LPA Rejection Reasons England

The OPG rejected over 133,000 LPA applications in a single recent year. Most rejections were for preventable errors — mistakes that cost families a £46 repeat-application fee, weeks of delay, and occasionally the entire registration fee with no refund.

Signing Order Errors

The single most common rejection. The LPA must be signed in an exact sequence:

1. Donor signs first, with an independent witness physically present who also signs
2. Certificate provider signs second
3. Each attorney signs third, each with their own independent witness

Out-of-order signatures invalidate the document. The OPG sends it back. You reprint, resign, and resubmit — adding eight to ten weeks to the timeline.

Common traps: the certificate provider and first attorney sign at the same family gathering without checking the order. Or the donor and attorney sign together in the solicitor's office, with the certificate provider signing afterwards by post. Both produce an invalid sequence.

Certificate Provider Disqualification

The certificate provider exists to confirm that the donor understands the LPA and is signing voluntarily. The OPG disqualifies anyone with a conflict of interest or an overly close relationship with the attorneys.

People who cannot act as certificate provider:

• Any named attorney or replacement attorney
• A family member of the donor or of any attorney (by blood or marriage)
• A business partner of the donor or any attorney
• An employee of the donor or any attorney
• The manager or an employee of a care home where the donor lives
• Anyone under 18

The two eligible categories are:

• A professional — GP, solicitor, social worker, nurse, or other regulated professional
• A personal acquaintance — someone who has known the donor personally for at least two years and is not in any of the excluded categories above

The certificate provider must meet with the donor privately, without attorneys or family members present. If the OPG discovers this private meeting didn't happen, the LPA can be challenged.

Correction Fluid and Hand-Written Amendments

Any use of Tipp-Ex, white-out, or correction tape on the printed LPA forms results in automatic rejection. The OPG treats corrections as potential evidence of tampering.

If you make an error on a printed page, reprint that page and sign it fresh. Cross-outs with initials are also risky — the OPG's guidance strongly recommends reprinting rather than correcting.

Missing or Incomplete Information

Less dramatic but equally effective at slowing things down:

• Missing dates next to signatures
• Witnesses who didn't provide their full address
• Donor's name written differently across forms (middle names included in one place, omitted in another)
• Replacement attorneys named in the body of the LPA but not in the formal replacement attorney section

Section 7 Instructions That Contradict the LPA's Purpose

The OPG will reject an LPA where the instructions in Section 7 make the document unworkable. Examples:

• Instructing attorneys to always act jointly on every decision (this belongs in the attorney appointment section, not Section 7, and creates confusion)
• Writing instructions that contradict the type of LPA — placing care preferences in a Property and Financial Affairs document, or financial restrictions in a Health and Welfare document
• Using vague language that the OPG considers ambiguous enough to create disputes later

The Resubmission Cost

A standard rejection costs £46 in repeat-application fees. But if the error is fundamental — a disqualified certificate provider, for example — you may need to start the entire process over, including a new registration fee.

Some errors aren't caught until after submission, during the four-week objection window. A family member who discovers the certificate provider was ineligible can object, and the OPG may refuse to register the LPA. At that point, you've lost the full £92 and the weeks of processing time.

The England Lasting Power of Attorney & Deputyship Kit includes a pre-submission checklist that catches every common rejection trigger before you post the forms — because a £46 repeat-application fee is cheap compared to the weeks of delay when your parent's capacity window may be closing.

See more England guides →