No LPA: The Deputyship Route

Without an LPA, your family cannot act on your behalf by love or logic alone — only by order of a court. (The expensive way to do it later.)

An LPA is something you set up in advance. Deputyship is what your family must fall back on if you lose capacity without one. Both end with a trusted person managing your affairs, but the path there is very different.

If someone loses mental capacity and has no LPA, a family member must apply to court under the Mental Capacity Act to be appointed a deputy. The court can authorise the deputy to make property and welfare decisions — but only after an application supported by a medical report, and often with ongoing requirements such as security or periodic accounts to the court.

The contrast with an LPA is stark on three counts. Cost: an LPA is inexpensive — and from April 2026 free for citizens to file — while a deputyship application typically involves a medical report and, in many cases, legal fees that run far higher, even though the court's own filing fee is modest. Time: an LPA is ready once registered; a deputyship order takes weeks to months to obtain, during which urgent decisions may stall. Choice: an LPA lets you pick your own donee in advance; in a deputyship, the court appoints the deputy, and it may not be the person you would have chosen.

For straightforward cases, a government-supported Assisted Deputyship Application Programme can reduce cost and complexity — but it is still a court process invoked after the fact. The simpler, cheaper, and more personal route is always the LPA made in good time. Deputyship is the safety net for those who did not, or could not, set one up.

Illustrative example: LPA versus deputyship

The chart compares the two routes on cost, time and who chooses your decision-maker. The LPA wins on all three — cheaper, faster, and your own choice — which is the whole argument for setting one up before it is ever needed.