From the 1st April 2025 the Court of Protection will be increasing their application fee from £408 to £421.
What is the Court of Protection?
The Court of Protection is a specialist Court who makes decisions for those in society who lack mental capacity to make their own decisions in relation to their finances and/or health.
If a person has had mental capacity at some point in their life then they might have already appointed Attorneys to act on their behalf should they lose capacity through a Lasting Power of Attorney.
However, there are times when this has not been done and an individual then goes on to lose mental capacity with no one in place who holds the required authority to then make decisions on their behalf, or an individual may not ever have had mental capacity and therefore would never have had the opportunity to do so.
In these cases applications can be made to the Court of Protection for a Deputy to be appointed to make decisions for that person relating to their property and financial affairs and/or their health and welfare.
At Timms, we tend to make applications for deputies to be appointed to manage an individual’s property and financial affairs.
The application process involves completing a number of forms telling the Court about the individual’s financial circumstances and who the proposed deputy is. There is also a requirement for a formal mental capacity assessment to be carried out.
The application is then submitted online and is later considered by the Judge before an Order is eventually made which will give the deputy the authority they need to make decisions about the individual’s property and financial affairs.
Whilst this fee and the costs of the application can usually be recovered from the individual’s funds once the order has been made, it can still be a costly process.
The role of a deputy can be quite onerous, and certainly more onerous than that of an Attorney appointed under a Lasting Power of Attorney.
Deputies are required to file an annual report with the Office of the Public Guardian (‘OPG’) who are the supervisory body for deputyship matters. In this report the deputy needs to tell the OPG about all the incomings and outgoings throughout the year, and what key decisions have been made on behalf of the person who lacks capacity.
Where possible it is preferable to prepare Lasting Powers of Attorney in case you were to ever lose mental capacity later on in life, though I appreciate that this isn’t always possible.
Next Steps...
If you would like any help with Lasting Powers of Attorney or Court of Protection applications please contact our team on freephone 0800 011 6666 or email us at legal@timms-law.com.
