Lasting Power of Attorney fees

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Expert solicitors for Lasting Powers of Attorney East Yorkshire

Lasting Power of Attorney fees

Making a Lasting Power of Attorney or LPA allows you to authorise a trusted relative or friend to deal with your affairs on your behalf, should you ever become unable to manage them yourself. In this article we explore what a Lasting Power of Attorney will do for you, and the Lasting Power of Attorney Fees.

At Lockings Solicitors, we offer a free, no-obligation initial chat so that you can ask us any questions you may have about putting a Lasting Power of Attorney in place. We charge a fixed fee with no hidden extras for our LPA service, meaning you will know from the outset how much the cost will be.

Our Wills and Probate team have extensive experience in dealing with sensitive issues such as Lasting Powers of Attorney and mental capacity. This includes a strong understanding of matters affecting older clients.

If you would like to discuss making an LPA, ring for a FREE initial chat on 01482 300 200, email us at welcome@lockings.co.uk or fill in our Free Online Enquiry and we will call you back promptly.

Making a Lasting Power of Attorney

Having a Lasting Power of Attorney in place means that if you ever needed someone to make decisions on your behalf, they could step in to do this. For example, if you were ill, they would be able to carry out tasks such as paying your bills, arranging for home maintenance and collecting your benefits for you.

This could be on a temporary basis until you were well enough to manage your own affairs again or, if needed, for the long-term.

The two types of Lasting Power of Attorney

There are two sorts of Lasting Power of Attorney:

• A property and financial affairs LPA; and
• A health and welfare LPA

You can make either or both types of LPA if you wish. If you make both types of LPA, you can choose different attorneys for each or the same attorneys. You may find it easier to have the same attorney for all of your affairs, but if you would like to discuss the pros and cons of this, we would be happy to talk it through with you.

Property and financial affairs Lasting Power of Attorney

A property and financial affairs LPA gives your attorney a range of powers relating to money matters, including the authority to:

• Access to your bank accounts
• Arrange investments
• Pay bills and set up direct debits
• Manage pension payments and benefits that you receive
• Deal with insuring and maintaining your property
• Sell your property, should this ever become necessary

If you make a property and financial affairs LPA, you can choose to allow your attorney to use it straightaway while you still have mental capacity if you wish. Alternatively, you can reserve it to be used in the event that you become unable to manage your own affairs.

Health and welfare Lasting Power of Attorney

A health and welfare LPA allows your attorney to make decisions relating to your personal care, including the authority to:

• Decide where you will live
• Decide what day to day care you will receive and what your routine will look like
• Decide whether you will move into care
• Authorise who you will see
• Make decisions in respect of medical care, which could include refusing medication or treatment

A health and welfare LPA can only be used by your attorney if you become unable to make your own decisions.

What happens if you do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney?

If someone loses the ability to manage their own affairs but they do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney in place, their relatives will not be authorised to take actions on their behalf. This means that no-one will be able to make arrangements, pay bills or agree to a care package for them.

Even if the person needing help is married, their spouse will not have the authority to deal with matters for them unless there is a Lasting Power of Attorney giving legal consent.

To enable a family member to deal with matters, an application would need to be made to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order. This type of order gives the deputy legal authority to manage the patient’s affairs. Again, it is possible to request either a property and financial affairs deputyship order or a personal welfare deputyship order.

The drawback to a deputyship order is that the application is not as simple as that to register a Lasting Power of Attorney and it will take substantially longer. While you are waiting for it to be processed, no-one will be able to make decisions for your relative, which could lead to difficulties.

The application fee is also more than four times more expensive, plus the legal work beforehand is also likely to be more costly. There is more ongoing supervision of deputies than attorneys and deputies are also required to pay an annual fee for this supervision.

For these reasons, we always strongly recommend that everyone makes a Lasting Power of Attorney while they are able to.

Lasting Power of Attorney fees

After a Lasting Power of Attorney has been signed, it can be registered straightaway at the Office of the Public Guardian. This is generally recommended so that it is ready to use, should it ever be needed.

The OPG charges a fee (currently £82) to register it. If the person making the LPA is in receipt of certain means-tested benefits, they will be exempt from paying the fee. If their income before tax is below £12,000 a year, they will only have to pay half of the fee.

At Lockings Solicitors, we provide a fixed-fee service for preparing standard Lasting Powers of Attorney so that you will know exactly how much it will cost from the outset.

Our Lasting Power of Attorney services

We can draft a Lasting Power of Attorney on your behalf in respect of property and financial affairs and/or health and welfare.

We can tailor these as required so that your attorney has the authority you want them to have.

Our LPA solicitors are experts in explaining how the whole process works and will walk you through the procedure step by step, ensuring that you are happy with the situation. We can discuss the options open to you in respect of registering the LPA and also how to choose the right attorney to represent you.

We have particular expertise in dealing with older clients as well as experience in representing those with dementia. It may be possible for someone in the earlier stages of dementia to make a Lasting Power of Attorney, provided they are able to understand the nature of the document and the implications of signing.

If your relative has dementia, we can take steps to ensure that there is evidence in place confirming that they have the mental capacity to sign an LPA.

Contact our Lasting Power of Attorney solicitors East Yorkshire

If you would like to discuss making and/or registering a Lasting Power of Attorney, we will be happy to help you.

You can ring us for a FREE initial chat on 01482 300 200, email us at welcome@lockings.co.uk or fill in our Free Online Enquiry and we will call you back promptly. We have offices in Beverley, Hull and York and deal with Lasting Powers of Attorney in East Yorkshire and beyond.

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