Joint power of attorney - acting ‘jointly and severally'

Canna

Registered User
Jan 24, 2022
80
0
My sister and I have joint power of attorney for our mother. It wasn't until I went into the bank to ask about taking control of mum's bank account that we discovered that both of us would have to be present. This isn't easy, as my sister lives some distance away, and her work means that she is only able to visit at weekends when the bank is shut.

Our solicitor said that he would need to redraft the power of attorney and resend it to the Office of the Public Guardian. So back in early October Mum signed a new document, we posted it back to the solicitor and assumed that all would be well. However, we have just discovered that the solicitor has not yet submitted the application to the OPG, and we think that he may have lost the document that mum signed. If we want a poa that will allow us to act 'jointly and severally,' it looks as if we may well have to go through getting Mum to sign in front of a witness again (keeping our fingers crossed that she is having a good day when she does this), and going to the back of the queue with the OPG Scotland (their website says they are currently dealing with applications from June).

My sister will be here this Friday, which means we can talk to the bank to sort things out with them. Once we are able to manage the bank account, do we just give up on the reworded power of attorney, or are there going to be other situations where my sister and I both have to be present in order to manage Mum's affairs? I'm thinking of things like dealing with utility companies and selling her car.

We'd like to avoid the stress of getting a new poa arranged if we will be able to manage with our original one. Any advice or suggestions would be very much appreciated.
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,081
0
Bury
The LPA system in Scotland is different from the one in England
The majority of posters live in England.
Somebody with knowledge of the Scottish system may come along.
Meanwhile try contacting the https://www.alzscot.org/
24 hour Freephone Dementia Helpline: 0808 808 3000
 

jugglingmum

Registered User
Jan 5, 2014
7,085
0
Chester
My mum is in England and my MIL is in Scotland.

Power of attorney has been arranged for both. My understanding of it (but I live in England so might be wrong) is that the system is pretty similar once the POA has been issued.

In England we could download the forms and do the POA application ourselves whereas in Scotland there are no readily available forms and best route is a solicitor (MIL would have wanted to use a solicitor anyway - and her solicitor is useless so it took over a year to sort out). The wording on MILs is almost identical to mum's.

But the joint bit is the same either way - so once registered you will both need to sign every cheque and authorise every transaction jointly whether with the bank, utility cos or selling a car. If you think you can get a new one done I'd go for it, as you will only send it off if your mum signs it.

You need to have a stern conversation with your solicitor to find out what has happened with the recent document and proceed accordingly (with a fee negotiation if something has gone wrong)
 

Canna

Registered User
Jan 24, 2022
80
0
=My mum is in England and my MIL is in Scotland.

Power of attorney has been arranged for both. My understanding of it (but I live in England so might be wrong) is that the system is pretty similar once the POA has been issued.

In England we could download the forms and do the POA application ourselves whereas in Scotland there are no readily available forms and best route is a solicitor (MIL would have wanted to use a solicitor anyway - and her solicitor is useless so it took over a year to sort out). The wording on MILs is almost identical to mum's.

But the joint bit is the same either way - so once registered you will both need to sign every cheque and authorise every transaction jointly whether with the bank, utility cos or selling a car. If you think you can get a new one done I'd go for it, as you will only send it off if your mum signs it.

You need to have a stern conversation with your solicitor to find out what has happened with the recent document and proceed accordingly (with a fee negotiation if something has gone wrong)
Thank you, that is really helpful to know. I wondered if we'd be able to get away with doing most things online once we have the banking sorted out, but I can see that we need to get that wording right.
And yes, definitely stiff words with the solicitor. It's been quite an eye opener to realise what a mess they appear to have made.
 

Canna

Registered User
Jan 24, 2022
80
0
Thank you, nitram, for the information (I tried to reply to you last night, but couldn't work out how to do it - fortunately my daughter has helped me out!) . I contacted Alzheimer Scotland, and got a quick response from them.
 

Shedrech

Registered User
Dec 15, 2012
12,649
0
UK
Hello @Canna
A warm welcome to DTP
I'm glad that posting here and Alzheimer's Scotland have been helpful to you
Post again with anything that's on your mind, folk here are knowledgeable and supportive
 

Canna

Registered User
Jan 24, 2022
80
0
Hello @Canna
A warm welcome to DTP
I'm glad that posting here and Alzheimer's Scotland have been helpful to you
Post again with anything that's on your mind, folk here are knowledgeable and supportive
Thank you. It's reassuring to know that there's such a supportive community here. And so useful to read and see that others are dealing with things that we thought were unique to us. I'm learning a lot from reading the various threads.
 

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