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Manage the finances or property of a missing person, someone kidnapped or taken hostage, or in a foreign prison and not able to communicate. Apply to the High Court to be a guardian. You'll need a guardianship order.

• Overview

  You can apply to be a guardian and manage the finances or property of…

• Who can apply

  You can apply if you’re the missing person’s: husband, wife or civil…

• Apply to be a guardian

  You can make a claim yourself or use a legal representative. Fill in the…

• How much it costs

  You must pay either: a £528 application fee if you apply to the Chancery…

• After you've applied

  The court will send copies of your form back to you, with ‘acknowledgement…

• When you’re appointed as a guardian

  The guardianship order will tell you when you can start to make decisions…

• Make decisions

  The Office of the Public Guardian will supervise you while you act as a…

• Keeping records, giving gifts and claiming expenses

  You must keep financial records and accounts. Follow the rules for gifts…

• Complete your report

  You must write a report for the Office of the Public Guardian each year…

• Make a decision that's not covered by the order

  You must apply to the High Court if you need to change your guardianship,…

• When the guardianship ends

  Your guardianship ends automatically if one of the following things…

Check if you're a joint tenant or tenants in common. Change from joint tenants to tenants in common, or tenants in common to joint tenants

• Overview

  You must decide which type of joint ownership you want if you buy, inherit…

• Check your ownership details

  You can find out what type of joint ownership you have by checking…

• Change from joint tenants to tenants in common

  This is called ‘severance of joint tenancy’. You should apply for a ‘Form…

• Change from tenants in common to joint tenants

  You need the agreement of all the other joint owners to change from being…

• Selling when an owner has lost mental capacity

  You must apply to the Court of Protection if all of the following apply:…

Get a declaration of presumed death if a person has been missing for at least 7 years or you think they've died - form N208, certificate of presumed death, appeal, complain

• Overview

  You can make a claim for a ‘declaration of presumed death’ from the High…

• Make your claim

  Download and fill in a claim form (N208) with details about: yourself -…

• Advertise your claim in a newspaper

  You must advertise your application in a newspaper local to the missing…

• Attend a hearing

  You’ll have to attend a hearing about your claim with a High Court judge -…

Change or cancel a presumption of death certificate where there's clear evidence the missing person is still alive or that they died on a different date to what's on the certificate.

Find a BFPO number, send mail to and from British forces personnel and their families

How to apply for a document to travel outside the UK if you're not British and you cannot use or get your own national passport.

When and how to replace lost or damaged tags and what to record in your holding register.

• Updated: 1 June 2014

What a cattle movement is, what you need to do before you move cattle, and when you must not move cattle.

• Updated: 4 December 2023

Acting as an attorney - duties, including finding an enduring power of attorney, registering an EPA, starting to act, making gifts and stopping being an attorney

If you lost your lifetime allowance protection as a result of the public service pension remedy (also known as McCloud), you may be able to reinstate it.

• Updated: 22 August 2023