Power of Attorney fees – £89 million of refunds due

You can get part of your application fee back if you applied to register a power attorney from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2017.

This applies to lasting powers of attorney (LPA) and enduring powers of attorney (EPA).

You can only claim a refund if you made the power of attorney in England or Wales.

Who can claim a refund

You can make a claim if you’re:

the ‘donor’ – the person who made the power of attorney
an ‘attorney’ – appointed by the donor in an LPA or EPA

The refund must be paid to the donor.

You only need to make one claim per donor, even if you made more than one power of attorney.

If you applied to register a power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017 you can claim back part the registration fee paid at the time.The refunds will typically be between £45-£54 per person.As part of the Ministry of Justice, the OPG has to ‘cost neutral’ but due to the increasing number of applications to register Enduring Powers of Attorney (created before 2007) and Lasting Powers of Attorney an £89 million surplus has built up which has to be repaid.The OPG reduced the cost of registration fees last year to avoid future build up of funds but must now deal with historic overpayments.The refund can be claimed either by the person who created the power of attorney (the ‘Donor’) or the person they appointed to act for them (the ‘Attorney’). You can submit your refund claim online at www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund but if the donor has died or in some other circumstances you will need to claim by phone.