If your loved one, friend or family member suffers from a brain injury, birth injury, dementia, age-related degenerative condition or learning difficulty, this may mean they can no longer make decisions about their property and financial affairs for themselves. This is known as losing capacity. If you are not sure whether they have lost capacity, already have an attorney or need a deputy, we can help.

What many people may not realise is that when more than one person owns a property, a trust of land is created meaning that each of the owners is a trustee. In effect, anyone that owns a property with someone else is a trustee and may not even realise.

For most people, being a trustee for property, usually your own, does not affect you and you do not really play an active role. The only time when this will become a problem is when you wish to sell the property that you own with someone else, and that person no longer has capacity to manage their affairs.

If the joint owner has lost capacity, someone will need to step in their shoes as a trustee. In order to do this, an application will need to be made to the Court of Protection. The application will ask the Court to replace the person who lacks capacity as trustee and to appoint someone else. This is known as a trustee application and the purpose of it is to allow a sale to take place.

If you wish to go ahead, we will obtain the documents that are required and make a trustee application. Completing the application can be overwhelming as it involves using complex forms set by the Court, completing them correctly, following the process in the right order, within the time-frames set and paying the right Court fees.

Once the Court has processed the application, you can then sell your property. We understand that moving home can be a difficult and stressful time and so we take steps to alleviate that strain by communicating with you at all stages of the sale in plain English and in a way that suits you.

We charge a reasonable and competitive fee for making a trustee application but there is also an additional Court application fee of £371.

All fees that are reasonable and proportionate are paid from the assets of the person who lacks capacity. If you are already appointed as deputy or attorney you will already have authority to access the assets of the person who lacks capacity to cover these costs. We can advise you of your options.