What legal problems can the elderly encounter?
With longer life expectation and improved medical facilities, more and more members of our society are encountering difficulties in managing their own affairs. However the law only recognises contracts made and instructions given by persons with full mental capacity, thus excluding people with such conditions as Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons Disease, strokes or simply longer term deterioration of mental faculties. This can cause very serious problems even in the simplest of cases, for example, where a husband and wife wish to sell their jointly owned property but one of them is mentally incapacitated. The other spouse does not have the power to sell the property without going through complex legal procedures, unless they have put their affairs in order prior to the incapacity occurring. In such a case, if a Lasting Power of Attorney had been entered into prior to the incapacity, the property could be sold without delay.
