Power of Attorney

Power of Attorney

A Lasting Power Of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets a person (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘attorneys’) to help them make decisions or to make decisions on their behalf.

Requirements:

The person must:

• be 18 years or over and
• Have mental capacity – the ability to make one’s own decisions – at the time of making a Lasting Power of Attorney.

There are 2 types of LPA:

• health and welfare( e.g. the appointed attorney(s) can make decisions regarding ones daily routine, medical care, life-sustaining treatment)

This type of LPA can only be used when a person is unable to make their own decisions.

• Property and financial affairs (e.g. the appointed attorneys can make decisions about money and property on ones behalf such as managing bank/ building society account, selling of property, payment of bills.

The second type of LPA can be uses as soon as it is registered; with the person (donor’s) permission.

You can choose to make one type or both.

Registering a LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian, can usually take up to 10 weeks.

Attesting, Apostilling and authorisation of Power of Attorneys

Here at Kingdom Solicitors, our professional solicitors, can attest a Power of Attorney. In the event that the Power of Attorney is needed abroad. It is required to apostille the document(s) (get the relevant documents legalised at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and then authorised by the relevant authority/High Commission in that country.