Have you registered a Lasting Power of Attorney either for Health & Care or for Financial Decisions between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017? If so, you might be entitled to a refund of the court registration fee. You can make a claim if you were the donor (the person who made the Power of Attorney) or the attorney (the person appointed by the donor) – but the refund will be paid to the donor. You can claim a refund even if the Power of Attorney has been used and there’s currently no deadline by which you must apply. This refund is due to the fact that the Office of the Public Guardian’s (OPG) operating costs came down as more people applied to register a power of attorney and the process became more efficient, but the application fee charged was not reduced in line with this.
LPA refunds are therefore being offered to those who may have been charged more than was necessary to apply to register lasting or enduring powers of attorney between the dates mentioned above.
Making a claim is quick and simple using the online service – https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund (you will need to know the name, address and date of birth of the donor and the donor’s bank account details) or by telephoning the OPD helpdesk on 0300 456 0300 (choose option 6) . Only one form needs to be completed for each donor and OPG will find all power of attorney application fees paid by the donor during the qualifying period.
The amount of fees to be refunded will depend on a number of matters and the OPG will confirm the same to you once it has looked into the matter.