England and Wales only. Published Mon 24th Aug 2026. This describes the process and is not legal advice.
A lasting power of attorney is made while you are well, for a day you hope never comes. This article is about what happens on that day if the document was never made: who can act, who cannot, what the court route involves, and what it costs in money and months. It covers England and Wales only, and it explains the process rather than giving legal advice.
When someone loses the capacity to manage their own affairs and there is no registered lasting power of attorney, nobody has the authority to step in. Not a husband or wife, not a son or daughter. Banks, pension providers and hospitals do not take instructions from relatives on the strength of the relationship; they take them from a document, and there is no document.
Government guidance on managing another person's bank account lists what a bank will accept as authority: a third-party mandate, which can only be set up by someone who still has capacity; a registered lasting or enduring power of attorney; or a court order. Where there is a joint account, the guidance says the bank "can decide whether or not to temporarily restrict the use of the account to essential transactions only" until a deputy is appointed or a power of attorney registered.
So the household keeps the lights on, usually, and everything else stops. Savings cannot be moved. A house cannot be sold to fund care. A poorly performing account cannot be switched. The family is left chasing institutions that are, correctly, refusing to act.
The only way to get that authority after the event is to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a deputy. The gov.uk guide puts it in one line: you can apply to be someone's deputy if they "lack mental capacity", meaning they cannot make a decision for themselves at the time it needs to be made, and they do not already have a lasting or enduring power of attorney.
There are two types of deputy, mirroring the two types of lasting power of attorney. A property and financial affairs deputy deals with money, bills, pensions and property. A personal welfare deputy makes decisions about medical treatment and care. The court appoints personal welfare deputies far less readily; the guide says it will usually only do so where there is doubt that decisions are being made in the person's best interests, or where someone needs authority to make decisions on an ongoing basis. In most cases, health decisions stay with the professionals treating the person, acting in their best interests.
The application is paperwork, evidence and waiting. Someone has to assess and certify the person's lack of capacity. The application and its supporting forms go to the court with the fee. The person the application is about, and other people with an interest, have to be told and given the chance to object. Then the court considers it. If anyone objects, it becomes a disputed case and the timescale opens up.
The fees below are taken from gov.uk and were correct when checked on Sat 22nd Aug 2026.
Reductions and exemptions exist for people on certain benefits or with income under £12,000, and a property and affairs deputy can usually reclaim the fees from the funds of the person they act for. That is still money leaving the estate of someone who can no longer consent to it. The application fee is refunded if the person dies within five days of the court receiving the application, which tells you something about how often this route is started too late.
For comparison, registering a lasting power of attorney costs £92 per document, and the person making it chooses everything.
Gov.uk does not publish a timescale for deputyship applications. Solicitors who handle them do, and the figures they give are consistent: months, not weeks. One firm's guide says "it can take up to 6 months from the application being issued to deputyship being granted", and notes that it can take "a number of months" before that to get the application together, much of it waiting for a professional to complete the capacity assessment.
So a realistic picture is half a year or more from the moment a family realises they need authority to the moment they have it, and longer if anyone objects or the court lists a hearing. During that time the restrictions in the first section of this article stay in place.
This is the part families find hardest. Under a lasting power of attorney, you name your attorneys and how they act. Under deputyship, the court decides whether a deputy is needed at all and who it will be.
Gov.uk says deputies "are usually close relatives or friends of the person who needs help making decisions", and in practice a suitable family member who applies is often appointed. But the court can refuse, and it can hear objections from other relatives. Some deputies are professionals paid to do the job: accountants, solicitors, or a representative of the local authority. And where nobody suitable comes forward, "the Court of Protection can appoint a specialist deputy (called a 'panel deputy') from a list of approved law firms and charities if no one else is available."
A panel deputy is a stranger, acting properly and charging for it, managing the affairs of someone who would probably have preferred their daughter.
A deputy's authority is whatever the court order says it is, and no more. The order can be narrow, limited to a pension or a mortgage, for instance. Acting outside it means going back to court. The deputy is supervised by the Office of the Public Guardian, pays the annual fee for that supervision, keeps records, and reports on what they have done. It is a formal, audited role held under a court order, for as long as the person lacks capacity.
None of that is wrong. The court exists to protect people who cannot protect themselves, and it does. The point is that all of it is the substitute for a decision the person could have made themselves, in their own kitchen, for £92 a document, while they were well.
With a registered lasting power of attorney: you choose the people, you choose how they act, it costs £92 per document to register, it takes somewhere between 8 and 20 weeks, and it waits in a drawer until needed.
Without one: the family applies to the Court of Protection, pays £432 per application plus assessment and possibly hearing fees, waits months, accepts the court's choice of deputy, and pays supervision fees every year for as long as the order lasts.
Everything a lasting power of attorney contains, and how to make one, is in the complete guide to lasting power of attorney in England and Wales. If you would rather have it prepared and checked by a person before you sign, that is what Power of Attorney Service does.
Power of Attorney Service is a trading name of Dead Easy Legal Ltd, registered in England and Wales.