Covid-19: When a Power of Attorney may be helpful

This will mean that they will be unable to venture to the shops to buy groceries, go to the bank to withdraw money or pay their bills. There will also be many who will sadly require treatment in hospital so during this time they will need people they trust to oversee their finances. For those that have already put Powers of Attorney in place, now might be a good time for those you have appointed, known as your Attorneys, to start helping you.

There are a few types of Powers of Attorney – Enduring Powers of Attorney, Lasting Powers of Attorney (Property and Financial or Health and Welfare) and General Powers of Attorney. Powers of Attorney can therefore be a bit of a minefield. If you would like advice on any documents you already have in place, we would be happy to review these for you. We will advise if they can be used straight away or if they will require registration with the Office of the Public Guardian first. We are not currently arranging face to face meetings but if the document(s) can be sent to us by email, dropped in or posted, we can then arrange a telephone or video call.

If you have not already had a Power of Attorney prepared, then now might be a sensible time to consider putting a General Power of Attorney in place. It is what we refer to as a temporary document, as it expires 12 months from the date it is signed but can be used straight away without registration. However, it cannot be used should you lose mental capacity. We normally recommend that Lasting Powers of Attorney are prepared alongside these, as they are permanent documents which can be used should you lose mental capacity but as they need to be registered first, they take roughly 3 months to be put in place.

Please call our specialist team on 01752 663295 should you require more advice on powers of attorney.