What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?
A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘attorneys’) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf.
This gives you more control over what happens to you if you have an accident or an illness and cannot make your own decisions (you ‘lack mental capacity’).
Health & Welfare LPA
A Health and Welfare LPA gives an attorney the power to make decisions about things like:
- your daily routine, for example washing, dressing, eating
- medical care
- moving into a care home
- life-sustaining treatment
It can only be used when you’re unable to make your own decisions.
Property & Finance LPA
A Property and Finance LPA gives an attorney the power to make decisions about money and property for you, for example:
- managing a bank or building society account
- paying bills
- collecting benefits or a pension
- selling your home
It can be used as soon as it’s registered, with your permission.
Signing your Lasting Power of Attorney
Signing and dating is easy, simply follow the provided instructions to correctly sign your documents. Once done, you are ready for registration.
Zenco Legal clearly label the documents so that when you receive them, you can be 100% sure you are signing in the correct place.
Registering your documents
The Office of the Public Guardian charge a registration fee that ranges from £0 to £82 for each Lasting Powers of Attorney.
This is not included in our cost.
Our service tells you how much your registration fees are.
The registration fees are paid directly to the OPG after the start of the registration process. You can select whether you pay this fee by card or cheque. if you select to pay by card the OPG will contact you directly for a payment further down the line.
Once the documents are completed there is no deadline to send them for registration. However, the documents do not become legally binding until they are registered.