Office of the Public Guardian: EPOAR and more

As advised last month, all fees payable to the Office of the Public Guardian will increase from 25 April 2018, with the principal fee for applications rising to £77.

Changes are being brought in to EPOAR terms and conditions. These include:

• An agent may authorise one or more data entry users, each having their own individual account.
• The agent must provide an email address of the granter, to which they permit electronic transmission of the copy PoA document. If no such address can be provided, the agent must seek permission from the granter for their firm’s email address to be used instead. Failing that, the PoA paperwork and payment require to be submitted postally. The same applies in respect of any specified persons authorised to receive a copy of the PoA document.
• The agent must delete the account of any user or administrator who will no longer have cause to transact with the EPOAR system.

New sole/joint attorneys will soon be required to sign a declaration outlining the obligations of the attorney role, to confirm that they acknowledge and accept their role.

OPG provides an expedited registration service where there is a genuine need for a PoA to be urgently processed due to the granter’s circumstances. You can request this service by completing a form available from the website. If OPG considers the request to be urgent, it will be processed within five working days.

Note that PoA processing times have radically reduced. The expedited service should only be used for PoAs that need to be processed urgently.

The Accountant of Court wishes to clear up a general misunderstanding in relation to inheritance due to minors, that parents somehow do not require to seek direction if they also happen to be the executor. As it is their role as executor that is relevant, they do require to seek a direction. The only exception is if the deceased left trust provisions for the child in their will and the trustees are prepared to act. Queries can be emailed to funds@scotcourts.gov.uk