Lasting Power of Attorney Cost in England

The OPG Registration Fee

Each LPA costs £92 to register with the Office of the Public Guardian. Since England requires two separate LPAs for full protection — one for Property and Financial Affairs, one for Health and Welfare — the total OPG fee comes to £184. This is a one-off charge. Once registered, the LPA remains valid indefinitely during the donor's lifetime unless revoked or otherwise terminated, with no renewal fees or annual charges.

The fee is payable online through the OPG portal or by cheque enclosed with the paper application. You pay regardless of whether you use a solicitor or file the application yourself.

Fee Remissions and Exemptions

If the donor has a gross annual income below £12,000, they can apply for a 50% fee remission using form LPA120, reducing each LPA registration to £46 (£92 total for both). If the donor receives a qualifying means-tested benefit — Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support or Reduction, Local Housing Allowance, or Working Tax Credit combined with Child Tax Credit, the disability element of Working Tax Credit, or the severe disability element of Working Tax Credit — they qualify for a full exemption. Universal Credit is assessed under the gross-income rules for a 50% remission, not as an automatic full exemption.

The critical detail: form LPA120 and all supporting evidence must be submitted at the same time as the LPA application. The OPG permanently ended retrospective fee remission claims in February 2026. If you forget to include the form, you pay the full £92 per document with no recourse.

DIY vs Solicitor: The Real Cost Difference

Filing your own LPA through the GOV.UK portal costs only the OPG registration fees — £184 for both types. The digital service walks you through each section, and you print the document for wet-ink signing before posting it to the OPG.

High-street solicitors typically charge £500 to £1,500 or more for bespoke work. Some include storage, will-writing, and a review service in their package. Digital estate-planning services like Farewill and Octopus Legacy sit in between, with packages reported at £300 to £699 and online support.

The main risk of the DIY route is rejection. Consumer guidance cites a roughly 15% DIY error rate — most commonly date sequencing mistakes, missing witness signatures, or uninitialled corrections. A rejection means reprinting, re-signing in the correct order, and paying a fresh £92 fee. Getting the signing sequence right the first time eliminates this cost entirely.

What It Costs If You Don't Have an LPA

The real cost comparison is not DIY versus solicitor — it is LPA versus no LPA. If someone loses mental capacity without a registered LPA or valid registered EPA, and no correctly signed LPA remains available to submit for registration, the family must apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order. The application fee alone is £432, plus a £102 assessment fee. Processing takes 6 to 9 months. Once appointed, the deputy pays the standard £320 per year to the OPG in supervision fees; qualifying property and affairs deputies managing less than £21,000 pay £35 under minimal supervision.

Total first-year deputyship costs typically run between £2,500 and £5,000 when factoring in legal representation, security bond premiums, and medical evidence. That is roughly 14 to 27 times the cost of filing two LPAs yourself.

When to Register

You can only make a new LPA while you have mental capacity. If an LPA was already signed and witnessed in the correct order, the donor or an attorney can still submit it for registration after capacity is lost. Registration currently takes 8 to 10 weeks for error-free applications, stretching to 14 to 20 weeks during peak periods or if the OPG flags errors.

Our step-by-step LPA guide includes a pre-submission audit checklist that catches the errors responsible for most OPG rejections, plus an LPA120 evidence checklist to make sure your fee remission claim goes through on the first attempt.

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