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If you accept appointment under a power of attorney, it is essential to understand the responsibilities this entails. A recent case shows what can happen if a less than thorough approach is taken. It dealt with arrangements made by a 95-year-old widower now suffering from Alzheimer's disease and resident in a care home. He had given his younger son an enduring power of attorney (EPA) in 2006, which was registered in 2013. The son acting as attorney under the EPA had for several years been his father's full-time carer and had paid...

It is a stressful and unhappy enough time when a loved one dies, but the anguish of those mourning the loss can be compounded when there are complications over payments to care homes which seem excessive. Recently, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) conducted a review of the charges made by care homes when a resident dies and it has now issued guidance on what charges are permissible. This follows the decision that the estates of residents of care homes run by a major care home group who moved in...

On our densely populated island, there is a pressing need for available land to be put to sensible use and, where restrictive covenants lurking in title deeds prevent that happening, they can be modified. In a case on point, a man's desire to provide a larger home for his growing family prevailed over his neighbours' objections. The case concerned a modest bungalow which sat on a large plot of semi-rural land in the Green Belt. Its owner, who has a wife and three small children, had obtained planning permission to...

A decision of the Supreme Court announced today has important implications for unmarried partners of people who have died. The case involved a woman from Northern Ireland who was denied Widowed Parent's Allowance (WPA) after her partner of 23 years passed away. WPA is available to those whose husband, wife or civil partner died before 6 April 2017 under certain conditions, one of which is that the surviving spouse must be claiming Child Benefit for at least one child  Had they been married, she would have been able to claim...