Guardianship and curatorship are two legal measures that aim to protect a person and their assets once they are no longer physically or mentally able to do so themselves. These protective measures are put in place by the guardianship judge after it has been seized by one or more members of the family, by the social services or by a care establishment.
He takes his decision after psychiatric expertise and hearing of the person to be protected. Guardianship is the strongest of the two protective measures since the person placed under this judicial measure can no longer personally exercise some of their rights.
Curatorship is a judicial measure that allows assistance in important acts of civil life, continuously or for a particular act, a person whose autonomy is hindered by his physical or mental abilities. It is the guardianship judge who pronounces this protective measure for a maximum period of 5 years by appointing a curator to assist the person placed under curatorship.
However, the person under curatorship retains his freedom to fulfill a large number of his rights. For example, she can continue to make her daily purchases, her medical procedures, to collect income, to apply for a bank card from her bank or to carry out maintenance work in her home, to vote. On the other hand, all acts performed by a person under curatorship can be canceled or reduced afterwards.
On the other hand, the intervention of the curator is obligatory for all acts which commit the assets of the person under curatorship. He must indeed countersign the acts concerning the purchase or the sale of a building, the opening of a new bank account or a passbook in the name of the protected person or the renunciation of a legacy or an inheritance.
Note that there are several degrees of curatorship. In addition to the simple curatorship described above, the curatorship can be "reinforced" and in this case, it is the curator who receives the income of the protected person and who pays his expenses with the bank account of the person under curatorship. Then, the curatorship can also be "adjusted", that is to say that the guardianship judge defines the list of acts that the protected person can perform alone or not.
Guardianship concerns people whose faculties are seriously impaired due to illness, physical or mental disability or age. This protection measure makes it possible to represent the person in all acts of civil life and results in the protected person losing the ability to exercise some of their rights themselves. The guardianship judge then appoints a guardian who is responsible for carrying out certain acts alone on behalf of the person under guardianship. These are acts that concern the safeguarding of the heritage of the protected person or the acceptance of an inheritance. It is also the guardian who monitors the medical file of the person under guardianship.
On the other hand, the tutor must seek authorization from the judge for acts such as the purchase and sale of a building, the opening of a new bank account or a passbook in the name of the person under tutorship, his marriage or Pacs.
If they still have the ability to do so, the person under guardianship may however continue to perform certain acts of a personal nature or of everyday life such as shopping, sending mail for example. In this case, a sum of money is allocated to him by the tutor.
