Lasting power of attorney registration fees: the £92 fee, the half-fee under £12,000 and what a couple pays for four documents

Applying to register a lasting power of attorney (LPA) costs £92 for each LPA, unless the donor gets a reduction or an exemption. The GOV.UK registration page says it takes 8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes in the application. A couple who each want both kinds of LPA have four documents to register, so the Office of the Public Guardian fee is £368 before any reduction. This page works that on one file and sets out what the published rules say.

The fee goes to the Office of the Public Guardian, not to the firm. It is a disbursement, and it belongs in the client care letter and on the estimate from the start.

What GOV.UK says

Three GOV.UK pages, read on 6 October 2026:

• The registration page says "Applying to register an LPA costs £92" unless you get a reduction or exemption, and that for both a personal welfare LPA and a property and financial affairs LPA the total is £184.
• The same page says the people notified have 3 weeks to raise concerns, and that you can apply to register yourself if you can make your own decisions. The attorney can also register it.
• The fees publication says the donor, the person who made the LPA, pays nothing if they receive certain means-tested benefits when the application is made. If the donor's income before tax is less than £12,000 a year they pay half. The repeat application fee is £46. A donor on Universal Credit is assessed for a reduction and cannot be assessed for an exemption.
• It also says payment must be made when applying, that retrospective refunds are not possible and that all fees are non-refundable. Its latest update, dated 14 July 2026, concerned payment of fees.

One couple, worked

An invented couple, each making one property and financial affairs LPA and one health and welfare LPA. That is two LPAs each, four in all.

The step from £368 to £184 is a saving of £184, exactly half. A client who is close to the £12,000 line should be asked about income before the fee goes in the estimate, because the donor's income, not the household's, is the test the page describes.

What we could not confirm

• The pages do not say how "income" is measured, for example whether it counts pension income or savings interest. Ask the Office of the Public Guardian before telling a client they qualify.
• The page called the 3-week notice period a time for people to raise concerns. We could not confirm from it whether the Office of the Public Guardian waits for that period before the 8 to 10 weeks start, so do not promise a date to the client.
• The publication does not say how the repeat application fee applies where only some of the LPAs were previously refused. Check the published rules for the individual case.
• Whether a reduction can be applied after a fee is paid: the page says retrospective refunds are not possible, so assume not.

Putting it in the engagement letter

1. State the fee per LPA and the total for the number of documents, as a disbursement paid to the Office of the Public Guardian.
2. Ask the means-test question at the first meeting, and record the answer on the file. A wrong assumption is a fee that cannot be refunded.
3. Say 8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes, and that a mistake can add time. The client care letter checklist already has a place for disbursements.
4. Show the firm's own fee separately from the registration fee. The transparency rules guide covers which prices a published page must state.
5. Diarise a chase for week 8, and keep the date of application on the file, in line with the habits in the file retention guide.

Where Overlyft fits

Overlyft can set up an AI assistant to draft the fee estimate from the means-test answers, add the week 8 chase date to the diary and flag any LPA application with no confirmation of receipt. A fee earner checks every figure and a supervising solicitor remains responsible for the file. This page is general information, not legal advice.