Lasting Power of Attorney - DIY online

[ShipwreckSunset]

Has anyone any experience of setting this up themselves rather than using a solicitor? How did you find the process?
I think I may need to do this for my parents in the near future (health and financial) and wondering if it is something I can do myself rather than involve solicitor. The process outlined on gov website looks relatively straightforward.
If you did use solicitor, roughly how much was it?

Do it yourself! It's dead easy. My parents went through solicitors and found it about 3 or 4 times the price and for some reason the solicitor set it up so that a second step had to be passed before it was activated. Mum barely had capacity at the time so why we then had to endure a test of capacity to activate it a few years later was very frustrating. I set mine up so the kids and DH can use immediately. I trust them

I think I may need to do this for my parents in the near future (health and financial

You mean this is something they will need to sort out? You can't apply for it on their behalf.

There needs someone independent to verify that what your parents have capacity to make a decision who they have appointed as their attorneys and that it has been willingly and freely donated. Ideally that needs to be a professional person such as a solicitor/social worker/GP but it doesn't have to be.

Yep, we did it when it was even more convoluted. My Pil are doing their own atm & making a bit of a hash of it, so follow the instructions. It's not hard but does need concentration.

@WomblingKnobheadvthat is interesting to know re the time to activate, do not want to be adding in extra steps.

@hatgirl sorry, yes they will need to set up but practically finding out what that involves will fall to me. Good to know that it seems viable to do without a solicitor, I am pretty sure they will baulk at the cost of using them to set up if 3-4 times the cost.

I've recently sent LPOA forms off on behalf of my mother using the DIY online forms on the gov website. An attorney(you) can apply for LPOA but your parents will have a section to sign to say they agree with the process and a neighbour can sign to verify this.

We did this for DM a good few years ago.

I asked the family solicitor to include POA for DM, when we were going through probate and distribution of assets for DF's estate. Solicitors said they could but would have to charge a lot and recommended we try the DIY route.

Neighbour was willing to sign that DM had capacity. I downloaded the forms and filled in all the names and addresses. so everyone just had to sign their names.

That saves a lot of time and effort for people writing out their name and address.

Got the two, for property & wealth, and for health, all sorted over a cup of tea. Sent them off the same day, they took a good long time to be processed but are now all sorted for the price of a stamp.

Since then, DH and I have done them for each other, too.

There needs someone independent to verify that what your parents have capacity to make a decision who they have appointed as their attorneys and that it has been willingly and freely donated. Ideally that needs to be a professional person such as a solicitor/social worker/GP but it doesn't have to be.

No there doesn't.

I had another adult witness for me. Just a friend. The assumption is that the donor (person who is giving their decision making to someone else) has capacity when they do the LPOA not that they don't.

all sorted for the price of a stamp

It costs £82 to register each one, so £164 per parent for both health & financial powers of attorney.
Puts me off doing it for me & DH to be honest. Might be money down the drain or it might not, who knows?

I did LPAs for Mum and Dad, DH and me. It's very straightforward; they even have a date checker to make sure you've signed in the right order before you send it off.

@BurscoughBooths

all sorted for the price of a stamp

It costs £82 to register each one, so £164 per parent for both health & financial powers of attorney.
Puts me off doing it for me & DH to be honest. Might be money down the drain or it might not, who knows?

The cost of the alternative if required is very much more. I've never quite pinned down the cost but it's very much more complicated, requiring applications to court annually.

Think of it as cheap insurance, tho I still haven't done ours... 🙄

Make sure you put full names on for everyone. I didn't which caused an issue with the land registry as my mum's middle name was on their documents but not on the LPA. Fortunately she had (just) enough capacity to sign the form for the solicitor when her house was sold. Otherwise the process was straightforward as others have said.

Puts me off doing it for me & DH to be honest. Might be money down the drain or it might not, who knows?

@BurscoughBooths

I guess that it depends on how significant the cost is for you. Do you have descendants? In my family, the value came when DM/DF began to need more support. Having the POA gave me the authority I needed to speak to the bank etc on their behalf.

It may be possible to get authorisation supplier by supplier, but it's a great deal more effort.

So easy peasy. I did my mum's. 30 mins to fill out forms for both health and finance. Then she has to have a someone to witness that mum knew what she was signing; and the witnesses' and the chosen attorneys' signatures. Send it off with money. I paid £96 for each but got 50% back later as they'd overcharged. They write a letter to the donor and attorneys to make sure you're all happy with the situation. (This is the stage where people with onset of dementia tend to go I never signed this!) Then they send all the paperwork through to donor and each of the attorneys. And you're done. It's so easy, I still can't help thinking I've made a mistake somewhere!

