Signing guide

How to sign your LPA

Your LPA has to be signed in the right order, by the right people, with the right witnesses. If it isn’t, the Office of the Public Guardian can’t register it, and it has to be done again. It’s not difficult; it just needs to be done carefully. The instructions in your yourLPA pack show exactly which page each person signs.

Who signs, and in what order

1. You sign first. Before anyone else. If you’re making a health and welfare LPA, you also sign the page about life-sustaining treatment, and any extra pages, before your main signature. It’s best to sign everything on the same day.
2. Your witness signs straight after you. They watch you sign, then sign and write their full name and address. They must be 18 or over and can’t be one of your attorneys or replacement attorneys. Your certificate provider can be your witness.
3. Your certificate provider signs next. After you, but before your attorneys. They should read the LPA and, if possible, talk to you about it in private first. They can sign the same day as you, or as soon as possible after.
4. Your attorneys and replacement attorneys sign. After the certificate provider. Each one needs a witness, who also writes their full name and address. You can’t be their witness, but the attorneys can witness each other, and the certificate provider can witness them too. It’s best if they all sign on the same day.
5. Last, the person registering it signs the registration pages. That’s you or your attorneys, as chosen in your order.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Signing out of order, or dating a signature before an earlier one.
• An attorney witnessing your signature, or you witnessing an attorney’s.
• A witness leaving out their full name or address.
• Forgetting the life-sustaining treatment page in a health and welfare LPA, or signing it after your main signature.
• Leaving out pages: send the whole document, including any pages that aren’t filled in.
• Correcting a mistake yourself. Ask us first, so the correction is accepted.

If you can’t sign

You can make a mark instead. If you can’t sign or make a mark, someone else can sign for you while you watch, with two witnesses. There’s an extra page for this. Tell us and we’ll include it.

Before you post it

• If you chose people to notify, send each of them the notification form before you apply to register.
• Free signature check: email photos of the signed pages to enquiries@yourlpa.co.uk and we’ll check them before you post the LPA.
• Post it to the Office of the Public Guardian in the envelope we provide, with your fee or your fee-help form and evidence.

Once the OPG has it, there’s a legally required four-week wait to give people a chance to object, and registration currently takes 8 to 10 weeks in total if there are no mistakes.

Based on the Office of the Public Guardian’s guide LP12: Make and register your lasting power of attorney.