health and financial decisions for them, our Private Client team at Backhouse would like to help and have provided answers to the most frequently asked questions about LPA’s.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (“LPA”) allows your Attorneys to make decisions for you when you are unable to make them yourself. LPA’s require particular procedures and formalities to be followed and, unlike a General Power of Attorney, they will not be automatically revoked if you become mentally incapable.

Once in place, a Lasting Power of Attorney (“LPA”) does not expire. However, if circumstances change and you wish to amend your LPA, you can cancel or revoke it and make a new one.

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney, namely a Property and Financial LPA and a Health and Welfare LPA.

A Property and Financial LPA allows your Attorney to make financial decisions for you, manage your bank accounts, claim your pension on your behalf, pay your bills etc.

A Health and Welfare LPA gives authority to your Attorney to make decisions about your health and care such as where you live, decide how you are cared for and authorise any medical treatment.

An LPA can be drawn up at any time whilst you have mental capacity but cannot be used by your Attorneys until it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.

At Backhouse Solicitors we can help with both types of Lasting Power of Attorney and our costs are;

For one person:

For 1 LPA it is £532 (plus VAT) and an ID check of £20 (plus VAT).

For 2 LPA’s it is £884 (plus VAT) and an ID check of £20 (plus VAT).

For Two People:

The price for 1 LPA each is £884 (plus VAT) and an ID check of £20 (plus VAT) each.

The price for 2 LPA’s each is £1,408 (plus VAT) and an ID check of £20 (plus VAT) each.

We also offer a further discount if you decide to make or update your Will at the same time.

When you make an appointment with Backhouse Solicitors to discuss a Lasting Power of Attorney, it is not necessary for the Attorney to attend the meeting. We will send any relevant documents out to them to sign and simply request that they send them back to us.

We will prepare the initial documents as quickly as possible and then send off the LPA’s to the Office of Public Guardian (OPG) once they are signed. They are currently estimating up to 20 weeks for us to receive the registered ones back. We understand this is a long time, unfortunately it is not down to us but the OPG. Be rest assured, we regularly chase OPG for updates.

There are limited grounds to expedite the application to register LPA’s with the OPG, which we will adopt if possible.

We can book the appointment, but it would need to be your parents that attend the meeting. The solicitor would need to speak to them on their own. We are unable to take instructions from someone on their behalf.

If you wish to make an appointment on behalf of someone else because they do not have mental capacity, it may be necessary to go down the Court of Protection route.

At Backhouse Solicitors we offer a free 30-minute appointment, and our specialist solicitors will explain in simple terms how Lasting Powers of Attorney can be used to protect you and your family should the worst happen. We will help you prepare and register the LPA’s that work for you.

If you would like more information, click here or contact the team to speak to one of our experts.

Tel:          01245 893400
Email:     info@backhouse-solicitors.co.uk
Visit:       17 Duke Street, Chelmsford, CM1 1JU
Or send us a message through the Contact Us page on this website.