It has no longer been possible to make Enduring Powers of Attorney since 1st October 2007 when they were replaced by Lasting Powers of Attorney.

If an Enduring Power of Attorney was made prior to this date, it is a valid document and appoints the named attorney or attorneys and grants them legal authority to deal with a person’s property and financial affairs.

An Enduring Power of Attorney comes into effect as soon as it has been made and it must be registered with the Court of Protection if the person who has made the Enduring Power of Attorney has either lost capacity or the attorneys have reason to believe that the donor is losing capacity. There is a Court procedure which must be followed and which involves notifying various named relatives.

A potential pitfall regarding Enduring Powers of Attorney concerns the sudden loss of capacity by reason of accident or illness such as a stroke. In these cases, the donor will no longer have capacity and therefore the Enduring Power of Attorney cannot be used until it has been registered. The attorneys can apply for the document to be registered but this takes a period of time during which they will not have legal authority to deal with the person’s property and finances.

This is a good reason why an Enduring Power of Attorney should be updated and a Lasting Power of Attorney made to replace the existing document. A Lasting Power of Attorney must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used at all and therefore, if a person has a sudden and catastrophic loss of capacity, the Lasting Power of Attorney will confer legal authority upon the attorneys to deal with the person’s property and finances.

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