Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney

A Power of At­tor­ney (POA) is a power­ful legal doc­u­ment that grants someone else the au­thor­ity to act on your behalf in per­son­al, fin­an­cial, or med­ic­al mat­ters.

However there may come a time when you need to revoke that power. Wheth­er due to changes in your re­la­tion­ship with the ap­poin­ted at­tor­ney, a shift in your per­son­al situ­ation, or simply a de­cision to take back con­trol, cre­at­ing a Deed of Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney is a cru­cial step to ensure your wishes are re­spec­ted.

A Deed of Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney en­sures that the pre­vi­ous powers are nul­li­fied, pro­tect­ing your in­terests and ad­apt­ing to new situ­ations.

Why to Do A Deed of Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney?

Re­vok­ing a Power of At­tor­ney en­sures that the person you ori­gin­ally gran­ted au­thor­ity to no longer has legal con­trol over your af­fairs. If your re­la­tion­ship with the at­tor­ney has changed or you no longer trust their judg­ment, re­voc­a­tion is ne­ces­sary to pro­tect your in­terests.

Life changes such as mar­riage, di­vorce, re­lo­ca­tion, or changes in health might ne­ces­sit­ate re­vok­ing an ex­ist­ing POA and ap­point­ing someone else. A Deed of Re­voc­a­tion allows you to adapt to these changes, en­sur­ing that the person hand­ling your af­fairs is the one you cur­rently trust the most.

Un­for­tu­nately, there can be in­stances where the person hold­ing your Power of At­tor­ney may misuse their au­thor­ity. By form­ally re­vok­ing the POA, you pre­vent any po­ten­tial misuse and safe­guard your assets, fin­ances, and well-being.

⚠️ Simply telling someone that their power has been re­voked isn’t enough. Without a formal Deed of Re­voc­a­tion, the ori­gin­al Power of At­tor­ney re­mains leg­ally bind­ing, which can lead to com­plic­a­tions. A leg­ally re­cog­nised re­voc­a­tion doc­u­ment en­sures that the re­voc­a­tion is clear, of­fi­cial, and en­force­able.

Create a Deed of Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney

Cre­at­ing a Deed of Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney is straight­for­ward but re­quires care­ful at­ten­tion to detail. Here’s how to do it:

1. Review the Ori­gin­al Power of At­tor­ney

Start by re­view­ing the ori­gin­al Power of At­tor­ney doc­u­ment to un­der­stand its terms, the powers gran­ted, and the iden­tity of the ap­poin­ted at­tor­ney.

This will help ensure that your re­voc­a­tion is com­pre­hens­ive and spe­cif­ic.

2. Draft the Re­voc­a­tion

Your Deed of Re­voc­a­tion should in­clude the fol­low­ing key ele­ments:

• Your full name and ad­dress
• A state­ment de­clar­ing the re­voc­a­tion of the Power of At­tor­ney
• De­tails of the ori­gin­al Power of At­tor­ney, in­clud­ing the date it was signed
• The name and ad­dress of the at­tor­ney whose power is being re­voked
• The date of re­voc­a­tion
• Your sig­na­ture

Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney – a Tem­plate

Below you can find a simple tem­plate to draft the Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney.

DEED OF RE­VOC­A­TION OF POWER OF AT­TOR­NEY

This Deed of Re­voc­a­tion is made on this [Date] by [Your Full Name] of [Your Ad­dress] (here­in­after re­ferred to as "the Donor").

Where­as, I, the Donor, have pre­vi­ously ex­ecuted a Power of At­tor­ney dated [Date of Pre­vi­ous Power of At­tor­ney], ap­point­ing [Name of At­tor­ney] of [At­tor­ney’s Ad­dress] (here­in­after re­ferred to as "the At­tor­ney") to act as my At­tor­ney.

Now, I hereby revoke the said Power of At­tor­ney and de­clare that all powers and au­thor­it­ies con­ferred on the At­tor­ney by the said Power of At­tor­ney are re­voked and of no fur­ther effect as of the date of this Deed of Re­voc­a­tion.

1. Re­voc­a­tion

I, the Donor, hereby revoke and cancel the Power of At­tor­ney gran­ted on [Date] to [Name of At­tor­ney]. I de­clare that [he/she/they] shall no longer act as my At­tor­ney from the date of this Deed of Re­voc­a­tion.

2. No­ti­fic­a­tion

I con­firm that I will take reas­on­able steps to notify the At­tor­ney of this re­voc­a­tion and notify any rel­ev­ant third parties or or­gan­isa­tions af­fected by the re­voc­a­tion of the said Power of At­tor­ney.

3. In­ter­pret­a­tion

The sin­gu­lar in­cludes the plural and vice versa. The mas­cu­line in­cludes the fem­in­ine, and vice versa.

Signed and de­livered as a deed by the Donor:

[Sig­na­ture of Donor]
[Your Full Name]
[Your Ad­dress]
[Date]

In the pres­ence of:

Wit­ness Sig­na­ture: ________________________
Wit­ness Name: ____________________________
Wit­ness Ad­dress: _________________________
Wit­ness Oc­cu­pa­tion: _______________________

Date: ___________________________

3. Notify the At­tor­ney and Rel­ev­ant Parties

After cre­at­ing the Deed of Re­voc­a­tion, you must notify the at­tor­ney in writ­ing that their powers have been re­voked.

💡 It’s also im­port­ant to inform any in­sti­tu­tions, such as banks or health­care pro­viders, that the POA is no longer valid.

4. Re­gister the Re­voc­a­tion

If your ori­gin­al POA was re­gistered with the Office of the Public Guard­i­an (OPG), you must notify the OPG of the re­voc­a­tion. This en­sures that the re­voc­a­tion is of­fi­cially re­cor­ded and re­cog­nised.

How to Notify: Send the Deed of Re­voc­a­tion to the OPG either by post or through their online ser­vices, if avail­able. In­clud­ing a copy of the ori­gin­al re­gistered POA can help ex­ped­ite the pro­cess.

Taking Con­trol of Your Legal Af­fairs

Re­vok­ing a Power of At­tor­ney is an im­port­ant de­cision that should be ap­proached with care. By cre­at­ing a Deed of Re­voc­a­tion of Power of At­tor­ney, you take con­trol of your legal and fin­an­cial af­fairs, pro­tect­ing your in­terests and ad­apt­ing to life’s changes.

 Wheth­er due to a change in cir­cum­stances or a shift in trust, en­sur­ing that your Power of At­tor­ney aligns with your cur­rent wishes is vital for your peace of mind.

Read more

• Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Online
• Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Forms – Free
• How to Use a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney?