The exisitng forms become obsolete from Friday 26 September 2008.

 

Parliament has in our opinion had a fit of insanity, which will make enduring powers of attorney available only to wealthy New Zealanders in future. This is because as Minister for Senior Citizens, Ruth Dyson noted "to ensure EPAs were not drawn when donors were already losing capacity, the amendment requires that donorsâ signatures must be witnessed by a lawyer, registered legal executive or officer of a trustee corporation retained independently of the attorney (s.94A)."  Moreover, the legislation now requires that this witness has to explain to the donor the effects and implications of the EPA, his or her rights, and certify that this has been completed.

The witness must also certify that he/she has no reason to believe that the donor lacked mental capacity, the definition of which has changed (s.94).

In other words that when a couple wish to do the normal and appoint each other as their property and welfare attornies they are to be presumed to have coerced or knee capped each other to such an extent that their normal lawyer cannot be trusted to witness their signatures.  Their lawyer must now send them both away to two independent lawyers, who do not know them, and have no idea about their mental capacity, who must now at great length explan what used to be a basic document (wbut now is a very complicated one) to then at great cost. 

 

This is simply in most cases bureaucray gone mad, all desined to solve a few problems of abuse of enduring powers of attorney.  Put another way it is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

 

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When moving the third reading of the PPPR Amendment Bill, the Minister for Senior Citizens, Ruth Dyson also noted that the following concepts that were central to amending Part 9 of the PPPR Act 1988, namely: âthat the interests of the donor are paramount in all aspects of powers of attorney; and even where a donor loses capacity and the decision making role has passed to the attorney, the donor still has the right to be consultedâ.