If a person in your life can no longer manage their own financial affairs or personal welfare, it is often necessary to appoint a Deputyship to be responsible for the vulnerable person.
If there is no LPA in place, and you lose mental capacity, then no one, not even your spouse, has authority to deal with your financial affairs on your behalf. The only option then available to your family or friends is for one or more of them to make an application for a court of protection deputyship.
At Crombie Wilkinson, we can help you with a court of protection deputy application or help you with your duties if you are already a deputy. Contact our court of protection solicitors in York, Malton, Selby and Pickering for more information and to see how we can help, or alternatively you can fill out our online form to the right.
Our experienced team of solicitors can help you in all matters regarding court of protection deputyships. This includes if:
Call our Court of Protection solicitors today if you have any questions; or alternatively you can fill out our contact form.
Our solicitors can help and provide expert guidance with many of your court of protection powers and duties, including:
Paying for care
Applying for Statutory Wills.
Completing Tax Returns.
Decisions regarding healthcare.
Submitting your annual report to the Office of the Public Guardian
A deputy can be appointed for property and affairs decisions, but it is highly unlikely that the Court of Protection will appoint a Deputy for personal welfare decisions.
Anyone can apply to be a deputy. This may mean that the person looking after your affairs or making personal welfare decisions is not the person you would have chosen yourself.
The application to be appointed as a Deputy can take anything from three to six months, depending on the circumstances. Even extremely urgent court of protection applications can take around six weeks to be considered and dealt with. A deputyship application can only be made if someone has lost mental capacity. If a person is suffering from early stage dementia they should prepare and register LPAs for property and finance and personal welfare instead.
The proposed deputy has no authority to act for the incapable person until the order is issued by the court.
Court involvement is more onerous for Deputies. A Deputy has to provide annual reports/accounts to the court and confirm what and why key decisions were made during each financial year. The court can also send a court visitor to meet with the Deputy and the incapable person to ensure the Deputy is carrying out correctly their role and responsibilities.
The court fees for making a court of protection deputyship application far exceed the court costs of registering an LPA and it is likely that the professional fees for preparing and registering an LPA are less expensive than those involved with a deputyship application. The initial court fee for a deputy application is £400, whereas it costs £110 to register an LPA. A deputy is also required to take out an insurance bond.
The premiums for such bond depend on the value of the assets they will be dealing with. This is payable annually out of your assets. There are also ongoing costs with a deputyship. Deputies are subject to supervisions at different levels with lower rate charges of £175 per year up to the higher rate of £800 per year.
Please contact a member of our Private Client team to discuss deputyships and a Lasting Power of Attorney.
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