Are you due a Power of Attorney registration fee refund?

Recently the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has admitted to charging fees for registering Lasting Powers of Attorney that were too high. The fees were charged at £130 per document between April 2013 and September 2013 and £110 per document between October 2013 and March 2017 – both of which were over the cost incurred by the OPG for administering applications.

What the refund means

This means you can get part of your application fee back if you applied to register a Power of Attorney between April 2013 and March 2017. This applies to Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) and Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPA).

Who can claim a refund?

You will be eligible for a claim if you are:

The donor

The donor is the person who made the Power of Attorney. If you are a donor you only need to make one claim regardless of how many Powers of Attorney you appointed.

An attorney

An attorney is selected by the donor as an LPA or EPA to make decisions on their behalf. If you were appointed as a replacement attorney, you can only claim once you have been made an attorney formally.

Whether you are a donor or an attorney, you must claim your refund before 31 January 2021. However, it’s important to note that you will only be eligible to claim a refund if you set up the Power of Attorney in England or Wales.

How much you will receive

How much money you receive will depend on when you paid the fees, with an additional 0.5% interest on top of any payment.

If you paid a reduced fee in the first place – a remission – you will get half of the refund. And don’t worry if you don’t know when you paid the fees, you can still claim and find out from there.

An example

In April 2013 Mrs Smith and her husband each made two Lasting Powers of Attorney, one for property and financial affairs and one for health and welfare. However, they did not register the documents until August 2016 when Mrs Smith began to lose capacity. They then registered both her Lasting Powers of Attorney. Mrs Smith is therefore owed a refund of £90 plus interest – this is £45 for each of the two documents.

How you can claim

Claims can usually be made online on the Government website. Please bear in mind that some claims may need to be submitted over the phone.

Speak to us

If you think the refunds may apply to you or if you have any questions on the matter, get in touch with your financial planner in the usual way, call us on 020 7189 9999 or email contact@tilney.co.uk.