EP1 Form Northern Ireland: Notice of Intention to Register an EPA

What Form EP1 Does

Form EP1 is the formal notice that attorneys must serve before they can register an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) with the Office of Care and Protection in Belfast. It tells the donor and their relatives: "We believe the donor is losing capacity. We intend to register the EPA. You have the right to object."

This notification step is mandatory under the Enduring Powers of Attorney (Northern Ireland) Order 1987. Filing an EP2 registration application without first serving EP1 notices correctly will get the application rejected by the OCP.

Who Must Receive an EP1

The donor — served personally (hand-delivered, not posted). If delivering the notice would cause the donor severe psychiatric distress, attorneys can apply to the court via Form EP3 to have this requirement waived, but that application carries its own £326 fee and delays the timeline.

At least three qualifying relatives — served by first-class post. The relatives must be selected from a strict statutory priority list, working down from the highest class:

1. Spouse or civil partner
2. Children
3. Parents
4. Brothers and sisters (whole or half blood)
5. Widow, widower, or surviving civil partner of a child
6. Grandchildren
7. Children of whole-blood siblings
8. Children of half-blood siblings
9. Uncles and aunts (whole blood)
10. Children of whole-blood uncles and aunts

The rule that catches most people: if anyone in a class must be notified, every living person in that class must be notified. The donor has no spouse, no children, but has three siblings? All three siblings must receive EP1 notices. You can't pick the cooperative one and skip the difficult ones.

Non-applying co-attorneys — if the EPA names joint and several attorneys and not all are joining the registration application, the applying attorneys must serve EP1 on those who aren't applying.

What If Relatives Can't Be Found

This is one of the more stressful parts of the process. If you cannot trace a relative who should receive a notice, you can apply to the OCP for a direction dispensing with service to that person. The court will want evidence that you've made reasonable efforts to find them.

If the donor has no living relatives in any of the ten priority classes (rare, but it happens), you'd apply to the court for a direction that no relative notifications are needed.

Common Mistakes That Delay Registration

Skipping a priority class. Sending EP1 to the donor's siblings while skipping the donor's living parent — because the parent has dementia and "wouldn't understand it" — will get the registration rejected. Every class must be exhausted before moving to the next.

Posting to the donor. The donor's EP1 must be hand-delivered, not posted. The relatives' notices go by first-class post; the donor's is personal service only.

Not recording dates. Form EP2 requires the exact date each EP1 was served. If you can't provide those dates, the OCP will send the whole application back. Keep a log: who received it, the date, and the method.

Serving EP1 after filing EP2. The EP1 notices must be served before the registration application is submitted. The EP2 execution date must fall after the date the last EP1 was served.

Timing After EP1

Once the last EP1 notice has been served, the 35-day hold period begins. A notified relative must file an objection with the OCP within four weeks (28 days) of receiving their EP1 notice; the court holds the papers for 35 days from the last notice. If no objections come in, the OCP processes the registration and stamps the original EPA — typically one to two weeks after the hold period ends.

For the full EP1 notification process — including a relative-tracing checklist and date-tracking template — the Northern Ireland EPA Guide covers every step.

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