Legal OPINION - Deputyship / Appointeeship + tenancy agreements

Not a legal person...

If they are deemed incapable of signing, do they have a family member who can have power of attorney? If they have such a person I would guess it would be them that signed. If they dont have someone in the family could a solicitor be given the power, or some other person appointed perhaps?

I've just stopped being a landlord. As I understand it, all tenancies begin with a six month Assured Tenancy Agreement (AST). Safest way is to pay the six months upfront of possible. A landlord would normally accept a garunteur (sp) on their behalf. Is social housing an option? Best place for help would be a landlords forum tbh.

This forum really helped me http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums

I think if someone has opwer of attourney that would be ok too. Personally if I had those assurances I would be happy to allow the tenancy, I appreciate that I was quite naive as a landlord but if I had those I would be happy to rent.

Power of Attourney is not applicable in either of these cases - family members are either incapable or not willing to take this on. Or POA cannot be applicable,

But thank you for your info.

FWIW - it is English Law which is applicable here.

Will the Court of Protection not appoint a guardian for them to sign for them and to explain and deal with their affairs. Have you looked on th Public Guardianship Website?

No. They each have IMCAs, and the LA has been made in one case an Appointee, in the other a Deputy.

Are you having trouble finding accomodation for them both? Is this why you would be approaching private landlord's?

If they both lack capacity presumably they have some form of support team? Is this in the form of an organisation that would / could take on the tenancy? Obviously I don't know the reasons behind their lack of capcity but there are organisations such as BIRT / Voyage (and many others) that own / purchase and develop homes for such scenarios. Is there nothing similar available?

Oh lordie, could tell I was a few glasses into the evening last night when I posted this.

Right, the deal is:

We (the local authority) are becoming responsible for a group of people who have been in In Patient residential care for decades. In at least one case, since the age of 4. The government have said these people cannot live in the NHS provision and conditions that they have been. (I won't comment on the quality of what they currently have as 'lives').

So we have to find somewhere to live, under a very tight time frame for nearly 100 adults with complex and significant LD. Laws and benefits being what they are, we have to find provision where the housing is from one provider, the care and services come from another provider. It cannot be the same provider.

For some, their age and level of need make this very straightforward, they need nursing and residential care. For the vast majority, they need supported living settings. Some of this can be provided by existing provision - Social Landlords etc. with existing care providers being commissioned to provide day to day support. However, some will benefit from a more family type setting, and to this end we have an Adult Placement Scheme who will do this in one and two bedded units close to thier family homes. We had a wonderful one set up for one set. Really fab house, really fab carers. But for it to be legal and comply with CSCI requirements, the lease for the accommodation needs to be between the Service Users and the Landlord, while the contract for care needs to be between the Service Users and the APS Carers.

The current provision for the people closes on the 31st October. The NHS Care Trust will not extend this. At all, even by hours. There needs to be a 4 week transition period to help the service users manage the change.

The land lord of the property they were due to move into was initially really pleased to have them. People on this scheme make brilliant tenents - their rent is always paid on time, the accommodation is always looked after as the Service User is always well supported by carers. However, this landlord pulled out two hours before the tenency was to be formally agreed, saying it isn't legal for those with no capacity.

SO this fab placement is screwed, despite our barrister telling all that the tenency wil be legal.