The Lemon Fool

What would be a reasonable fee for a local solicitor to prepare one?

Either a property one only or going for both.

Thanks

GG

I'd recommend doing it yourself, unless there are any complicated requirements. I did both in relation to my mother, and it was very straightforward with only the registration fees of £220.

P

I'd recommend doing it yourself, unless there are any complicated requirements. I did both in relation to my mother, and it was very straightforward with only the registration fees of £220.

P

Thanks, I didn't realise that was possible.

I'm in the South East, just north of the M25 - should have mentioned that in the first post.

GG

Would I be right in assuming the DIY route is via the HMRC website?

Thanks

GG

GarraGee wrote:Would I be right in assuming the DIY route is via the HMRC website?

Thanks

GG

You could start here https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview

GarraGee wrote:What would be a reasonable fee for a local solicitor to prepare one?

Either a property one only or going for both.

Thanks

GG

I went the DIY route for LPAs for my mum. Filling in the forms was a doddle, what took the time was reading all the bumph about it beforehand. Make sure you understand the implications of choosing between Jointly and Jointly-and-severally, try to minimise any documented demands and wishes, and make sure you get all the documents signed and dated by witnesses,, donor, attorneys, certificate providers, etc in the correct sequence. And get all the attorneys in first time around rather than try to add extra attorneys in at a later date.

My aunt had LPAs done by a solicitor around the same time (3-4 years ago) and she paid around £1000

--kiloran

PinkDalek wrote:You could start here https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview

That's where I started

kiloran wrote:I went the DIY route for LPAs for my mum. Filling in the forms was a doddle, what took the time was reading all the bumph about it beforehand. Make sure you understand the implications of choosing between Jointly and Jointly-and-severally, try to minimise any documented demands and wishes, and make sure you get all the documents signed and dated by witnesses,, donor, attorneys, certificate providers, etc in the correct sequence.

Fully agree. It took a while to get the forms all signed in the correct sequence with the various parties dispersed around the country

Thanks all. I have now have enough information to be confident in doing my own LPA's.

I already have a will with my two children as joint beneficiaries.

I now plan to name them as joint attorneys (I.e. not joint and several) after discussing this with them and ensuring they fully understand the implications.

Any other thoughts gratefully received.

GG

kiloran wrote:I went the DIY route for LPAs for my mum. Filling in the forms was a doddle, what took the time was reading all the bumph about it beforehand. Make sure you understand the implications of choosing between Jointly and Jointly-and-severally, try to minimise any documented demands and wishes, and make sure you get all the documents signed and dated by witnesses,, donor, attorneys, certificate providers, etc in the correct sequence. And get all the attorneys in first time around rather than try to add extra attorneys in at a later date.

My aunt had LPAs done by a solicitor around the same time (3-4 years ago) and she paid around £1000

As kiloran says, the actual preparation of the LPA's is fairly straightforward. The reason that solicitors' charges are relatively high is the amount of time that has to be spent actually ensuring that everything is completed properly, liaising with the people involved, completing the registration forms etc.

None of this work is particularly complex from a legal point of view, and most intelligent and literate lay people could deal with it themselves. But in my experience when I've mentioned to the people making the LPA's that they could deal with it themselves the usual response has been that they don't have the time and/or just don't want the hassle, and would rather pay someone to do it for them.

The new online forms are much quicker to complete than the old forms and the procedure has been considerably simplified, so charges have (or should have) reduced over the past couple of years. There's also a certain amount of duplication when preparing one of each type for the same person or for a husband and wife at the same time so you'd expect a bit of a discount.

I would expect that if you shopped around, and concentrated on smaller firms rather than large ones you could probably have a single LPA prepared professionally by a solicitor for around £250 including VAT, with two mirror image ones coming in at about £450. The registration fees of £110 per LPA would also be payable.

Clitheroekid wrote:I would expect that if you shopped around, and concentrated on smaller firms rather than large ones you could probably have a single LPA prepared professionally by a solicitor for around £250 including VAT, with two mirror image ones coming in at about £450. The registration fees of £110 per LPA would also be payable.

As it happens we've just been quoted almost exactly that by a small local firm.

I sorted both LPAs last year for my mother. I received quotes from solicitors ranging from £500 to £2,000 plus registration fees. I took the lowest quote and this included a visit to my mother in order that a solicitor could explain everything. Totally satisfied with service my mother received - though have to say the procedure is very straightforward and any practice quoting in excess of £1,000 is a rip-off.

Those folk at Which? are running a promotion until the month-end involving a punter paying them 70 quid for each type of PoA. I imagine it's effective as some sort of sanity check for DIYers who'd like that extra pair of eyes cast over their own efforts but I have no idea how bullet-proof they might be for a Clapham omnibus passenger - and such documents don't usually get field-tested until it's too late to revise them:
http://willsoffers.which.co.uk/MLP

Cheers!