When DF needed more support he gave me the log on details for his online banking, so no POA needed. Anything else, I rang the company and passed him the phone so he could confirm that he wanted me to sort it.
The only problem would have come if we’d needed to sell his home to pay for a care home as obviously I wouldn’t have been able to do that

Did this for mum after dad died. It was very easy and sat unused for 10 years but was invaluable in the last few weeks of her life.
We also set one up for ourselves a couple of years ago naming each other and the (adult) DC as attorneys.
The website walks you through it and the staff were very helpful when I rang with a question.
Don't waste money on a solicitor.

@BurscoughBooths

When DF needed more support he gave me the log on details for his online banking, so no POA needed. Anything else, I rang the company and passed him the phone so he could confirm that he wanted me to sort it. The only problem would have come if we’d needed to sell his home to pay for a care home as obviously I wouldn’t have been able to do that

I did mum's banking online but the health and welfare one became invaluable when dealing with GP receptionists who refused to let us speak to GP about mum.

Yes, we did this during lockdown. Took ages because the doctor had to sign as the certificate provider and no face to face meetings were happening at the time. Also the forms had to be sent through the post to all siblings for them to sign their bit.

It was a bit long winded for us, but relatively simple and the agreements are just coming through. Mum's are done and dad's health one too. Just in time because he had a stroke last weekend.

I would recommend doing it yourself rather than paying a professional to do it. Just maje sure that you understand the implications. We made sure that we could all act independently in an emergency, rather than all having to give ourformal agreement. Obviously that only works if you trust the other attorneys to act in the best interests of your parents.

@BurscoughBooths

When DF needed more support he gave me the log on details for his online banking, so no POA needed. Anything else, I rang the company and passed him the phone so he could confirm that he wanted me to sort it. The only problem would have come if we’d needed to sell his home to pay for a care home as obviously I wouldn’t have been able to do that

I would still highly recommend doing POA. After my dad's stroke he can't talk and communication is very difficult. Even simple questions with a yes or no answer are proving tricky. Thank goodness we finally got my parents to agree to POA when we did. Not a minute too soon.

Thank you for the replies. I got on the website and have filled in the details for both POAs for both parents and printed off. Mum now not sure about it, doesn’t seem to think it will be necessary esp the health one as she thinks the other partner or me will be able to act as next of kin. I have tried explaining that it will make things easier, esp for me as practically I will be the one doing all the forms and contact. She is on board with the financial one but I need to give her some examples of how the health one will be useful too. I was trying to avoid saying anything too upsetting. I don’t think the next of kin necessarily has same powers for health though?

@BurscoughBooths

all sorted for the price of a stamp

It costs £82 to register each one, so £164 per parent for both health & financial powers of attorney.
Puts me off doing it for me & DH to be honest. Might be money down the drain or it might not, who knows?

As an Older People's Social Worker, I believe it is absolutely worth the money. If your parents develop dementia and can no longer manage their affairs, without PoA it is a very long, complex send expensive process as they can't set up/consent to a PoA if they don't have the mental capacity to do so.

I don't think the next of kin necessarily has the same powers for health

There is no legal definition of next of kin in UK law, so no powers as such. It would be down to the policy of the NHS trust (or other care provider) about how they interact with families or next of kin. You would have more leverage with the hospital staff if you are able to say you have poa.

It’s easy to do yourself
You really don’t need a solicitor

@ShipwreckSunset

Has anyone any experience of setting this up themselves rather than using a solicitor? How did you find the process? I think I may need to do this for my parents in the near future (health and financial) and wondering if it is something I can do myself rather than involve solicitor. The process outlined on gov website looks relatively straightforward. If you did use solicitor, roughly how much was it?

We did this for my MIL. It’s very simple. Download the forms, take your laptop (ipad works too) round to parents and complete it together. It helps if you print off a hard copy of the guidelines too. Then print it off - I printed 3 copies of each one! Get them signed by their chosen witness and then post with payment. You need to send all the pages off when you post them, even if they’re blank.

As a temporary measure, write a signed letter grom your mum to the doctor giving you permission to access your mum's records and to speak to the doctor on her behalf. I cannot tell you how much this has helped without having to activate the PoA. It just means that you can arrange things with the surgery and pick up blood results etc, without having to keep checking with mum.

@BurscoughBooths

all sorted for the price of a stamp

It costs £82 to register each one, so £164 per parent for both health & financial powers of attorney.
Puts me off doing it for me & DH to be honest. Might be money down the drain or it might not, who knows?

It's never money down the drain. It's like having a life raft in a storm - you might not need it, but if you do, it's worth a fortune to you. Never let yourself be put off .