Lasting Power of Attorney

[Skinnytailedsquirrel]

One of those things that we need to do however I've received 2 quotes which are very expensive (we want "financial reasons" plus "health and care decisions").

Has anyone done these themselves and just paid for them to be registered?

Do it yourself, very easy. About £82 each.

Yes did it for my mum. Very easy and straightforward.

We did it ourselves for our mum and it was fine and cheaper! Cannot remember how much cos it was a while ago now, but yes you just does the forms and send them off yourself 🙂

Yes, did both for both my parents. It's pretty straightforward

I dd it for my son via a solicitor and it cost £1200. We could have done it ourelves but wanted it one via a solictor for peace of mind.

I've just been googling and found this information www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/print

I was being quoted just under 2k to have this done by a solicitor!

I did the finance one recently and it was very straightforward. The hardest part about it is signing it and that's not all that difficult.

Do them yourselves. It’s very straightforward. You say ‘we’, I’m assuming you and DH? You’ll each need to complete your own LPAs but you can use the same witnesses for them all.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/make-a-lasting-power-of-attorney

you need a 'certificate provider' who is someone who knows you, or a professional. That's what the solicitor charges to be. (if that makes sense).

if you can find someone suitable, no need for the solicitor. The forms have clear instructions about what to do in what order.

We did it without a solicitor for DM. If finances are very straight forward I would go down that route. You will need witnesses and someone who can verify that the person who the LPA is for knows what they are signing but that can be a friend/neighbour as long as they know them reasonably well and for a certain period of time.

DH has been asked to be on LPA where a business was involved (he is an accountant) so assume a solicitor was possibly used then.

I did them for both parents just as they moved from whatever their predecessors were called to the lasting power of attorneys and it was pretty straightforward.

It’s quite easy but it’s also very easy to make a mistake so fill the forms in 100% correctly. We had a form returned because one date was missing on page 16 or something and we had to start from scratch which was annoying. So the pp who said they used a solicitor for peace of mind isn’t really correct if they mean you might do it wrong and not realise.

For both my parents to complete both financial and health was approximately £320 doing it ourselves.

I did it myself, it is very easy to do online and you are guided through all the steps.

@murbblurb

you need a 'certificate provider' who is someone who knows you, or a professional. That's what the solicitor charges to be. (if that makes sense).

if you can find someone suitable, no need for the solicitor. The forms have clear instructions about what to do in what order.

No you don’t. We did MILs POWs last year. Her best friend, who she had known for 20+ years, was the witness. That was accepted. He’s not a ‘professional’ he’s a retired builder!

I have done it four times now, parents and other family. Did it without a solicitor each time. You can do it online and then print. Follow the instructions and it’s easy...just do a proper check when you’ve finished to make sure you’ve filled in every date, signature etc. Once you have the LPA you might want copies, and these should be certified by someone like a solicitor

@MatildaTheCat

It’s quite easy but it’s also very easy to make a mistake so fill the forms in 100% correctly. We had a form returned because one date was missing on page 16 or something and we had to start from scratch which was annoying. So the pp who said they used a solicitor for peace of mind isn’t really correct if they mean you might do it wrong and not realise.

For both my parents to complete both financial and health was approximately £320 doing it ourselves.

It’s got returned twice! We had done them online and just printed out the wrong pages then returned them.

@GreyGirlAbove

I have done it four times now, parents and other family. Did it without a solicitor each time. You can do it online and then print. Follow the instructions and it’s easy...just do a proper check when you’ve finished to make sure you’ve filled in every date, signature etc. Once you have the LPA you might want copies, and these should be certified by someone like a solicitor

Why do you need a solicitor to certify them? We got some sort of certificate sent to us.

It isn’t very easy... it needs you to concentrate especially around the order of the signatures. If you get signatures in the wrong order it will be sent back and they already take 12 weeks to register.

If it was that easy we would all be doing it and the solicitors wouldn’t.

I did it myself for both parents and DH.

I would suggest you list out the order of signatures and allocate a certificate provider. With lockdown signatures haven’t been easy.

It doable but I wouldn’t describe as very easy!

Yeah really easy to do yourself, don't waste your cash on getting a solicitor to do it.

I've done loads, easy enough to do yourself. Just concentrate and double check.

Yes easy to do yourself. Good Guidance notes the o lu complexity I found was the order in which to get everyone to sign - there are quite a few signatories needed the person, someone indépendant (usually friend or neighbour of person) then attorney/ etc.
Even the decision abkut how many attorneys and whether they have to act jointly or one can make decisions was very clearly explained.
My mum died without us needing to use it (we had health and property/finance in place.
Two things I could have forgotten -
Once it has been registered best to log it with bank etc so if needed in emergency the attorneys are already known and registered with the bank/mortgage or whatever.
When my mum died I had to return the originals for them to be cancelled.
My mum was glad we did this for her around 10 years before she passed away.

Yes, I said 'OR a professional'. DIY docs are not for the hard of reading.

@Soontobe60 if you want to send the LPA to a company to register it with them, like a bank or utility company, you send them a certified copy. If you have more than one copy you can send to more than one place at the same time. It’s a good idea to do that with places like a bank before you actually need it so that when the time comes it’s already registered. My mum had dementia so we did the LPA when she was diagnosed and still able to make decisions, registered it with her bank account and when she couldn’t make decisions anymore we were all set and saved having to do it in a rush at a point of stress (mum had a kind of dementia that worsened in ‘jumps’ rather than a gradual decline so all of a sudden she wasn’t capable anymore)

You can do it yourself but mumblechum or Marlowe Wills as she’s known professionally did my Mums very cheaply and easily.

Just doing the one for finance on the Gov. UK website.

Extremely straightforward. Just need a computer and printer. Certificate provider was a long standing neighbour of dm. Cost £82 paid online. Did the signatures with relevant parties this week in their back gardens.

I think passport applications are harder.