Is an online LPA legal?
Yes. An LPA is valid because it meets the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and is registered by the Office of the Public Guardian — not because of who typed it. Who prepares the form is legally irrelevant, whether that is you, us, or a solicitor.
Make your LPA online for £49
Answer simple questions. We prepare your LPA documents from your answers, ready for the next steps.
- £49 per LPA, or £79 for both types
- No solicitor required for straightforward LPAs
- Plain English questions, one screen at a time
- Save your progress and come back to it
- Checked for common completion errors as you go
- Review everything before you pay
The Office of the Public Guardian charges a separate £92 to register each LPA.
What actually makes an LPA valid
- The donor is 18 or over and has mental capacity when they sign
- The prescribed form is used, complete and in the right order
- The donor signs, witnessed, before the attorneys sign
- A qualifying certificate provider signs the capacity and understanding certificate
- Each attorney signs, witnessed by someone who is not an attorney
- Any people to notify are given notice on form LP3
- The Office of the Public Guardian registers it after the statutory waiting period
None of those steps mentions a solicitor. A solicitor-drafted LPA that gets the signing order wrong is rejected; a DIY LPA that gets everything right is registered.
A worked example
Tom prepares his LP1F using our guided service, answering the questions over two evenings. His neighbour, a retired teacher who is not a relative or business partner, acts as certificate provider. Tom signs first, witnessed by his wife; his neighbour signs next; his two attorneys sign last, witnessed by different independent adults. He posts the signed forms to the OPG with £92. Nothing about using an online service changed any of those legal requirements — they would have been identical had Tom used a blank paper form or a solicitor.
Signing order and witnessing, in full
The order matters because each signature depends on the one before it being valid. The donor signs first, in the presence of an independent witness (who cannot be an attorney). The certificate provider then signs, confirming the donor understood what they were signing and was not under pressure. Only after that do the attorneys sign, each witnessed by an adult who is not the donor. A replacement attorney signs the same way. Signing out of sequence — for example an attorney signing before the certificate provider — means the OPG will return the whole form.
- Witnesses must be 18 or over and cannot be an attorney on that LPA
- The donor's witness and the attorneys' witnesses can be different people
- A spouse or civil partner can witness, but an attorney cannot witness another attorney's signature
- Every signature needs a date, and dates should not be earlier than the one before it in the sequence
What "online" does and does not mean
Preparing an LPA online means the answers are collected digitally and the document is produced from them. The signing itself is still done on paper, by hand, with witnesses — there is no electronic signature route for LPAs in England and Wales, whoever you use.
Be sceptical of anyone promising a purely digital LPA
Wet-ink signatures and witnessing are statutory. Any service suggesting you can sign an LPA entirely on screen is misdescribing the law.
Timescale is the same whichever route you take
The Office of the Public Guardian applies the same four-week statutory notice period and roughly 8-10 week overall registration timescale regardless of who prepared the LPA. Preparing online does not speed up registration itself; its value is reducing the chance of a rejection that would restart the clock.
Legal validity, method by method
| Preparation method | Legally valid if signed correctly? | Signed on paper? |
|---|---|---|
| GOV.UK's free online tool | Yes | Yes |
| Our guided online service | Yes | Yes |
| Solicitor-drafted | Yes | Yes |
| Handwritten on a printed blank form | Yes | Yes |
The registration step, and who does it
Whoever prepares your LPA, registration is done by the same body in the same way: you (or we, on your behalf if you choose) send the signed LP1F and/or LP1H to the Office of the Public Guardian with the £92 fee per document. The OPG checks the form is complete and correctly signed, runs the four-week statutory notice period so anyone named on an LP3 can object, then stamps and returns it. No preparation route skips this step, and none can make it faster.
| Stage | Who is responsible |
|---|---|
| Answering the questions | You |
| Producing the document from your answers | GOV.UK's tool, us, or a solicitor |
| Signing in the correct order, witnessed | You, your certificate provider and your attorneys |
| Registering the signed document | The Office of the Public Guardian |
What we are, and are not
We are a document preparation service, not a law firm, and we are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We do not give legal advice about your circumstances. We ask the questions the forms need, check for common completion errors, and produce your documents and signing guide. Where the situation is complex — business assets, trusts, disputes, property abroad — we say so and recommend a solicitor.
More detail: what we do and do not do.
Common questions
Could an online LPA ever be less valid than a paper one?
No. Once printed, signed and witnessed correctly, a document produced from an online service is identical in law to one filled in by hand.
Does the OPG treat solicitor-drafted LPAs differently?
No. The OPG applies the same checklist to every LPA it receives, regardless of who prepared it.
Will banks accept an LPA prepared online?
Yes. Once registered, banks look at the registered LPA itself and the OPG's stamp, not at who prepared it.
Can an online LPA be challenged?
Any LPA can be challenged, usually on capacity or undue pressure at signing. The certificate provider's role exists to address that.
Does the OPG know which service prepared my LPA?
No, the registration form does not ask, and it makes no difference to how the application is assessed.
Read next
Where this fits
This page is part of LPA basics. The pages below take it further.
- Make an LPA online
The whole journey end to end: questions, documents, signing and registration.
- Solicitor, GOV.UK or online?
An honest comparison, including when you genuinely should pay a solicitor.
Ready to make your LPA?
Choose one LPA or both, then start online for £49 per LPA.
The Office of the Public Guardian charges a separate £92 to register each LPA.
This is general information about Lasting Powers of Attorney in England and Wales. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice about your situation. What we do and do not do.