Can you claim a refund of Lasting Power of Attorney registration fees if a donor dies before the LPA is registered?
Can you claim a refund of Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Registration fees if a donor dies before the LPA is registered? This feels something sensitive, but I believe important to blog about for a couple of reasons; firstly, I found it hard to get to a full answer on-line and secondly, I hope that by explaining it I can help people by providing a question to ask any person who is drafting their Lasting Power of Attorney.
What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that enables a person (called the donor) to nominate another person (or persons, the attorney(s)) to speak for them if they ever lose capacity through an accident or ill health. You can find out more detailed information in earlier blogs such as Why do I need a Lasting Power of Attorney asks Lee? and How much does it cost to make a Lasting Power of Attorney? For Jake.
A Lasting Power of Attorney can be made. independently, using the government website, with a solicitor or with a Lasting Power of Attorney Consultant . There are two potential expenses when making a Lasting Power of Attorney, the cost of drafting the document and the cost of the Office of the Public Guardian fees. The first cost will vary on how you decide to make a Lasting Power of Attorney, drafting the document independently means you have no solicitor or consultant costs, you will just need to pay the registration fees. The cost of the fees will vary on your income from £82.00 per document to complete exemption from payment.
To be a formal, legal document a Lasting Power of Attorney must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). The process of registration is currently taking around twenty weeks, and that is when the process goes smoothly with no queries or problems. It is always a good idea to have a Lasting Power of Attorney in place before it is needed; I campaign for normalising Advance Care Planning and a Lasting Power of Attorney is Just a normal part of life planning. Having said that, which one of us does everything we should when we should? Often, making a Lasting Power of Attorney is triggered by a serious illness and sometimes people start making one when life is very short. What happens if the person making the Lasting Power of the Attorney is so ill that they die during this time from application to registration?
What happens if the person making the Lasting Power of the Attorney is so ill that they die during this time from application to registration?
The question is one I can answer and share from experience. I have been in the sad situation three times where a client has died before their Lasting Power of Attorney has been registered.
What did I do? The first time I experienced this I contacted the Office of the Public Guardian for advice; the documents hadn’t been registered and I was instructed to send a copy of the death certificate to the OPG. I enquired about a refund of fees and, having provided a copy of the death certificate, I received a cheque for £164.00 about six weeks later. I gave the money refunded back to the donor’s attorney. The process was repeated for a second family. More recently, I discovered that it is not necessary to provide a copy of the death certificate as the process has been simplified with the Life Event Verification system .
The third time I had to inform the Office of the Public Guardian of the death of a client the LPAs the Life Event Verification system meant that I did not need to send a copy of the death certificate. This made the process easier and was less burdensome on the family involved. Once again, I received a refund which I passed on to the family. I would like to acknowledge the work of the Office of the Public Guardian team here and say thank you for supporting with this.
It is important to be absolutely transparent and sensitive when making a Lasting Power of Attorney with a person. Knowing there is a twenty week wait carries a risk that, for some people, it may just be too late. When there is an obvious poor prognosis this is something I talk about with clients. I have found people still want to go ahead, making a Lasting Power of Attorney can be one way of gaining control when everything else may feel out of control.
Key messages
There are three takeaways from the blog:
It is possible to claim a refund of Lasting Power of Attorney Registration fees if someone dies before the forms are processed. Contact the Customer Services Team who will help you with the steps to take.
If you are engaging someone to draft LPAs for you, maybe this is question worth asking – or check out their policy. I am really proud of how I practice my business and feel returning fees it is the morally right thing to do, I’d like to know how widely this is practised.
Is my refund policy on my we website? Not yet, but I promise it will be by next week.