Solicitor saying a mental capacity assessment is needed for me to sell DMs house even though I have LPA

[Loub55]

I wondered if anyone could advise on this. I'm in disagreement with the conveyancing solicitor.

I'm selling my DMs house as she moved into a care home last year, she's been diagnosed with vascular dementia. She isn't too bad as yet but needs some support and she agreed it was the best thing for her as she disliked living alone.

She wants me to deal with the house sale and as we have financial LPA I thought it would be straightforward.
However the solicitor is saying that she needs proof of my mom's lack of mental capacity and that we will have to pay for an assessment.

Its not just the money, I don't want to subject my mom to that when I am sure it's unnecessary!

We have the LPA which says we can deal with her financial matter regardless of mental capacity. Surely this should be enough?

The care home manager, gp or social worker can carry out a capacity assessment, if she is found to lackmcapacity can she consent to being in a carehome.

When she chose to move in there permanently (following a 2 week trial then 2 weeks back at home where she hated it and started wandering, losing keys etc) the social worker said she might have had to do a 'best interests' decision anyway, as she felt it wasn't safe for her at home. So I think it may have been taken out of our and my mom's hands anyway tbh?

A best interest meeting is held when someone lacks capacity and there is no poa or deputyship in place.

The POA is taken out when the person still has capacity and they appoint the Attornee, it then has to be activated once the person has lost capacity, after which the Atornee can take over affairs

The financial one is activated once its been registered here

this is the case with old POAs, I think dating before 2009 or something like that? Modern finance LPAs can be restricted for use when the donor has lost capacity, or it can be used straight away with the donor’s consent. The OP has posted a photo of the page confirming it’s the latter, so OP doesn’t need to activate it in this case.

Hope it goes well with your conveyancer tomorrow @Loub55

Yes we didn't have the LPA in place last year when social services were involved, which is why it was so much easier that she said she wanted to go into the care home herself.

We had applied when she definitely had mental capacity (while she was still at home, before she was even diagnosed) it just took so long to be processed.

I have POA for my mum who is now in a care home.
I sold her house last year and all I had to produce to the solicitor was the original POA which they took a copy of and proof of ID for myself,
The sale went through no problem.