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Last year there were several threads about Power of Attorney, but I think most of the contributors were resident in England/Wales.
I have just received the Certificates of Registration for ours (me and OH) so for the benefit of anyone in Scotland thinking of doing it, here is my experience.
The principle is the same as in England, the method is similar, the legal terminology is different and the cost is less. The main difference is that there are two types of attorney - one for financial affairs and one for welfare. In Scotland these can be combined into one, so there is only one payment.
I started by googling and found the website of the Office of the Public Guardian, which was brilliant. They were also easy to contact by phone and very helpful when I wasn't sure what to put on the forms.
It falls into 3 parts - the statement, the certificate and the personal details.
All can be downloaded from the website and printed off after completion. There are also flow charts and instructions in non-legal English. I was told that the whole idea is to make it much easier for people to prepare the forms themselves thus saving a lot of the cost, which tends to put us off.
The statement is details of the powers you want your attorney to have. The example lists every conceivable thing you can think of, so I just went through it deleting the bits that weren't applicable (like arranging training for future employment!). The only thing I had to add was a bit about who should determine whether I was compos mentis or not. I rang them up about this and was told it could be anyone from OH to the whole social services and court hearings. It all depends on how much you trust your attorney.
The statement needs a witness, but as it has to be signed in the presence of the doctor/solicitor signing the certificate, we used the doctor as our witness. The certificate is to say that we are in full possession of our faculties, were aware of what we were doing and not being coerced in any way.
We know our doctor well and he was telling us about other cases where patients had left it too late/not done it at all and the problems that arose.
The personal details are simply forms with names, addresses etc of the various attorneys. We have each other as main attorney and our two sons as joint substitute attorneys.
The other main question is cost. Doing it yourself is a lot cheaper than employing a solicitor. In our case the registration fee is currently £73.50 each. The doctor wasn't sure what to charge, and came to the conclusion that each GP had his own ideas on the matter!! He said his usual charge for this sort of thing was £90.00 each, but as he knew us and didn't need to do a full blown interview to determine our mental capacity, he would only charge one fee.
So, total cost £237.00. Much better than using a solicitor.
I hope this is of some interest and may help to persuade those of you who are wondering whether to give it a go, to get stuck in and do it. It's nothing like as difficult as it seems.
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That's much cheaper than it cost OH to have his done for finances only
Gave me a fright when he was in hospital and they were wanting him to be put in a home , we didn't do one for health and I was told his ,and my wishes on his behalf to to have him home could be overruled and he could be put in a home
Did get him home eventually but was only for a short while ,but at least he got to come home which was want he wanted
Through the solicitor I think he paid well over £600 for it to be done and registered
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I think solicitors are expensive everywhere. My parents had a family solicitor for years. When they first knew him he was a junior partner, but by the time it came to proving wills he was the senior partner and near retirement.
My sister asked why our stepmother's will was being done by a junior partner and was told that she only charged £40.00 an hour, whereas the senior partner charged £200.00 an hour. :-0 :-0
Nuff said!!
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