Informing agencies/companies of LPA, is there an easier way?!

[TheFurryMenace]

My sister and I have just received the LPA for my dad who lives alone and has moderate/worsening dementia (we also have LPA for health).

Im in the process of going through a list of organisations that I think I need to inform - council (rent and council tax), banks, utilities, and pension people. We only have the original LPA and I've just found out it will be very expensive to get certified copies (£80 per copy from a solicitor), and I dont want to put my dad through the stress of signing every page of every copy we might need to make.

I've made a list of those that I can take the LPA in, in person - banks and the council. But there are a lot of organisations that I will need to inform by post - electricity, water, pensions (2 company pensions and State pension). Is there an easy way of doing this? Or have a really got to send off a certified copy to each organisation? I am beginning to realise what an actual nightmare this is. I've spent the morning getting appoitments at banks etc, and realising that this is going to take forever.

If you have been through this experience, is there an easier way? Do companies accept a scanned or photocopy of the original?

Thanks in advance.

Also, forgot to ask the banks when I made the appointment, but as my sister is also an attorney, does she need be at the appointments? They've asked me to bring ID, so I am now wondering if she needs to come along and bring ID also?

we didn't have to send the whole certified copies to anyone, we took the original to the banks and they photocopied it and gave it back, the rest just wanted the covering letter that states LPA has been granted with the reference number on it.

The banks should help you, you can set up standing orders or direct debits with the utility companies. His pensions and state pension can still be paid into his bank accounts. Presumably you are going to be taking over his bank accounts and managing his finances but this may all be done through one bank. We consolidated all the different accounts and opened up one current account, set up direct debits and got a debit card and cheque book.

Thank you so much Happy Hammy, you have made my day. I rang the Office of the Public Guardian before I posted, and they insisted that everyone would need a certified copy of the full LPA.

I have now made appointments at his banks. Hopefully, everyone else will accept the covering letter.

Just a thought. When you both see the banks take id with you, passports, original poa paperwork. Try and make up a folder with info about your dads finances, his bank accounts, copies of utility Bill's, council tax, pensions etc. We got a new cheque book with his and our names on it to pay Bill's and a debit card, it was very simple. With his Bill's if he doesnt have direct debits set up you can always set up a redirection of post through the post office so all his post comes to you or your sister and you just pay by cheque or card, the post office will want to see the original poa. If he has several bank accounts it might be worth considering closing the smaller ones and having the money in just one account, unless they are earning interest or heavy penalties for closing them early. Does he have carers coming in or meal deliveries, they will need paying. Is he currently ok at home on his own. It's such a terrible illness.

@TheFurryMenace how many solicitors quoted you £80 to certify a copy of an LPA & did they say why it was so much?
I ask because I have LPAs for 3 people (all still in good nick as of now touch wood) so may well be doing this in the future. But my Mum died last year and the local solicitors charged me a pound a page to certify a copy of her will (they charge cash!). And this is in the SE. So obvs I'm keen to know whether there is something special about LPAs or whether there was some miscommunication somehow - if I'm going to have to shell that out when it's all kicking off I'd like to be prepared!!

We only notified the bank and gave them a copy of the paperwork once it was registered
The cheque book stayed in fathers name and hubby signed instead of father.
Everything else continued as usual. Everything went into and out of the bank as normal.
No one asked for any evidence before this when he became his appointee.

I took the certified copies to the Financial Institutions. The. utilities were happy with a photocopy. One other thing I did, which proved invaluable was to change his address to mine. I had to fill a form and take the certified copy to the P.O. This made managing his bills and appointments much easier. Like you, I had to speak with a myriad of people and found the Utilises much kinder and more professional than the bank.

I've managed for 10 years on only one copy. Banks and building societies I've taken the document in. For general payment of electricity etc, nobody cares who does the payment, it's not till you have to change supply, and even then, new supplier didn't need to see anything as the supply went into my name. Council tax they were quite happy to talk to me without any sight of PoA. A couple of places have been fine with a letter from my Dad saying "talk to my daughter" - I wrote the letter and got him to sign it. A couple of places I was able to email a scan of the document.

I now finally have a couple of places where I can't take the document personally and will have to send a copy, but a bank was happy to make an extra copy and certify it on the first page - I'm hoping that will be adequate. Places where you have to post the document usually say they will return it to you. I haven't bothered to talk to pension providers because the money is being paid into a bank account, so I'm able to access it. But I still have access to his postal address and haven't needed to change that.

My advice is not to rush around taking the PoA document to everyone - just do it as and when you need to do business with that organisation. Ask the organisation about alternatives, saying that you have only one copy which you don't want to let out of your possession.

Multiple attorneys - depends whether you are set up to make decisions "jointly and separately" or just "jointly". If "jointly and separately" there's no need to set both of you up if just one of you is going to be dealing with that institution, and you can do it at separate time, although you'll each of you have to take in id and the PoA document.

If just "jointly" clearly you'll both have to be set up at each institution, but I wouldn't expect you have to do it at the same time or even at the same branch.

If he's still at home and has dementia, you may find he is entitled to a big reduction in Council Tax.

Thank you all so much for such helpful advice. I'm feeling a bit less overwhelmed now.

17bananas - I am in London and the solicitor quoted me £5 per side, there are 16 sides! But, having read all the above advice I think I will send the cover letter in the first instance except for bank and post office.

I will also look into the council tax thing, thanks.

Our local solicitors certifies copies for about £7, I think it was. Their junior solicitors do it in their lunch hour for cash!

Yes, same as mustbetimeforachange, I can't remember how much I paid but it was £20 or less, cash. Worth ringing around a couple of local firms. We found it very useful to have a copy as my brother who is joint attorney lives at the other end of the country so he needed his own copy really. And it is a backup in case one gets sent away and not returned, although that hasn't happened to us.

The solicitor can do certified copies

We took the original copy with us and let the bank or whoever photocopy it. A tip I read was to mark your original, on the back, with a little dash of red pen, just a tiny mark. This is so you know you've got your original back and not the photocopied one.