Letter of Authority Template UK: Authorise Someone to Act for You

In legal terms, the letter creates an agency: you are the principal, the person you name is your agent, and the organisation is the third party that relies on the letter. The agent can only do what the letter allows, which is why the wording matters more than the length. A vague line such as "please deal with my son" leaves the bank to guess the limits, and many refuse rather than guess. A good letter names the matter, separates the right to receive information from the right to give instructions, and lists what stays excluded, such as closing an account, borrowing or signing a contract in your name.

People often confuse it with a power of attorney. An ordinary power of attorney must be executed as a deed. A lasting power of attorney keeps working after you lose mental capacity, but only once registered. This letter is neither: it is an informal written authority for a defined task, quick to prepare and easy to end. For long term planning of your money and property, you need a property and financial affairs LPA; no letter can do that job.

The authority rests on the common law of agency, so there is no prescribed form; statutes only frame its edges. Under section 1(1) of the Powers of Attorney Act 1971, an instrument creating a power of attorney "shall be executed as a deed by the donor of the power". A letter signed in the ordinary way is not a deed, so it cannot replace a power of attorney or give someone power to sign a deed for you, such as a transfer of property. Under section 9(2)(b) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, a lasting power of attorney is not created unless it is made and registered in accordance with Schedule 1, which means registration with the Office of the Public Guardian.

Government guidance states that an ordinary power of attorney stops being legal authority if the donor loses mental capacity, and that a third-party mandate is not appropriate once an account holder is losing the ability to make the relevant decisions (see the GOV.UK guidance on managing a bank account for someone else). A written authority follows the same logic: it stops working if you can no longer make the decisions it covers, and it ends on death.

Data protection explains the final section. The organisation holds your data under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Where it relies on consent, Article 7(2) UK GDPR requires a request for consent in a written declaration to be clearly distinguishable from other matters, and Article 7(3) lets you withdraw it at any time. Your consent therefore sits under its own heading, limited to the matters and the period of the authority.

The most common use of a letter of authority is a simple collection: a parcel held at a delivery office, documents at a solicitor's reception, or keys at a letting agent while you are at work. A letter naming the items, the collector and the identity document they will show gives the counter staff what they need to check.

Adult children use the letter to talk to a parent's water company or council tax team, a student lets a parent deal with a university query, and someone working overseas leaves a friend in charge of meter readings. Banks and building societies usually want their own third-party mandate before anyone else operates an account, so the letter is mostly useful there for information. Complaints, such as an energy bill dispute or a cancelled hospital appointment, can drag on for months; the template lets your relative either follow the complaint or actually pursue it.

Two edge cases deserve a warning. HMRC accepts a signed letter naming a friend or relative as an intermediary if it gives your name, address, date of birth and tax reference, plus the helper's name and address; the helper can talk to HMRC and help with forms but gets no access to your online tax account, and form 64-8 is the route for paid agents such as accountants. For benefits, someone who cannot manage their own affairs needs an appointee, not a letter.

Our letter of authority opens with your name, address and a phone number or email, identifies you by date of birth, then names your authorised person, their address and their relationship to you. A letter to one organisation can quote your account or reference number; a general letter "To whom it may concern" defines "you" as any organisation to which it is shown. The matter is described in your own words, and the authority covers only what you write there.

The core depends on the purpose you select. For a collection, a receipt signed by your authorised person is as valid as one signed by you, and nothing else is authorised. For an account, a complaint or another task, you choose between information only (they can discuss the matter and receive documents) and acting on your behalf (they can also give instructions). In the second case the organisation may treat their instructions as if they came from you, while fixed exclusions apply: no opening or closing of accounts, no borrowing, no moving money, no change of contact or security details, no settlement, no new charge and no contract. You can add one precise extra power, with an amount limit where money is involved.

Several closing clauses protect you. Except for a collection, correspondence keeps going to your own address; the letter also states how your authorised person proves their identity, sets the duration and explains that a withdrawal takes effect as soon as the organisation is told. Optional blocks add a specimen signature, a witness and a note of enclosed identity documents.

The letter contains no clause that depends on English law, and the UK GDPR applies across the UK, so the same letter can be shown in Edinburgh or Belfast. Differences appear only when you need more than a letter. A lasting power of attorney is binding only in England and Wales. Scotland uses a continuing power of attorney for money and property or a welfare power of attorney, both registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) before they take effect. Northern Ireland uses the enduring power of attorney, which covers financial matters only and is registered with the High Court (Office of Care and Protection) once the attorney believes you can no longer manage your finances.

You start with your own details, including the phone number or email address the organisation can use to check that the letter is genuine. The form then asks for the person you are authorising and the identity document they will show, and whether the letter goes to one named organisation or to anyone concerned. Choosing a collection removes the questions about instructions, which make no sense for a parcel. For the other purposes you pick information only or acting for you, plus any extra power. You then set the duration and the date, typed as DD/MM/YYYY, and the optional blocks. The preview on the right changes with each answer. Download the result in Word or PDF, sign it by hand on the date shown in the letter, and give the original to your authorised person or post it to the organisation. The other UK personal legal documents cover wills and LPAs.

The mistake we see most often is the open ended letter: "my daughter may deal with all my affairs". Organisations read it as a power of attorney without the formalities and refuse it; if one accepted it, you would give away far more than you meant to. Name the account or the complaint. The second mistake is ignoring the organisation's own process: banks want a third-party mandate, and some councils, landlords and letting agents (see our tenancy and letting documents) have their own consent form. Ask the organisation first and attach the letter to its form if it has one.

A single collection needs a short window, not an open ended authority. A name that does not match the authorised person's passport or driving licence gets them turned away at the counter. Finally, families often keep a letter alive for a relative whose memory is failing. Once capacity is going, your relative should make an LPA while still able to, or, in England and Wales, the family may need a Court of Protection deputy; the catalogue of UK legal templates includes both types of LPA.