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APPLY FOR GUARDIANSHIP

The nature of guardianship

The intention to apply for guardianship is to ask the Guardianship Board to appoint someone to become a guardian for another person. The Board may give the guardian the legal power to make important decisions relating to personal circumstances for such adults about his/her place of residence or consenting to his/her medical or dental treatment. The guardian may also be given legal power to manage a limited amount of that person's money, which currently is a maximum of HK$20,000 per month.

The criteria for making a Guardianship Order

If the Guardianship Board is satisfied with the following criteria, it will appoint a guardian:

  1. that the person concerned has a mental disorder or mental handicap of a nature or degree, which warrants his/her reception into guardianship;
  2. that the mental disorder or handicap limits him/her in making reasonable decisions in respect of all or a substantial proportion of the matters which relate to his/her personal circumstances;
  3. that his/her particular needs may only be met or attended to by guardianship and that no other less restrictive or intrusive means are available in the circumstances; AND
  4. that it is in the interests of his/her welfare or the protection of others that he/she should be so received.

Matters must be considered before lodging an application

You may need to apply to the Board, if the answer is “yes” to all of the followings: -

  1. Does the person concerned suffer from a mental handicap or mental disorder (collectively “incapacity”)?
  2. Does the incapacity limit the concerned person's functional capacity so that he/she becomes wholly or substantially incapable of managing their own personal affairs?
  3. Are there any decisions or execution of decisions or communication of decisions that need to be made now that cannot be made by someone informally?

Making the application

You can either make an application by:

  1. Downloading and printing out the guardianship application form and formats of medical reports from this website, or
  2. Contacting the Board's Secretariat who will explain how to make an application and send you a set of forms.