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01978 367 830
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01978 367 830
01244 812109
An application to the Court of Protection is ordinarily made when a person does not have the mental capacity to manage their care or finances.
‘Mental capacity’ means the ability to make a decision at the time it needs to be made. People can lose mental capacity because of a condition such as dementia, mental health problem, or a learning disability.
An application to the Court of Protection is usually not required if a person has made an enduring power of attorney (EPL) or lasting power of attorney (LPA).
The person to whom the application is about is the person who lacks mental capacity. This person is commonly referred to by the Court and solicitors as P.
The person(s) applying to the court for permission to manage P’s care or finances is known as the proposed deputy/deputies.
The deputy will make decisions about medical treatment and how someone is looked after.
A person cannot become someone’s personal welfare deputy if they’re under 16.
The court will usually only appoint a personal welfare deputy if there’s doubt whether decisions will be made in P’s best interests and if someone needs to be appointed to make decisions about a specific issue over time, for example where P will reside.
A deputy will be authorised by the court to make decisions on P’s behalf.
A deputy for Property and affairs will do things such as pay bills and manage banks and building society accounts and investments.
Once the court has appointed you as a deputy you much complete an annual report to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) explaining the decisions you’ve made. The OPG will assist you in carrying out your duties and responsibilities.
As a deputy you will have the responsibility of managing a person’s finances. You must have the skills to make financial decisions for someone else. If you don’t want the responsibility or feel you don’t have the skills to carry out your duties, you should not consider applying to the court.
The deputy appointment will continue until the court order is changed, cancelled, or expires.
If you want to make a single important decision, you can apply to the court for a one-off order.
The court can appoint two or more deputies for property and affairs. If there are more than two deputies, you will need to tell the court how you’ll make decisions if you’re not the only deputy. It will be either: together (‘joint deputyship’), which means all the deputies must agree on the decision, or separately or together (‘jointly and severally), which means deputies can make decisions on their own or with the other deputies.
We will prepare the application and send it to court.
Once the court has received the application, they will send a sealed copy to us.
It is usual for the proposed deputies or an appointed party to visit P and tell them; who’s applying to be their deputy, their ability to make decisions is being questioned, what having a deputy would mean for them, and where to get advice if they want to discuss the application.
Before the application is made, the court requires at least three people who are likely to have an interest in the affairs of P to be notified that an application is going to make to the court. This is usually done through the post. However, this can be done in person and by electronic means. We will prepare and serve the notices on your behalf.
There is a fourteen-day period after we serve the notice before the court will review the application and tell us and you if the application has been approved or rejected.
The court may ask for further information to support your application, for example, a report from social services or if the court is going to hold a hearing to get more information, for example, if someone objected.
The proposed deputy will need to set up a security bond before they are officially appointed.
The court will send us the court order. The order will explain what the deputy can and cannot do.
The court will provide ample copies of the order for you to send to all the banks and building societies and investment companies.
The time spent Court of Protection files are chargeable at an hourly fee of £300.00 inclusive of VAT.
Our charges will be calculated based on the time we spend dealing with your matter. Time spent will include meetings with you and others; time spent traveling; considering, preparing, and working on papers; correspondence (letters/emails received/sent); attending Court and making and receiving telephone calls. Our time recording system divides an hour into ten units, we would therefore charge a 30-minute interview or work on a file at 5 units. Letters, emails and phone calls that we make or receive are recorded at 1/10th of the hourly rate (e.g., £25.00 plus VAT).
The court has imposed a fixed fee of £1,204.00 (ex VAT) for these types of applications, but our fees sometimes exceed this amount.
You are within your rights to request an assessment of our costs to be carried out by the Court and the Court will then decide what is reasonable.
Our fees can vary and are dependent upon individual circumstances and are generally paid from the assets of P.
If the application is contested there will be additional costs for which we would need to provide a separate costs figure.
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties. An average deputyship application will involve a fee for obtaining the required medical certificate to confirm the incapacity of the person involved and an application fee for the Court. We will not handle the payment of the disbursements in excess of £50.00.
The application fee to the Court of Protection is £408.00 (per application) which we require before the application is submitted.
We carry out an Anti-Money Laundering search against the name of each proposed deputy for a fee of £5.00
We charge a standard fee of £48.00 (inclusive of VAT) per file to carry out due diligence.
We charge a fee of £240.00 (Inc VAT) for preparing an interim order / direction order.
There is an annual supervision fee after you’ve been appointed. You should contact the Office of the public guardian about the annual supervision fee.
The court will require a ‘security bond’ to be set up before the appointment is confirmed by the court. A security bond is a type of insurance that protects the finances of the person you’re a deputy for. The premium per year depends on the value of P’s assets and how much of P’s estate you control.
The bond can be paid either by using the P’s money or by the proposed deputy/deputies. All fees incurred by the proposed deputies during the application can be refunded from P’s assets once you have been appointed.
A deputy can claim expenses for things they do to carry out your role as deputy, for example, phone calls, postage, and travel costs. You cannot claim for travel costs for social visits and for the time spent carrying out your duties. A deputy may be asked to give a detailed report of what you spent. You’ll have to pay the money back if the Office of the Public Guardian considers the expenses to be unreasonable.
Please take the time to read the following information, as it will explain what we will do, when we will do it, and what we will expect you to do to help yourself.
You must remember that not everything runs as smoothly as set out above. Reliance is placed on other people who we have no control over and there can be many intervening factors that affect planned timetables.
The materials appearing on this website do not constitute legal advice and are provided for general information purposes only. No warranty, whether express or implied is given in relation to such materials. We shall not be liable for any technical, editorial, typographical or other errors or omissions within the information provided on this website, nor shall we be responsible for the content of any web images or information linked to this website.