Registered EPA - who needs to know.

[Mimi1977]

Hello everyone, I'd welcome your advice.

I don't live in UK so I don't have a full picture of who needs to know and who I send a certified copy to.

I'm going to the bank, building society next week.

I assume I need to send a certified copy to electricity co, phone.

Do community charge people need to know? My mum is going into a care home, but I'll be looking after her house for the time being.

She has a widows pension from London Transport - do they need to know?

DWP and Revenue - will a call be OK or do they need certified copy.

Sorry for the basic question but I know this is the place to get the info.

Many thanks

 

[count2ten]

Hello everyone, I'd welcome your advice.

I don't live in UK so I don't have a full picture of who needs to know and who I send a certified copy to.

I'm going to the bank, building society next week.

I assume I need to send a certified copy to electricity co, phone.

Do community charge people need to know? My mum is going into a care home, but I'll be looking after her house for the time being.

She has a widows pension from London Transport - do they need to know?

DWP and Revenue - will a call be OK or do they need certified copy.

Sorry for the basic question but I know this is the place to get the info.

Many thanks

Hello Mimi, just from my own experiences, I only gave copies to people who asked for them as and when I needed to do something that my mum couldn;t do for herself anymore like writing cheques for bills and shopping etc. If the pension is paid into her bank then no need to tell the pension people because once the bank has sight of the power of attorney they can issue a debit card/cheque book that you can sign - account will stay in mum's name but you can sign for her.

The DWP will usually ask you to take the power of attorney to your local job centre office and they will copy it and send it off to the DWP for you - I did this for her pension to get it paid into her bank instead of getting at the post office, and also when we applied for attendance allowance. But as you don't live in the UK I suppose you will need to send them a certified copy. Same with the bank and post office.

Energy company just needed a photocopy of the LPA.

Empty house is exempt from council tax - where we live anyway.

Also exempt from water and sewage charges. They are sending cheques for overpayment, backdated to when she went into the CH.

I also changed her house insurance over to an unoccupied insurance - it was much cheaper than her old insurance which would have been invalid anway. Just have to make sure the heating stays on low in the cold weather to avoid frozen pipes etc.

Only found these things out after mum died last month and having to sort things out.

Others will no doubt follow with more info - Good luck with everything.

 

[Mimi1977]

Thank you Count2ten for your reply.

Mums pension is already paid into bank by DWP. She has DD for water, so thanks for reminding me about that one.

I changed her insurance a few months ago, when I realised that the house would be unoccupied for over 60 days, so that's sorted.

So looks like I have a few bases covered already. I am still a tad anxious about the bank - HSBC, although I have dealt by phone with a very helpful lady in a branch who set up my appointment, she assured me the person I would be seeing is informed about EPAs. I just need on-line banking and I must have a debit card to make my life easy when I am in the UK and buying stuff for her in Boots or M&S.

I am getting 2 certified copies of the EPA, hope this is enough. I have picked up from other threads that I should provide an SAE and ask utility cos etc to return the copy to me. I will not let the original copy out of my sight.

 

[Beate]

Yes, always ask them to return any certified copy and if you don't send them all off at once you should be fine with just a few.