The answer to this question really depends upon who is acting as your attorney and whether you have lost mental capacity or not.
If your partner, who is also on your application, is your Attorney, then the easy answer is no, you cannot proceed. You must both be independently advised when taking out an equity release. There may be an argument that there could potentially be an element of duress if your co-applicant is signing legal documentation on your behalf and therefore, the Lender would not proceed with your application on this basis.
If your Attorney is a third party then this will be fine but both you and your attorney will need to be separately advised to enable the legal documentation to be signed off. Your Attorney will also have to provide identification and we will need to take steps to ensure that there are no limitations on the Lasting Power of Attorney you are relying upon.
As a requirement, we would also have to be in receipt of the original Lasting Power of Attorney. We are not able to accept a certified copy. We must be able to provide an undertaking to your Lender’s solicitor that we hold the original document and can produce this should we be requested to do so by HM Land Registry when the Lender’s legal charge is registered. The original document will be returned to you upon completion of registration.
If you have not lost mental capacity, then you will be unable to rely upon an Attorney acting on your behalf unless your Lender advises that they are satisfied that there is a reasonable reason for this, such as a physical disability. You will, however, have to provide evidence of why you require an Attorney to act on your behalf.
If you have any questions about the use of Lasting Powers of Attorney then please do not hesitate to contact the team to make further enquiries.
