A power of attorney is a means by which one person (the
donor) can appoint another person or persons to act in the name of the donor.
The power of attorney can be either general in nature permitting the attorney
to carry out any act that the donor could have carried out personally (though
there are some minor exceptions to this), or it can be given for a specific
task.
Anyone who has legal capacity can give a power of
attorney. This means that the person giving the power of attorney must be over
the age of 18 years and must not be mentally incapable.
Once
granted a power of attorney can be revoked by the following-
-
specific
revocation by the donor
-
implied
revocation by the donor i.e. some act by the donor inconsistent with the
continuation of the power
-
death
of the donor
-
bankruptcy
of the donor
-
mental
incapacity of the donor (unless it is an
Enduring Power of
Attorney)
A general power of attorney can be created very easily.
You can download our form for this and all you will need to do is fill in the
name and address of both the donor (the person giving the power of attorney)
and the attorney (the person who will act as the attorney).
An attorney appointed under a general power of attorney
can do most things which the donor could have done personally. One important
exception to this is in connection with the donors functions as a trustee in
connection with the sale of a property.
When a house is owned jointly then the owners of this are trustees – though
often holding upon trust for themselves. The powers of the trustee can be
delegated under a power of attorney but these need to be dealt with
specifically rather than generally. Thus if the purpose of the Power of
Attorney is to enable a jointly owned property to be sold then the general
power is not suitable. You should use our specific form for the sale of
a jointly owned property. The joint owners cannot appoint each other and nor
can they appoint the same attorney.
Alternatively you can grant a Power of Attorney which
is limited to specific tasks. This would be convenient if, for example, the
donor was going abroad for a long period of time and wanted someone to be able
to carry out certain tasks but did not want to give them complete control over
the donors affairs.
| General Power appointing a sole attorney |
£5
|
|
| General Power appointing joint attorneys |
£5 |
|
| Power appointing attorney by one of
joint owners of a property (registered land) to deal with a sale |
£5
|
|
|
Specific Power of Attorney
|
£5 |
|
The
documents downloaded from this web site will be in the form of a Zip file. Once downloaded it will unzip to a Word
document. You will need a zip utility to unzip the document - Windows XP
contains a built in utility. Alternatively shareware versions suitable for
unzipping a file can be obtained from the Internet - for example, click the Winzip
button at the side of this page.
The
documents available on this site have been prepared for use in England &
Wales. They may not be valid if used in other areas.
