A general power of attorney lets you appoint someone to manage your money and property on your behalf while you still have mental capacity. It is a short-term, practical arrangement: the sort of thing you set up when you are going abroad for six months, going into hospital, or want someone to complete a property sale for you.
It is also the power of attorney that most often gets confused with the one people are thinking of. A general power of attorney stops being usable the moment you lose mental capacity – which is precisely the situation most people are trying to protect against when they start looking into powers of attorney at all. Gov.uk is blunt about it: an ordinary power of attorney is something “you can only use this while they have mental capacity” (gov.uk – Make decisions on behalf of someone).
If you want cover for losing capacity, you need a lasting power of attorney. Many people benefit from having both, for different reasons. This guide explains what a general power of attorney does, what it costs, and how to tell which document your situation calls for.
The short answer
| General (ordinary) power of attorney | Lasting power of attorney (LPA) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Property and financial affairs only | Property and financial affairs, health and welfare, or both (two separate documents) |
| When it can be used | Only while you have mental capacity | Continues, or begins, when you lose mental capacity |
| Registration | None with the Office of the Public Guardian | Must be registered before it can be used |
| Government fee | None | £92 per LPA |
| Time to set up | Days – it works once signed as a deed | 8 to 10 weeks for registration |
| Typical use | A house sale while you are overseas; banking during a hospital stay | Long-term protection if dementia, stroke or injury takes away your capacity |
The LPA figures above come from gov.uk – Registering your LPA (verified September 2026).
What a general power of attorney lets your attorney do
The person granting the power is the donor. The person receiving it is the attorney. There is no requirement for the attorney to be a lawyer – most people appoint a spouse, an adult child, a sibling or a close friend.
The standard version is set out in statute. Section 10 of the Powers of Attorney Act 1971 provides a short form, printed at Schedule 1 of the Act, and says a general power of attorney in that form “shall operate to confer authority to do on behalf of the donor anything which he can lawfully do by an attorney.”
In practice that covers things like:
- operating your bank and savings accounts, and paying your bills
- collecting income due to you
- dealing with your investments
- signing documents relating to a property sale or purchase
- corresponding with HMRC or other organisations about your affairs
Two boundaries matter. The first is capacity, covered below. The second is written into the legislation: section 10(2) excludes functions you hold as a trustee, as a personal representative, or as a tenant for life or statutory owner under the Settled Land Act 1925. That exclusion reaches further than it sounds like it would, because jointly owned property in England and Wales is generally held on trust. If you co-own your home and want an attorney to handle a sale, raise it with a conveyancing solicitor early rather than discovering the problem at exchange.
You can also make the power narrower than the statutory form. It can be limited to one transaction, one account, or a fixed number of months. That is a drafting question for a solicitor, and it is usually the safer choice if you only want help with one specific thing.
How to set one up
There is no application to submit and no waiting period. The document has to be executed as a deed by the donor – that requirement comes from section 1 of the Powers of Attorney Act 1971, which states that “an instrument creating a power of attorney shall be executed as a deed by the donor of the power.” Executing a deed in England and Wales normally means signing in the presence of a witness who also signs.
Gov.uk’s guidance says the person appointing you “needs to buy a document from a newsagent or use a solicitor” (gov.uk – Make decisions on behalf of someone). Both routes exist, and the difference in cost is small next to what can go wrong. A solicitor will check that the scope matches what you want, that the execution is valid, and that the wording will satisfy a bank’s legal team. You can search for a regulated firm through the Law Society’s Find a Solicitor service.
Once signed, expect to send certified copies to each organisation your attorney will deal with. Banks in particular run their own checks before they will accept a power of attorney on an account, and they may take a week or two to process it. Building that delay into your plans is worth doing if there is a completion date or a flight involved.
Why it ends when you lose capacity
This is the part that catches people out, so here is exactly why it happens.
An LPA works after capacity is lost because Parliament specifically legislated for it. Section 9 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 defines a lasting power of attorney as one where the authority “includes authority to make such decisions in circumstances where P no longer has capacity.” That durability is the whole point of the document, and it is why an LPA has to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, certified by an independent person, and witnessed before it can be used.
