Power of Attorney Question. Is there any point when there’s no property?

[Howtohideasausage]

My father has terminal cancer and is being moved into a home (funded). He doesn’t have any savings or own his own home. Today a solicitor came and said it would be £800 to make me power of attorney (for finance and health), but afterwards I wondered, is there any real point? He’s very ill, we’re talking weeks rather than months, and there’s no estate to speak of. He has a will, of which I’m the executor.

Has anyone experienced this? Thank you.

There's zero point if he's only got weeks left op, it takes months to register. And you can do it for free, the solicitor is after making a few quid.

You can also sort the estate without a solicitor, when the time comes.

I'm sorry you find yourself in this position. It really is an awful time.

if only weeks left then no as it takes a while to be issued by the court of protection. It’s straightforward to apply without paying for a solicitor but in this case as no property and not paying for placement then finances are not worth doing.

POA costs about £100. I would be interested if anyone does know how to get it free. The only reason in this instance to get it would be to have a say. When my DF was dying without POA it was heartbreaking to have to fight with social services anytime a decision had to be made.

You can get it free if you are on certain benefits. Housing benefit is one as ILs got it free for that reason.

It is currently taking months to register. Sent in MILs forms beginning of June last year and got confirmation back a couple of days before Christmas.

I am sorry for the situation you are in. The Office of Public Guardian's latest service update {1/5/23) says to allow 20 weeks for processing. That is five months so there seems to be very little point.

Thank you for your replies. Really appreciate it.

There’s two sorts of PoA, OP is talking about finances, you’re talking about Health and Welfare. PoA Finance wouldn’t give her a say.

But as there’s only weeks left, and PoAs cease on death of donor, there’s no point in either in this case

You'd think the solicitor would know this. Absolutely awful how people try and prey on worried, grieving people.

Sending love OP

oh I thought OP mentioned health too. guess I’m one of the lucky/unlucky ones my DF would only last weeks 3 times each time he rallied and went on.

I work in a bank. Once financial POA is sorted with solicitor (that can take months) it can take up to 4 weeks to be approved with your bank.

It's a lengthy process and a lot of paperwork.

DH and his sister had PoA for DMIL, health and finance. DMIL was six years into mixed dementia and had no capacity. At this point she hadn't known me for about four years.

When she was in hospital, they lost the copy of the health PoA that we gave them and staff refused to talk to the attorneys at all, resulting in complete disregard for her wishes.

It's made me question whether there is any point to PoA for health anyway.

That's so strange, where did the solicitor appear from? Normally a solicitor would only get involved if your father engaged one. Did this one have something to do with the care home or something?

That hasn't been my experience - my experience is that if I bring in the paperwork and my id, they photocopy the whole lot and are happy to deal with me immediately.

Still, it absolutely can take up to four weeks.

It's unhelpful and in this case could be costly to tell the OP that its a quick process. 99% of the time the funds will not be available to use by the POA straight away, if ever, in my experience. Although, we are extremely thorough with background checks etc. A lot goes on behind the scenes before one is approved.

Around 15 working days is the standard guideline completion time. That's providing the account holder has no account issues or safeguarding concerns, ongoing banking support, that the paperwork is in order and that the representatives also have correct ID that correlates directly with the documents. The type of account also plays a part in when funds can or cannot be withdrawn. Honestly, the list of what can go wrong/delay access goes on and on.

I've registered hundreds of POAs. I wish it was easier for everyone involved!

Good grief, which bank do you work for so I can avoid it. I thought NatWest was bad and that took 3 visits over a week. Santander was more straightforward.

@countrygirl99 I can't say! Don't get me wrong, we do all the work for you as long as we have the documents on the first visit. Just wanted to make a point that usually it's not instant.

Luckily I don't work in that department anymore, I do not miss it 😂

I've heard Santander are very good for it.

It's unhelpful and in this case could be costly to tell the OP that its a quick process. 99% of the time the funds will not be available to use by the POA straight away, if ever, in my experience. The OP should already be clear that current delays at OPG mean it is pointless to set up LPAs in her case. Several people have told her that, including me. Am I supposed to deny my own experience in order to stay "on message" or do you simply think I am lying?

Wondering if it would be helpful if your DF put you on his bank accounts as a joint owner ( and with one persons signature only required for withdrawal ) ?

Omg yes this!

My mum was in the process of adding me to her account rather than POA), as it happened she died very quickly and unexpectedly so neither happened.

FYI op - you don't need a solicitor to deal with simple and straightforward financial affairs 'afterwards' either, have a quick Google and there are some really good websites for support in dealing with this - I found them really good when I was in the throes of everything.

Dmum was given 3 months last june and she's still with us, bless her.

So it may be worth paying for the Health one, it's 84 quid online.

I believe Age uk can be useful for information although I don’t know how much detail they give on financial affairs. They do give helpful guides on dealing with an elderly relatives affairs.

I've found they vary by area. The office in ILs area were amazing and really helped them with very specific and individual advice but in my parents area it was very "here's a leaflet". I think they rely a lot on volunteers so it's luck of the draw.

I think there is also website information and some phone lines

The phone lines send you to the local office. Some are truly excellent, some not so much. The website/leaflet info is good as far as it goes bit sometimes you need someone who "gets it" re the specifics of the individual situation.