Powers of Attorney Act, 1996

FIRST SCHEDULE

Notification prior to Registration

Sections 9 , 10 , 14 .

PART I

Duty to give Notice to Donor and Other Persons

Duty to give Notice to Donor

1. (1) Subject to subparagraph (2), before making an application for registration the attorney shall give notice of intention to do so to the donor.

(2) Paragraph 4 (2) shall apply in relation to the donor as it applies in relation to a person who is entitled to receive notice under this Schedule.

Duty to give Notice to Other Persons

2. (1) Subject to paragraph 4

(a) if regulations under section 5 (2) have required notice of the execution of an enduring power of attorney to be brought to the attention of specified persons, the attorney shall, before making an application for registration, give notice of intention to do so to those persons;

(b) if any of those persons is dead or mentally incapable or his or her whereabouts cannot be reasonably ascertained, the attorney shall give notice of intention to make such an application to the other person or persons, and

(c) if all those persons are dead or mentally incapable or their whereabouts cannot be reasonably ascertained, the attorney shall, before making such an application, give notice of intention to do so to the persons (if any) who are entitled to receive notice by virtue of paragraph 3.

(2) When giving notice pursuant to subparagraph (1) the attorney shall also give notice to the Registrar of Wards of Court of intention to apply to the court for registration of the enduring power.

3. (1) Subject to the limitations contained in subparagraphs (2) to (4), persons of the following classes are entitled to receive notice under paragraph 2 (1) (c):

(a) the donor's husband or wife;

(b) the donor's children;

(c) the donor's parents;

(d) the donor's brothers and sisters, whether of the whole or half blood;

(e) the widow or widower of a child of the donor;

(f) the donor's grandchildren;

(g) the children of the donor's brothers and sisters of the whole blood;

(h) the children of the donor's brothers and sisters of the half blood.

(2) A person is not entitled to receive notice under this paragraph if the name or address of that person is not known to and cannot be reasonably ascertained by the attorney.

(3) Except where subparagraph (4) applies, no more than three persons are entitled to receive notice by virtue of this paragraph and, in determining the persons who are so entitled, persons falling within class (a)of subparagraph (1) are to be preferred to persons falling within class (b) of that subparagraph, persons falling within class (b) are to be preferred to persons falling within class (c) of that subparagraph; and so on.

(4) Notwithstanding the limit of three specified in subparagraph (3), where—

(a) there is more than one person falling within any of classes (a) to (h) of subparagraph (1), and

(b) at least one of those persons would be entitled to receive notice by virtue of this paragraph,

then, subject to subparagraph (2), all the persons falling within that class are entitled to receive notice by virtue of this paragraph.

4. (1) An attorney shall not be required to give notice under paragraph 2 to himself or herself or to any other attorney under the power who is joining in making the application, notwithstanding that he or she or, as the case may be, the other attorney is entitled to receive notice by virtue of paragraph 3.

(2) In the case of any person who is entitled to receive notice under this Schedule, the attorney, before applying for registration, may make an application to the court to be dispensed from the requirement to give that person notice; and the court may grant the application if it is satisfied—

(a) that it would be undesirable or impracticable for the attorney to give such notice; or

(b) that no useful purpose is likely to be served by giving it.

PART II

Contents of Notices

5. A notice to the donor under this Schedule—

(a) shall be in the prescribed form or a form to the like effect;

(b) shall state that the attorney proposes to make an application to the court for the registration of the instrument creating the enduring power in question; and

(c) shall inform the donor that, whilst the instrument remains registered, any revocation of the power by the donor will be ineffective unless and until the revocation is confirmed by the court.

6. A notice to any other person under this Schedule—

(a) shall be in the prescribed form or a form to the like effect;

(b) shall contain the statement mentioned in paragraph 5 (b);

(c) shall inform the person to whom it is given that that person may object to the proposed registration by notice in writing to the Registrar of Wards of Court before the expiry of the period of five weeks beginning with the day on which the notice under this Schedule was so given; and

(d) shall specify, as the grounds on which an objection to registration may be made, the grounds set out in section 10 (3).

7. In this Part, “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations which may be made by the Minister.

PART III

Duty to give Notice to other Attorneys

8. (1) Subject to subparagraph (2), before making an application for registration an attorney under a joint and several power shall give notice of intention to do so to any other attorney under the power who is not joining in making the application; and paragraphs 4 (2)and 6 shall apply in relation to attorneys entitled to receive notice by virtue of this paragraph as they apply in relation to persons entitled to receive notice under this Schedule.

(2) An attorney is not entitled to receive notice by virtue of this paragraph if his or her address is not known to and cannot be reasonably ascertained by the applying attorney.

PART IV

Supplementary

9. For the purposes of this Schedule a notice given by post may be sent by prepaid registered post to the usual or last known place of residence of the person to whom it is to be given and shall be regarded as given on the day on which it was posted.