New Lasting Power of Attorney forms from 1 July 2015

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) promised it would simplify the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) forms following responses to its 27 July 2013 consultation. The aim was to make the forms easier to understand and to make the registration process simpler.

The new LPA forms have been in force from 1 July 2015.

The new LPA forms (prior to 1 July 2015 referred to as LP1) are now LP1F (LPA for property and financial affairs) and LP1H (LPA for health and welfare). The total length of the form (ignoring the continuation sheets) is now 20 pages including the registration section.

It was originally hoped the OPG would merge the Property & Financial Affairs form with the Health & Welfare form to reduce the cost of having both. This has not happened but some changes have been made.

The changes

From the 1 July 2015 the new style forms:

• Remove the requirement to notify someone of the registration and leaves this as optional – it is part of the LPA;
• Reduce the number of certificate providers needed to one;
• Incorporates the application to register at the end of the LPA form;
• Changes some of the terminology, for example “restrictions and conditions” are now “instructions” and “guidance” is now “preferences”;
• Makes no specific provision to include a charging clause and this must now be added in the “instructions” box;
• Provides a printed option for the donor in form LP1F to specify that the power may only be used once he/she loses mental capacity; the donor now has to elect in the LP1F form whether they wish the LPA to become effective immediately on registration or only if and when they later lose mental capacity to manage their financial affairs. Whilst it was previously possible to delay the coming into force of a property and financial affairs LPA until the donor lost capacity by way of a restriction, this option is now much clearer and easier to implement.
• Provides no changes to enduring powers of attorney forms at this time. These will still be able to be registered after the introduction of the new LPA forms.

Completing the forms

You can continue to use the existing forms until 1 January 2016 but from that date the new forms must be used to be valid.

The new forms are available to download from www.gov.uk/opg from Wednesday 1 July. Click on “create an account now” if you do not already have one. Once you have completed the form online, you’ll need to print a copy and get this signed, as well as completing some of the registration tasks offline. Then you’ll need to post the LPA to OPG for registration together with the fee of £110 per LPA. You also have the option of paying the fee online.