Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2008/January 2009 | Page 20

life

PROPERTY

Getting to grips with
the new Lasting Powers
of Attorney
Contact: Mark or Terence Willey
From the 1st
October 2007
it is now
no longer
possible
to create
any further
Enduring Powers of Attorney
(EPA’s), what replaced them is
known as a Lasting Power of
Attorney (LPA). Fortunately
all old EPA’s that were created
before 1st October 2007 are
still valid.
The main differences between
the old EPA’s and the new
LPA’s are that to create an LPA
a separate person has to act as
what is known as a “Certificate
Provider” to certify, among
other things, that the person
granting the power (known
as the “Donor”) is under
no undue influence, has
capacity and fully understands
the scope of the LPA.
Furthermore, an LPA must be
registered with the Office of
the Public Guardian (OPG)
before the Attorney appointed
under the document can
make use of it, by registering
it with the various financial
institutions, to enable them
to be recognised and assist
with the Donor’s property and
affairs.
LPA’s also fall into two

distinct categories whereby
the Donor can appoint an
Attorney to act in relation to
either:1.Property and Affairs and/or;
2.Personal Welfare
It is fair to say that Personal
Welfare LPA’s are less
common than appointing an
Attorney to act in relation
to all the Donor’s Property
and Affairs. A Personal
Welfare LPA can in essence
deal with the decisions such
as whether the Donor is to
have life sustaining treatment,
when they may not be in a
position at the time to make
that decision for themselves.
This is obviously a very
sensitive topic, but one which
is moving on to a position
whereby Advance Directives
made by an individual are
being increasingly more
carefully considered, and
indeed followed by our fellow
professionals in the medical
profession.
Home Information Packs
grabbed the majority of the
headlines and it is fair to say
in my experience that people
are largely unaware that it
is now no longer possible to
create EPA’s and that there
is a whole new set of forms
and requirements to fulfil to

Photo: Mark Willey
set up a new LPA. By way
of illustration, an EPA was a
four to five page form, whereas
the new Lasting Powers of
Attorney are getting on for
thirty pages!
Nevertheless, setting up a
LPA is a sensible thing to
consider as one can never be
sure what the future may hold
with regards to us being able
to conduct our own affairs in
the future. The alternative
if nothing is in place, is a
costly and time consuming
application to the Court to
apply for a Deputyship Order
to appoint a Deputy to be
able to act on your behalf
(under the re-branding that
has taken place, this used to
be an application to appoint a
Receiver).
On a positive note the
Government have provided a
very useful website in which
guidance booklets and forms
can be downloaded free of
charge at www.publicguardian.
gov.uk alternatively if you
would like any further advice
or assistance with new LPA’s,
or indeed advice relating to
current EPA’s, please do not
hesitate to contact Mark
Willey on 01983 611888 or
Terence Willey on 01983
875859.

Terence Willey & Co
Tel: [phone]
www.terencewilley.co.uk
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