What happens if you have no LPA?
Guidance from Estate Advisory Group
Written and legally reviewed by Ramani Gill TEP, Solicitor and private client practitioner·Last reviewed 13 August 2026
The common assumption is that a spouse or child can simply step in. In England and Wales they cannot: "next of kin" carries no legal authority over money or medical decisions.
What families run into
- Frozen accounts. A bank will not let a spouse or child manage a sole account, even to pay the donor's own care home bill. Joint accounts can be restricted too.
- Property cannot be sold. Selling a home to fund care requires legal authority nobody has.
- No say on treatment or care. Doctors must act in the patient's best interests and should consult the family, but the decision is theirs, not the family's.
- Pensions and benefits stall, sometimes requiring separate appointee applications.
It is too late once capacity is gone
Deputyship: the fallback
Without an LPA, someone must apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed deputy. Compared with an LPA it is:
- Slower — commonly several months, sometimes longer, with an emergency order needed if bills cannot wait.
- More expensive — a court application fee, an assessment of capacity, an annual supervision fee and a security bond, typically running to several hundred pounds up front and continuing costs each year.
- More intrusive — deputies file annual reports on everything they spend.
- Not the donor's choice — the court decides who is appointed, and if relatives disagree it can appoint a professional deputy paid from the donor's own funds.
Health and welfare deputyships are rarer still; the court usually prefers to make one-off decisions rather than hand over ongoing authority, which is why a Health & Welfare LPA is difficult to replicate after the fact.
The comparison in one line
An LPA costs £92 to register and lets the donor choose. Deputyship costs several times that, takes months, recurs annually, and lets a court choose. See the full cost comparison.
What about a will?
A will only takes effect on death and gives nobody authority during the donor's lifetime. An LPA covers the gap between losing capacity and dying — a period that can last years. They do different jobs, and having one is no substitute for the other.
Review and sources
Reviewed by Ramani Gill TEP, Solicitor and private client practitioner. Last reviewed 13 August 2026. We recheck fees, forms and Office of the Public Guardian guidance whenever they change — see our editorial policy.
Official sources
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This is general information about how Lasting Powers of Attorney work in England and Wales. It is not legal advice about your situation. What we do and do not do.
Published by Estate Advisory Group