Power of Attorney - advice please

[Slatkater]

Can anyone anyone tell me if firm of solicitors hold a Power of Attorney for an individual and the business goes into Administration does the POA become void?
Thanks

I think the Law Society arranges for another firm of solicitors to take on the workload of that practice, I don't think it all just stops. So with a POA I'm sure there must be procedures to transfer them over to the new firm.

Why do you ask?

Surely as long as it was registered properly with the Office of the Public Guardian it will be fine

But if the business no longer exists surely they can’t administer the POA’s.

My mother has dementia and no recollection of these (extremely financially dodgy) solicitors or how they came to hold these POA’s. They are not local to her and I suspect it was a cold call. They have been extremely unresponsive to myself and my mothers social worker.

If it’s registered with the OPG doesn’t need to be held by a solicitor I set up two POAs for my mum - as long as it was registered and went through ok and you have a copy of it - have you contacted the Office of the Public Guardian? gov dot uk website has to be registered with them before can be used

If they are not responding to you or her social worker then they are likely not fulfilling their duties correctly as LPOAs.

Its irrelevant they are solicitors, if there is a concern they are not acting in the best interests of your mum then the Office of the Public Guardian can take action to revoke the LPoA.

If you and the social worker have both made reasonable attempts to contact them with no adequate response then my next email (as a social worker) would be to the office of the public guardian outlining my concerns.

They are registered with the OPG. It is the solicitors who are named as having POA over her Health & Wellbeing and Property & Finances.

There has been minimal contact from the solicitors over 10 months. I am in the process of reporting to the OPG and the social worker is consulting with her manager to do the same.

The solicitors business is no longer active as they are in Administration.

I wouldn't be hesitating, it's very very easy to report concerns to the OPG, they can be quite slow to move so the sooner the better, a quick email and it kicks starts their investigation.

As part of that investigation the OPG will automatically contact the local authority to ask if they know of her and if any concerns have been reported to them about the LPOAs so from that perspective the social worker doesn't need 'permission' to report to the OPG as the OPG will come to them for information anyway.

My manager would look at me as if I was mad if I went to them to question if I should have reported this to the OPG, it would be something I would be expected to do automatically and then just mention as having been done in my next supervision.

I would include the information that you believe it was a cold call type situation rather than a deliberate intention of your mum to make her attorney a long trusted solicitor for good reason.

Would you consider being her court appointed deputy for finances if the current LPOA is revoked? If not then the court may apply for the finance part to be passed to a court appointed solicitor.

it's unlikely they will pass on the health and welfare LPoA to anyone, that bit will probably just be entirely revoked.

If here are questions regarding her capacity at the time of signing, definitely mention that. The LPA only works if the person has capacity to make decisions at the time of signing.

LPAs appoint named people in a personal capacity, you can't appoint a company to be your attorney. If your mum has capacity she can revoke these LPAs and make new ones appointing different people. If she hasn't got capacity and you want to look after her then you can apply to the Court of Protection to be her deputy.

One of the solicitors is named in the Health & Welfare & the business is named in the financial one. She does not have capacity. I do intend to apply to the Court of Protection.