A general power of attorney carries none of that machinery, and it gets none of that durability. Gov.uk sets it out under short-term help, usable “only while they have mental capacity” (gov.uk – Make decisions on behalf of someone).
The consequence is worth spelling out. If your only power of attorney is a general one and you have a stroke, your attorney cannot keep using it. Your accounts are likely to be frozen once the bank learns of your condition. Nobody in your family gains an automatic right to step in. Someone would then have to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your deputy: the application fee is £432, the process takes months, and a deputy is supervised and has to report annually. Our guide to Court of Protection deputyship covers the forms, the costs, and what the role involves in practice.
Set against that, £92 and a ten-week wait for an LPA looks like a bargain. A general power of attorney is a useful tool for a defined job. It was never designed to be the safety net, and using it as one leaves your family without cover at the exact moment they need it.
When a general power of attorney is the right choice
There are situations where it fits well:
- You are going abroad for an extended period. Someone at home needs to keep your finances running, deal with a tenant, or complete a sale that was already in progress.
- You are going into hospital for a planned procedure. You expect to recover fully, but you will be out of action for weeks and bills still need paying.
- A physical condition makes it hard to manage day to day. Mobility problems, sight loss or a broken wrist can make banking and paperwork difficult while leaving your decision-making entirely intact.
- One specific transaction needs completing. A property sale, a share transfer, closing an estate account.
What these have in common is that the difficulty is practical – you are away, or laid up, or unable to get to the bank. Your ability to decide things for yourself is unaffected.
There is a scenario where the choice needs more thought. If you have had a diagnosis of a condition that may affect capacity later – early-stage dementia, for example – a general power of attorney can help right now with the practical load, but it will fall away as the condition progresses. In that situation the priority is putting an LPA in place while you still have the capacity to make one, because the window for doing so closes. Then use a general power of attorney alongside it if you want someone to help with a particular task in the meantime.
If there is any question over whether you currently have capacity to grant either document, get a solicitor involved. Capacity is assessed decision by decision, and a diagnosis on its own does not settle it.
Having both documents
Holding a general power of attorney and an LPA at the same time is common and causes no conflict. They do separate jobs:
- The general power handles a defined task now, without a registration wait.
- The LPA sits registered in the background, ready if capacity is ever lost.
If you are already going to the trouble of instructing a solicitor for one, ask about the other in the same appointment. Most firms will quote for both together, and the conversation about who you would trust to act for you is the same conversation either way. Many people arrange these documents at the same time as making a will, which deals with what happens after death rather than during your lifetime.
Ending a general power of attorney
You can revoke it whenever you like, as long as you still have capacity. Do it in writing, tell your attorney, and tell every organisation holding a copy.
That last step is not a formality. The Powers of Attorney Act 1971 protects an attorney who acts without knowing the power has been revoked, and protects third parties who deal with them in good faith (Powers of Attorney Act 1971, section 5). A bank that has never been told the power ended may reasonably keep honouring instructions given under it. Retrieving the copies you handed out, and writing to everyone who holds one, is what closes it off cleanly.
The power also comes to an end automatically when the donor dies. At that point authority over the estate passes to the executors named in the will, or to the administrators if there is no will – see our guide to probate for what happens next.
Scotland and Northern Ireland
The law described above applies in England and Wales.
In Scotland, powers of attorney are governed by the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000. A financial power that is intended to survive incapacity is a continuing power of attorney, and section 15 of that Act requires the document to contain a statement clearly expressing the granter’s intention that the power should continue (Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, section 15). A document without that statement does not carry authority beyond incapacity. A Scottish solicitor should draft anything you rely on north of the border.
In Northern Ireland, financial powers of attorney operate under a separate framework administered through the Office of Care and Protection at the High Court. Contact that office or a Northern Ireland solicitor for the current position before relying on any form drafted for England and Wales.
Where to go next
If you are working out which document you need, our guide to lasting power of attorney covers the two LPA types, the registration process, the fee reductions available on low incomes, and what happens if you never make one. For decisions about medical treatment specifically, advance decisions explains how a legally binding refusal of treatment works. And if capacity has already been lost without an LPA in place, Court of Protection deputyship sets out the route available.
More on getting your affairs in order is on our planning ahead hub.