What if the OPG rejects your LPA?

Guidance from Estate Advisory Group

Rejections come with an explanation. Some faults can be corrected; others mean the whole document must be signed again.

Fixable versus fatal

ProblemUsual outcome
Missing fee or evidenceSend it — no re-signing needed
Unclear instruction in section 7May be severed by the court, or re-sign
Missing continuation sheetDepends; often re-sign
Signatures in the wrong orderRe-sign the whole LPA
Ineligible certificate providerRe-sign the whole LPA
Attorney witnessed the donorRe-sign the whole LPA

Will you pay again?

If the application is returned before it is processed, the fee is usually not consumed. If it was processed and the LPA cannot be registered, expect to pay the £92 again on resubmission. Either way you lose the time.

Reducing the risk to near zero

Every fault on that list is a completion error, not a legal judgement. That is why our service checks certificate provider and attorney eligibility before you print, runs a consistency check across the whole document, and issues a signing pack with names, pages and dates. See common LPA mistakes.

We cannot promise acceptance

No service can guarantee OPG registration, because the OPG makes its own decisions. What we can do is check for the errors that cause most rejections.

Common questions

Can the OPG remove a bad instruction and register the rest?

The Court of Protection can sever an invalid provision, but it adds delay. Avoiding troublesome wording in the first place is much simpler.

How will I be told?

The OPG writes to the applicant, returning the document with the reason.

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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