What to Do When an Attorney for Property Won't Share Records With Family in Ontario

When a parent or relative loses capacity and someone else takes over their finances under a Power of Attorney for Property, the rest of the family is often left on the outside looking in. If that attorney for property won't share records — bank statements, receipts, an accounting of what's coming in and going out — it can feel like there is nothing you can do but hope for the best.

The reality sits in between "you have no rights at all" and "you can simply demand the books." Ontario law gives concerned family members a path, but it usually runs through the court, not through a polite request.

The Attorney's Duty Comes From the Grantor, Not the Family

A Continuing Power of Attorney for Property makes the named attorney a fiduciary — someone legally required to act in the best interests of the person who granted the power (the "grantor"), keep the grantor's property separate from their own, and keep proper records of what they do with it.

Crucially, that duty runs to the grantor. It does not automatically run to the grantor's adult children, siblings, or other relatives, even close ones. An attorney can generally decide, on their own, whether to volunteer information to extended family — and many choose not to, sometimes out of caution, sometimes because of family conflict.

What Family Members Are Not Automatically Entitled To

It helps to be clear about what does not work, because these are the most common — and most frustrating — dead ends:

• Simply asking and being refused does not, on its own, create a legal obligation to answer.
• Being "next of kin" or a future beneficiary of the grantor's eventual estate does not give you a standing right to current financial records.
• A relative's own concerns, without more, are not enough to compel disclosure outside a court process.

None of this means the concern is unreasonable. It means the law expects the request to go through a formal channel if the attorney won't cooperate voluntarily.

The Actual Path: Asking a Court to Order an Accounting

Where real concerns exist — missing funds, an unexplained change in spending, a refusal to explain a large transaction — a court application is the recognized mechanism to force the issue. In general terms, an interested person can ask the Superior Court of Justice to require the attorney to formally account for their management of the grantor's property, and the court can order the attorney to produce records showing exactly what has moved in and out.

This is not a fast or free process. It typically requires a lawyer, evidence supporting why an accounting is warranted, and — because the grantor may lack capacity to weigh in personally — sometimes involvement from the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee. Courts do not order this lightly, but they take a documented pattern of concern seriously.

Signs it may be time to consider this step

• [ ] Large or unexplained withdrawals or transfers
• [ ] The grantor's bills going unpaid despite apparently sufficient funds
• [ ] A sudden, unexplained change in the grantor's living situation or spending
• [ ] The attorney refusing even basic reassurance that things are in order
• [ ] Assets being moved into the attorney's own name

If the Grantor Still Has Some Capacity

If the person who granted the power of attorney is still capable of understanding financial information, even partially, they remain the person with the strongest standing to ask questions or revoke the appointment entirely. Family concerns are often best raised with the grantor directly first, where that is realistically possible, before turning to a court process built for situations where the grantor cannot act for themselves.

Frequently asked questions