Cancelling a Power of Attorney or Enduring Guardianship

Appointing someone to act for you was a decision you made. You are allowed to make a different one.

People change their arrangements for all sorts of ordinary reasons. A friendship cools. A daughter moves to Perth. Someone’s own health declines and the job becomes too much for them. And sometimes because something has happened that you are not comfortable with.

None of those requires an explanation to anybody. While you have the capacity to make the decision, cancelling an appointment is your right, and you do not need the other person’s agreement to do it.

This guide covers how to do it properly in New South Wales, and what to do if you think the authority is being misused right now.

The one thing you must have: capacity

To cancel an appointment, you need to be able to understand what you are doing — what it means to cancel it, what happens if nobody is appointed in their place, and who you might appoint instead.

If there is any doubt, your doctor or your solicitor can help establish it before you act. Doing that first protects the cancellation from being questioned later.

If capacity has already been lost, the person affected can no longer cancel the appointment themselves. At that point, someone concerned can apply to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), which can review the appointment and remove the person if it decides that is in the best interests of the person they act for.

Two documents, two separate jobs

They cover different parts of your life, and cancelling one does nothing to the other.

• A Power of Attorney covers money and property — bank accounts, bills, buying and selling.
• An Enduring Guardianship covers health and lifestyle — medical care, services, where you live.

If you want to end both, you can.

How to cancel

1. Put it in writing

Cancelling is a formal act, not a conversation. There is a specific revocation document for each appointment.

Your solicitor can prepare and witness it, and that is the route we would suggest — the forms have signing and witnessing requirements, and a cancellation that was not executed properly may not hold when it is tested. NSW Trustee and Guardian can also help.

2. Tell the person, in writing

This is the step that actually ends their authority, and the one people skip.

Until the person you appointed knows their appointment has been cancelled, they can continue to act, and what they do may still be binding on you. They are not doing anything wrong — they do not know.

Send them a signed copy. Send it by registered post, so you can show it arrived, and keep the receipt with your copy.

3. Tell everyone who might rely on the old document

A cancelled document can still cause damage while people are unaware of it. Anyone holding a copy, or who has acted on it, needs to know:

• your bank, and any other financial institution
• your doctor, specialists, and any aged care or home care provider
• your solicitor, accountant and financial adviser
• your family, and anyone else who was told about the arrangement
• NSW Land Registry Services, if the original was registered there — the cancellation should be registered too, so the public record is clear

4. Appoint someone else, if you want to

Cancelling leaves you with nobody appointed. That is a perfectly reasonable place to stop, but it does mean that if you later lose capacity, a tribunal may have to appoint somebody for you.

If you want to put a new arrangement in place, our guide on getting your legal documents in order covers how, and the safeguards worth building into the new one.

If you think the authority is being misused right now

The steps above assume you have time. If money is moving and you cannot get a straight answer, do these first.

Ring your bank today. Tell them you are cancelling the Power of Attorney and ask what they need from you to stop the attorney operating on your accounts. Ask them to tell you about any recent transactions you did not authorise. Banks have teams for exactly this.

Then do the formal cancellation, with a solicitor, as quickly as you can.

If you are worried about someone else — a parent, a neighbour — rather than yourself, you do not need their permission to seek advice about it.

If this is happening to you, or to someone you know, help is available. Call 1800 ELDERHelp (1800 353 374) and you will be put through to the service in your state.

You are not being disloyal by asking questions about your own money. The arrangement exists to protect you, and if it has stopped doing that, ending it is the point of having the right to.