Power of attorney

[TheOtherHalf]

My MIL has had to go into a care home and weve been told we will need to sell her bungalow to fund her. My OH always hoped he would inherit this as his Dad promised when he died nearly 25 years ago now, but his Mum for some reason would never let him put it in his name. Kept putting it off each time it was mentioned as she was so sure she wasnt going to end up in a home. She now regrets it, of course. Blames herself and is getting very upset about it all.
My husband would like to get power of attorney to perhaps let it to help with funding. Which is the best way to do this. Yourself, a Bank or Solicitor and how much does it cost and how long does it take.

Any help appreciated

[ethandron]

we have had to do this on two separate occasions and from memory, it's not complicated at all, we downloaded the forms from the government webside an donly registered them when it became necessary. you might find this link useful:
http://www.saga.co.uk...er-to-your-people.asp

[albaqwerty]

About 18 years ago, my brother "took" power of attorney for my mum's dealings. He did it through a solicitor with mum present. I'm sorry I've no idea about cost. With the Power of Attorney he then took it to mum's bank etc so they had to deal with him.
When she eventually had to go into a home I think the cost was negated somewhat as he had done summat with her property.
Not been on speaking terms with him for about 15 years but that's another story.
I hope all works out well for you and yours TOH xx

[ethandron]

if you download the forms from the internet you can do it all yourself and it doesn't cost anything apart from the stamp to send the forms to be registered.

[ubasses]

The rules on POAs changed quite a bit a year ago as too many were being abused. Have a look at the Court of protection web site which will help you. The cost of registration has gone up quite a lot. I paid £200 4 years ago I think it is now abou £1000. Also the rules on disposing of property have become tight, they will take action to recover any funds. I was given a very useful booklet by social services when my Mum went in it would worth you getting hold of one.

[IggyB]

power of attorney will not change the fact that the nursing home requires funds - it will just put more of the responsibility to locate these funds on to yourself.

Please don't try to get the tax payer to pick up the bill while you personally profit

[Buenchico]

There's lots of relevant information here:
http://www.publicguar.../arrangements/lpa.htm

This might also be relevant to your situation:
http://www.direct.gov...CareHomes/DG_10031523

Chris

[Graham-W]

We have just been to a meeting with the Altzheimers Society who brought a Solicitor to talk us through this.
You can either download the forms from the government website or order a set to be sent out to you ( at no charge).
If you fill them in yourself ( and they don't look that complicated to me) it will cost you £120 to register them at the Court of Protection. This will take upto ten weeks.
The solicitors that were at the meeting quoted about £650 including registration fee. It would still take the Court of Protection ten weeks to register them before you had Power of Attorney.
As far as I know, you can only have PoA if the individual is no longer able to make decisions for themselves.

[ubasses]

Youi can also use POA if your relative just does not want to cope with their finances any more and asks you to take over

[ethandron]

i stand corrected about the cost, my apologies.

[Graham-W]

I stand corrected, ubasses.

[bednobs]

we did ours fairly recently. It cost us about £500 at a solicitors. There are two types - property and affairs (money) or personal welfare. As above they still have to be registered and it can take a while

[ubasses]

The important words in this question are ' my husband would like to get power of attorney' He can only have one if his mother wants him to have one. Unless the rules have changed when it is registered you have to give the court the names of all relatives, who are then written to and given the chance to object, so it would also be a good idea to discuss things with them.

[dzug2]

He can only have Power of Attorney if his Mum grants it to him. If she is no longer capable of doing that then he needs to apply for to be her Deputy instead.

Whilst in a sense that's just a different name for the same thing, it's rather more difficult and expensive to get.

And there's no need to wish that the house had been put in his name - that might well have caused more problems than it solved.

A Lasting Power of Attorney costs £125 to register - apart from a bit of postage there needn't be any other costs unless you need to get professional certification of fitness to sign.

[jules77]

I could be in a similar situation in a few years, but dont understand how a POA will avoid paying nursing home fees. Whilst I dont agree that your husband should lose his inheritance, I dont think there is a way round it, as even if your MIL's property was put in your husbands name, I believe this has to have been done for a number of years before the government can enforce ths sale to pay for the nursing home?

[boxtops]

I think you may be right, jules - seven years comes to mind?

[ubasses]

No POA will not make any difference to paying Nursing home fees apart from making it easier if she becomes incapable of doing herself. Property would have to have been given away many years ago. (20 if my memory serves me right)

[PipinHull]

I don't think the poster is suggesting avoiding fees? She says 'to perhaps let it to help with funding', assume she means rent the house out to help cover fees. And I guess they don't want mother in law to have to deal with all the rental stuff. Though I don't think POA is necessary for that, MIL could just tell letting agent that her son is handling it.

[TheOtherHalf]

Thank you all for your very generous information. There are so many things to look into. We are not trying to avoid payment. We thought that if we could use what savings she has ( about £7,000) and if necessary use any of our savings to pay before thinking about having to sell the property. She will be 95 in April and is quite poorly, so we cannot see her lasting long anyway ( although we could be wrong on that ) and it would be a shame for her to pass away whilst the house is up for sale. She does want her son (her only child)to take over the house and now regrets her earlier decisions and is worrying about what is happening and how much its all costing. We are only too glad that is spending her last days being looked after but are just trying to avoid selling her home.