The Difficulties with Deputyship

Our Client Experience Manager, Tracy Coghill, describes some the key difficulties that may arise if loved ones need to apply for a deputyship order to deal with your affairs. Tracy outlines a recent situation when our clients bitterly regretted that there was no valid LPA.

Since I published a series of articles in our newsletter discussing the use of LPAs, we have been pleased that so many clients are now putting into place this useful tool. Whether you want to involve a close relative in your finances or if you simply want to ensure that you control who makes decisions if you do lose mental capacity in future, the creation of an LPA has real value. In 2025, the fees charged for each LPA went up to £95, meaning that a couple would face a bill of £480 to each register a Health and Welfare and Property and Finance LPA. At a time when so many costs are rising, you might ask whether this should take priority. I wanted to share a recent case study that demonstrates why we believe that putting into place an LPA is an excellent investment in your future.

Mrs J had been living on her own for a number of years and was described by her family as ‘fiercely independent’. She enjoyed a good relationship with the CAM team and was in regular contact to ask questions about market events or the Chancellor’s latest pronouncements. Mrs J had a strong grasp of her cash flow and financial needs. She kept a tight budget and had simple needs but enjoyed treating family members at Christmas and on birthdays. We had raised the issue of an LPA regularly, but it was apparent that Mrs J was reluctant to entrust her niece and nephew with this responsibility. She was a private lady and inviting even her closest relatives into her personal affairs was something she found difficult to contemplate. We continued to raise the topic but Mrs J was very resistant and the high pressure tactics of a local solicitor to sell their expensive service for making LPA applications did not help. We even provided Mrs J with hard copies of the forms needed but it was clear that she did not see an LPA as being as important as her will.

For the past year or so, there was less contact from Mrs J; calls became very infrequent and we had rang her home and eventually sent several letters to enquire whether all was well. Sadly, we received no response. Out of the blue, we received a phone call from a Mrs B. Mrs B explained that she was Mrs J’s niece. Her aunt had suffered a serious stroke. She had been in hospital for nearly a month and had now been transferred to an occupational therapy unit. Sadly, it was very apparent that Mrs J would not be able to leave the unit and return home to life independently again. Her short term memory was very weak and even simple tasks such as getting dressed or showering required assistance. Mrs B had found our telephone number filed neatly with Mrs J’s valuation reports and wanted our help to raise money for the excellent care home that she and her husband had identified for Auntie while she began the process of selling the family home as required by their local authority. However, as we suspected, Mrs J had not put into place an LPA. Amongst her paperwork was a partially completed application, but this had never been filed. From what Mrs B told us, we had real doubts that her aunt had capacity to execute this LPA now and Mrs B confirmed that she also believed her aunt was too confused to understand financial or legal issues.

Reluctantly, we explained to Mrs B that before we or any of the other institutions that she would need to deal with would permit her to handle her aunt’s affairs she would need to apply for a deputyship order. This legal process would involve Mrs B or another close relative filling out four separate forms specified by the Court of Protection and collating supporting evidence including witness statements. This included an assessment that Mrs J lacked mental capacity under the Mental Health Act 2005 (some GPs will even charge for this assessment). She also needed to provide substantive evidence of her own identity and that of Mrs J. Finally, the fee of £412 needed to be paid on making the application. Once the paperwork was lodged with the Court of Protection, it generally takes six months for an order to be issued. Copies must then be provided to all the relevant third parties, such as estate agents, banks, and utility companies before Mrs B was legally authorised to take decisions on her aunt’s behalf.

As a busy working mother, this task was extremely onerous for Mrs B, but she ploughed on. However, there was to be further difficulty when she discovered that the house Mrs P had lived in was in fact held as tenants in common with her sister, an unusual and more complex arrangement than a joint tenancy. This mean that the process took even longer, lasting nearly 13 months and involving Mrs B attending a hearing in person and having further costs to cover for the hearing. Eventually, Mrs B had the deputyship order in hand. But in this time circumstances had changed and the place at the locally convenient and high-quality care home was not available anymore. The only home suitable was a 30-mile drive from Mrs B, adding a considerable ongoing burden to visiting her aunt and not being the sort of environment that her aunt would be really loved.

Once the deputyship order was obtained, Mrs B had to keep meticulous records to be filed with the Court of Protection annually. She also had to provide a security bond, a type of insurance needed to protect her aunt’s assets. Lastly, when Mrs B submitted her annual report, a supervision fee of £320 was payable each year. The financial and time cost of this was enormous and had a real impact on Mrs B’s life. This could also so easily have been avoided by putting into place LPAs.

Find out more about how LPAs work in practice by reading our Guide. Do get in touch with me if you have any questions that I can help with (tracy.coghill@city-asset.co.uk).