Guardianship and care law was comprehensively reformed on January 1, 2023. The new Section 1358 of the German Civil Code gives spouses the right to represent each other in the area of healthcare in an emergency. However, this is subject to strict conditions, is limited to health matters and only applies for a maximum of six months. In this respect, general and precautionary powers of attorney create permanent and more comprehensive possibilities for action.<\/p>\n
Use of the right of emergency representation<\/strong><\/p>\n Provided that one spouse is no longer able to act and make decisions due to illness or an accident, the other spouse can invoke his or her right of emergency representation vis-\u00e0-vis the attending physician from this year onwards.<\/p>\n \"However, when exercising the right of emergency representation for the first time, the doctor must check whether the requirements have been met or whether there are grounds for exclusion, i.e. no guardian has been appointed and no power of attorney has been granted,\" explains Martin Thelen, press spokesperson for the Federal Chamber of Notaries. Another reason for exclusion is, for example, the entry of an objection to the spouse's right of representation in the Central Register of Lasting Powers of Attorney (ZVR). The representing spouse must also confirm to the doctor in writing that he or she has not yet exercised the right of representation and that, to his or her knowledge, there is no reason for exclusion, in particular that no other trusted person has a power of attorney.<\/p>\n After the doctor has exercised his right to inspect the ZVR, he summarizes all the information obtained in a certificate and, in particular, records the date on which the right of representation arises in order to be able to determine the six-month limitation period. For all further acts of representation within the scope of the right of emergency representation, the representing spouse must present this document.<\/p>\n Restrictions on the right of emergency representation<\/strong><\/p>\n \"The good thing about the new regulation,\" summarizes Thelen, \"is that there are now options for the spouse to act in an acute emergency situation.\" However, the right of spousal representation is limited as a legal fallback solution for emergencies. It therefore cannot and should not permanently replace the granting of a (general and) health care proxy or the care procedure otherwise provided for by law. In particular, the right of emergency representation does not help in the long term in the event of prolonged illnesses and only postpones the initiation of care proceedings for a maximum of six months, which remains necessary at the latest after this period has expired if a power of attorney has not been granted. Furthermore, only the area of health matters is covered, not property matters. In this context, the spouse can, for example, claim insurance benefits or benefits for the partner. \"However, it is not possible for the spouse to deal with the authorities, open mail or pay bills with the money of the represented spouse or carry out banking transactions,\" points out Thelen. Decisions such as the conclusion of a home contract cannot be made by the spouse within the scope of the right of emergency representation either, as the conclusion of long-term contracts beyond the end of the right of representation is not covered.<\/p>\n The new regulation should therefore not obscure the fact that only the comprehensive and self-determined regulation of one's own affairs in a general power of attorney and health care proxy enables permanent and comprehensive representation, which as a rule makes the appointment of a guardian superfluous. \"Only with the help of a notarized general power of attorney and health care proxy is the spouse able to act in both health and property matters in the long term and even after the death of the partner,\" Thelen warns urgently.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Guardianship and care law was comprehensively reformed on January 1, 2023. The new Section 1358 of the German Civil Code gives spouses the right to represent each other in the area of healthcare in an emergency. However, this is subject to strict conditions, is limited to health matters and only applies for a maximum of six months. General powers of attorney and health care proxies create permanent and more comprehensive possibilities for action in this respect. Use...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notarkoenig.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}