Power of Attorney

[sam100]

Hi I wonder if anyone can give me some advice?

If someone becomes a Power of Attorney for someone who is elderly and they fill in the forms etc and pass them to their solicitor and the solicitor says that it shouldn't be sent for processing until such times as it might be necessary to use- is that the right thing to do?

I always thought that the idea was that it was there to protect you so that if anything happened it would all have been sorted in advance...and that these forms might take a few months to process?..which would mean that if anything happened in an emergency the forms would be in fact useless and possibly out of date??

Any opinions greatfully received....

[bednobs]

my opinion is this - if it is an LPA for personal welfare then it should be registered when it is done - healthcare decisions often cant wait the amount of time it takes to register it with the court of protection
However, the personal finance one in my opinion could wait - it can take months to get it registered, but you can usually hold off creditors and bank accounts/nursing homes etc by telling them its being registered, or use interim measures. As it costs 150 to register it, in my mind its wasted if it's not needed to be used. Also, things change, and if for example you had a falling out with the attourney before they needed to use it, but it was activated, you could be in a potentially vulnerable position, and have to pay more to re-register with new details

[sam100]

Thanks for your reply. The POA is for both welfare and finance. At the moment the person is of reasonable health considering she's 84 but has a history of heart problems.
The finance POA is the main concern as the person who the POA is for is wishing to downsize in property and has appointed daughter and son-in-law to liase with estate agents etc ..not getting the POA activated seems really odd as the solicitor is aware of the situation.

If anything happened medical wise the finance POA would need to be activated as there will be times in the future (medical operations planned) where help will be needed and things will need to be accessible for day to day running of things.

The same solicitor is also dealing with land registry following the death of the current person named on the property title deads to the person who the POA is for. As mentioned above the property is up for sale but said solicitor is dragging her heals on providing info as to what stage this is at.

[bednobs]

the two different lpa's are two different forms arent they? I dont think there is a together one

[bednobs]

and fair enough if the subject of the POA wants to delegate that power to the children now, she/he can. Perhaps the solicitor is protecting her interests though? IE it is not unheard of for families to be crooked, and financially abuse their elderly parents, or to fall out and run off with all the money. Perhaps while the subject can still make decisions, they should?

BTW i am not a law person; this is all opinion only