The Court of Protection explained

When you need it

• There is no LPA and the donor has lost capacity — a deputyship application.
• A decision falls outside an attorney's authority: large gifts, a statutory will, tax planning, buying the donor's property.
• A serious dispute about welfare, contact or medical treatment.
• An attorney needs removing.

Forms, fees and time

The application fee is £408 at the time of writing, with remission on a low income, plus a hearing fee if one is needed and any legal costs.

Why an LPA is cheaper

Who decides, and how a hearing works

Most applications are decided on the papers by a judge or authorised court officer, without either side attending in person. A hearing — usually by video or telephone, occasionally in person — is only listed where the case is contested, involves a serious welfare dispute, or the papers raise questions the court cannot resolve without hearing from the parties directly. Straightforward, unopposed deputyship applications are the most common example of paper-only decisions, while removal applications and life-sustaining treatment cases are far more likely to reach a hearing.

• The Public Guardian can be asked to report on a deputy's suitability before appointment.
• The Official Solicitor is sometimes appointed to represent the donor's interests in contested welfare cases.
• Family members who are not applicants can be notified and given the chance to object using form COP5.
• Judgments in more significant cases are published, anonymised, on the National Archives' case law website.

Costs beyond the application fee

The £408 fee is only the starting point. A property and affairs deputy usually has to pay for a security bond, renewed annually, to protect the donor's estate against mismanagement. There is also an annual supervision fee to the OPG, which varies depending on how closely the deputy's affairs are supervised, and a fee for the annual report itself in more complex cases. Legal or professional deputy fees, where a solicitor or panel deputy is appointed instead of a family member, are charged on top and paid from the donor's funds.

Fee remission is available where the donor's income is low enough, and the court can also waive or reduce some fees on hardship grounds, but the underlying process remains slower and more expensive than acting under an LPA that was already in place.

Worked example

After her husband Peter has a stroke and loses capacity without ever making an LPA, Julie applies to the Court of Protection to become his deputy for property and affairs. She completes forms COP1, COP1A and a capacity assessment on COP3 from Peter's GP. The application takes just over eight months, including a short delay while the court asks a follow-up question about who should be notified. Once appointed, Julie must file an annual report to the OPG and pay a yearly supervision fee, unlike an attorney under an LPA, who has no ongoing reporting duty to the OPG unless investigated. The whole process costs Julie around £700 once the application fee, security bond and GP report are added up — money and time that a £92 LPA, made while Peter still had capacity, would have avoided entirely.

Common questions

Read next

• How to remove an attorney from an LPA
• OPG investigations into attorneys: what happens