Power of Attorney, do we need to do it again?

The gas company, I hope, and urgently.

I support an elderly friend who is nearly 91. He has full capacity. Lives independently. Not as mobile as he was....lots gone on there. I have consent to help wth his medical things..of which there is usually some sort of drama...but recently he's crashed his car into his closed garage and now I'm sorting out all that! His POA is an 82 year old friend( poa not activated yet) who has no idea about any of this. His car just been taken away to see if insurers will pay, meanwhile he needs shopping etc. Iv been calling taxis to take him into town, of which he is now complaining how expensive they are . Oh and I forgot. He took his gas meter off the garage wall when he crashed his car and the road is now up as there was a suspect gas leak. Meter still laying on floor of garage . God knows who is sorting that!

I would have thought it quite a rare set of circumstances that husband and wife both lost capacity and at the same time. But no doubt its a consideration. DH and l have poa for one another and our 2 adult kids are our replacement attorneys. My feeling is you can't cover every eventuality all the time.

I think you are OK haddersmum if your first attorney has died then the replacements can step up.
In the case in the Times both parents, who were each others primary attorney, were still alive so that stopped the children from acting on their behalf.
I shouldn’t think this situation happens often but if anyone is thinking of making a POA it is worth thinking about. I’m sure that if a solicitor is used that will be pointed out but many use the government’s on line forms which don’t give much advice.

I have husband and two daughters on mine. My husband passed away last year, do I need to redo it, or can I leave it and daughters will be attorneys.

I agree, both my appointees are my children and my legal adviser suggested I have two back ups which I have done.

If you’re in Scotland please sort it out asap, we had a very difficult time with ours and ended up being paid quite a lot of compensation. Which didn’t really make up for all the stress …

Yes, that is the procedure.

My belief is that you cannot just add an extra attorney after it has been registered. We originally only named each other and one child as the other was unavailable. Circumstances changed and we wanted to include both children (and each other). We had to formally cancel the original power of attorney by making a Deed of Revocation and then make a completely new one

Yes.
Having more than one is obviously a good idea!

We have each other, too.

Wow, thank you for that! We only have one son acting as PoA. Circumstances were different when we last did our wills. Dh now phoning solicitors to make our other son a PoA, too. I LOVE this site!

witzend are they the primary attorneys?
Here is the relevant piece from the paper that caused our concern.

We did ours during the first lockdown IIRC, naming dds jointly and severally. We were both already 70+ so it seemed the obvious course.

we too have each other and our children...got it all sorted a few years ago when oh could still understand what he was signing

Well that didn’t work!

Pittcity

We have each other and our 3 children, jointly and severally on ours. Hopefully this will cover most eventualities.

This perhaps explains the dilemma better than I can.

i agreed to be a potential attorney for a relative when she was about to have a routine operation.
just so that was one thing she wouldn't worry about.
i really did not want to be.
the other one is much more capable, business-like, actually ran a business, and sensible, but lives overseas.
so i am stuck.
can't bring myself to tell relative i want to opt out.

We have each other and our 3 children, jointly and severally on ours. Hopefully this will cover most eventualities.

Always best to have attorneys who are younger, and more than one.