Selling a House with Power of Attorney: A Guide for Families

Yes. If your parent or relative has made a property and financial affairs lasting power of attorney (LPA) and it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), the attorneys named in it can sell their home on their behalf. This is one of the most common reasons families use an LPA, very often because the home needs to be sold to pay for care.

The sale itself works much like any other house sale. The difference is that you sign the paperwork as attorney, and there are some extra checks and rules to make sure the sale is in the owner’s best interests. Handled properly from the start, none of this needs to slow things down.

We are conveyancing solicitors in Scunthorpe and Goole, and we regularly act for families selling a parent’s home under an LPA across North Lincolnshire and the East Riding. This guide explains what is involved.

• The right type of LPA. Only a property and financial affairs LPA covers selling a home. A health and welfare LPA does not, even if the same people are named in it.
• A registered LPA. An LPA cannot be used until the OPG has registered it. If it was signed but never registered, it needs registering before the sale can go ahead.
• The original LPA or a certified copy. We need to see it, and it is used as evidence when the sale is registered at HM Land Registry. We can prepare certified copies so the original stays safe.
• Identification for every attorney who is acting, as with any property sale.

It is also worth reading the LPA itself before you put the house on the market. Check whether it contains any instructions that limit what the attorneys can do, and how the attorneys were appointed: if they must act jointly, every attorney has to agree and sign; if they can act jointly and severally, any one of them can deal with the sale.

As an attorney you must act in the owner’s best interests, not your own or the wider family’s. In practice that means:

• Selling at a fair price. Get proper valuations and market the property properly. A sale below market value can be challenged, and it can also cause problems with care funding.
• Involving your relative as far as they are able, and taking their wishes and feelings into account.
• Keeping their money separate. The sale proceeds belong to the owner and must be paid into their own account, never into an attorney’s account.
• Keeping records of the sale and of what the money is used for.

Take advice before going any further if you, or another family member, would like to buy the house yourself, or if anyone suggests selling it cheaply or giving it away. An attorney benefiting from a sale is a conflict of interest, and this kind of transaction may need the approval of the Court of Protection.

Many of the sales we handle under an LPA happen because a parent has moved into a care home. A few points are worth knowing before you decide to sell:

• The 12 week property disregard. In England, when someone moves permanently into a care home, the council ignores the value of their former home for the first 12 weeks of the financial assessment. That gives the family some breathing space.
• Deferred payment agreements. Instead of selling straight away, it may be possible to ask the council to defer the care costs, secured against the home, and repay them later, for example when the house is eventually sold.
• When the home is not counted at all. The value of the home is usually disregarded if a husband, wife or partner still lives there, or certain other relatives such as one aged 60 or over.
• An empty house needs attention. Tell the home insurer that the property is empty, as standard policies often have conditions for unoccupied homes, and keep it secure and maintained while it is on the market.

Selling at a fair market price and keeping clear records also helps if questions are later raised about how the home and the money from it were dealt with.

Yes, an attorney can sell property while the owner is alive, as long as the LPA is registered and the sale is in the owner’s best interests. What surprises many families is that an LPA ends immediately when the owner dies.

If a parent dies before the sale has completed, the attorneys can no longer sign or complete it. Instead the sale has to be completed by the executors named in the will, or by the administrators if there is no will, once they have the grant of probate. That can add months. If your parent is very unwell, tell us at the outset so we can plan the timetable with that in mind. Our probate team can help if the worst does happen part way through.

Where the home is owned jointly, for example by a husband and wife, there are extra legal steps. A sale of jointly owned land normally needs the sale money to be received by at least two trustees, so if you are both the attorney and the other owner, a second trustee may need to be appointed before the sale can complete. We check how the property is owned at the very start, so this never comes as a surprise near exchange.

If your relative still has mental capacity, they can sell their own home in the normal way, and we can arrange for them to sign the paperwork with the right support. It is also a good moment for them to make an LPA, so the family is not left stuck later. See our power of attorney page.

If they have already lost capacity and there is no LPA, nobody in the family can sell the home on their behalf, however close they are. The family will need to apply to the Court of Protection for a deputy to manage their property and financial affairs, and the deputyship order needs to give authority to sell. This can take several months, so it is best to start as soon as possible.

If your relative made an enduring power of attorney before October 2007, that can still be used, but if they are losing or have lost capacity it must be registered with the OPG before it can be relied on to sell.

1. We check the paperwork. We look at the LPA, how the property is owned and anything else that could affect the sale, and tell you straight away if something needs sorting.
2. You choose an estate agent and agree a price, with the owner’s best interests in mind.
3. We handle the legal work as on any sale: the contract, the buyer’s questions, and dealing with any mortgage on the property.
4. You sign as attorney. We prepare the documents for the attorneys to sign on the owner’s behalf and explain exactly where and how.
5. Exchange and completion. The sale money is paid to the owner’s own account, and we send the evidence of the LPA to HM Land Registry with the transfer.

Our conveyancing fees for a sale are shown up front, with no hidden extras. Use our conveyancing fees calculator for an instant quote.

Selling a parent’s home is rarely just a property transaction. It often comes at a difficult time, alongside care decisions and family worries. Our conveyancing team in Scunthorpe and our Goole office deal with sales under a power of attorney regularly, and because our Wills & Probate team works alongside us, questions about the LPA, care funding or probate can be answered under one roof.

Call us or send your details for a free, no obligation chat about the sale, at our Scunthorpe or Goole office, by phone or by video.