Power of Attorney: the Deadline With No Date On It

Every other deadline on this blog has a date on it. This one does not, which is exactly why it gets missed — and unlike the others, missing it cannot be fixed afterwards at any price.

Why can't an attorney just step in when needed?

Because the document has to exist and be registered first, and registration is not instant. GOV.UK puts the timeline at 8 to 10 weeks — "it takes 8 to 10 weeks to register an LPA if there are no mistakes in the application" — and the application itself costs £92.

That "if there are no mistakes" clause is doing quiet work. A rejected application goes back to the start of the queue, and the errors are usually small: a missing signature, a date in the wrong order, a certificate provider who was not eligible.

Until registration completes, the attorney cannot act. A property and financial affairs LPA "can be used as soon as it's registered, with your permission" — the emphasis on registered is the whole point. A health and welfare LPA is different again: "it can only be used when you're unable to make your own decisions."

So the earliest an attorney can help is roughly two and a half months after someone decides to sort it out, and that is the smooth version.

When does it become too late?

The moment the person loses mental capacity — and that is the part with no date on it. GOV.UK states the requirement plainly: "you must be 18 or over and have mental capacity (the ability to make your own decisions) when you make your LPA."

An LPA is something a person does for themselves, while they still can. It is not something a family can arrange on their behalf once things have become difficult. That sequencing is what catches people, because the moment a family starts seriously discussing power of attorney is often the moment it has already become urgent — and sometimes a little past it.

There is no letter, no reminder from anyone, and no warning that the window is closing. Capacity can also decline gradually, or disappear overnight after a stroke or an accident. You cannot see the deadline coming, which is precisely why it belongs in a diary rather than in the back of your mind.

What happens if there isn't one?

The family applies to the Court of Protection to be appointed a deputy instead — a court order made after capacity has gone, rather than a document written before. GOV.UK's guidance confirms the relationship: "if the person already has a lasting power of attorney (LPA) or enduring power of attorney (EPA), they do not usually need a deputy."

The practical difference is substantial. Deputyship is a court process rather than a form, it costs considerably more, it takes longer, and a deputy is supervised and has to report on what they do. Meanwhile the person's bank accounts are frozen to everyone else, and bills, care fees and pensions still need paying.

None of that is a disaster you cannot get through. It is simply a much harder, slower and more expensive route to the same place — entered because nobody signed a form while they still could.

Which reminders are worth setting?

Two, and neither is a deadline in the usual sense:

• A conversation, on a date you choose. Not "when something happens" — an actual day. The subject is easier at a neutral moment than at a hospital bedside, and framing matters: this is paperwork both people do for each other, not something being arranged about somebody. Many people set theirs up alongside a will, in the same appointment.
• An annual check, once it exists. Confirm it was registered and not merely signed, that the attorneys named are still willing and still contactable, and that everyone knows where the document is. Attorneys move, fall out, and occasionally die first.

That first one is the whole post, really. The reminder is not for a deadline — it is for a conversation that otherwise waits for a crisis to introduce it.

If you are setting reminders on behalf of a parent, their number has to be added as a recipient and ReminderIt places a consent call to it before anything is delivered. That is deliberate. A topic like this one especially should arrive by agreement rather than as a surprise from a family member.

What this page is not

Legal advice, or a guide to filling the form in. It does not cover which type of LPA you need, who can be a certificate provider, how to choose attorneys, or what to do when family members disagree — and that last one is common enough to be worth naming.

The figures are GOV.UK's published ones for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems with different names and rules, and arrangements outside the UK differ entirely.

The Office of the Public Guardian publishes the forms and guidance free, and you can do it yourself. A solicitor is worth the fee where the family situation is complicated, where there is a business or property abroad, or where there is any doubt at all about capacity — because an LPA signed too late can be challenged, and challenged after the fact is the worst time to find out.

What a reminder does here is unusually small and unusually valuable: it puts a date on a conversation that has no date, in the only period when having it is still possible.

Source: GOV.UK — Make, register or end a lasting power of attorney (mental capacity requirement, when an LPA can be used, 8–10 week registration, £92 fee) and Become someone's deputy (when a deputy is needed and its relationship to an existing LPA).