WillSum › Lasting power of attorney cost
Power of attorney
How much does a lasting power of attorney cost?
What the state charges to register one, what firms charge to draft one, and the two things about the fee that most of the market leaves out.
- The short answer
- The reduction nobody mentions
- Scotland and Northern Ireland
- What firms charge to draft one
- If it comes back wrong
The short answer
Registering a lasting power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian costs £92. That is the whole of what the state charges. Every other pound anybody bills you for is drafting, and drafting is a thing you are allowed to do yourself on the government's own service.
£92 to register one lasting power of attorney.
Ninety-two pounds registers one lasting power of attorney. Not one person, one LPA. That distinction is where the real bill hides, and the government's own page says so in the very next sentence.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian, read 24 September 2026.
Both kinds, for one person, is a published figure of its own
£184 in total for one person to register both types of LPAThere are two kinds of lasting power of attorney, one for money and property and one for health and care, and they are registered separately. One person wanting both pays £184. A couple wanting both each is four registrations, and that is before anybody has drafted anything.
Applies in: England and Wales.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian, read 24 September 2026.
That is the sentence most of the market leaves out. A couple who both want both kinds are looking at four separate registrations, and a page that quotes £92 without saying which of the two kinds it buys is not wrong so much as useless.
The reduction and the exemption, which are on the same page as the fee
You may not have to pay the registration fee at all
The registration fee can be waived altogether if you are on certain benefitsWho it is for: People receiving certain means-tested benefits, Income Support among them. The Office of the Public Guardian's own application form carries the full list and the evidence it wants. A reduction, rather than a full exemption, is available on an income under £12,000 a year. Applying for either means posting the forms rather than using the online service.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian, read 24 September 2026.
On some benefits the registration fee goes away completely. On a low income it is reduced. It is one paragraph below the fee on the government's own page and it is missing from almost everything else written about lasting powers of attorney, including the pages of firms charging four hundred pounds to fill the form in.
The income line for a reduction
£12,000 a year, the income below which you can apply for a reductionEarn less than twelve thousand a year and you can ask for the registration fee to be cut. On some benefits it can be waived. It is on the government's own page, one paragraph below the fee, and almost nothing written about lasting powers of attorney mentions it.
Applies in: England and Wales.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian, read 24 September 2026.
What the reduction actually comes to is on the application form rather than the web page: £46 to register one LPA or EPA with a 50% remission. Which benefits count, the Universal Credit rule, the hardship route and when to apply are all on the LPA fee reduction page.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian, read 28 September 2026.
Neither of those is buried. They sit one paragraph below the fee on the government's own page. They are missing from nearly everything else written about lasting powers of attorney, including pages belonging to firms charging several hundred pounds to fill the form in, and a reader on a low income is exactly the reader who most needs to be told.
Scotland charges for the document. Northern Ireland has something else entirely
This is where a page written from English sources and labelled United Kingdom goes wrong, and it usually goes wrong by accident.
Scotland: one document, however many powers are in it
£99 to register one power of attorney document, however many powers it confersScotland registers one document, not one power. Ninety-nine pounds covers a document that can hand over money decisions and welfare decisions together. Somebody in England wanting the same cover registers two separate instruments and pays £184.
Applies in: Scotland.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland), read 24 September 2026.
Hold that against £184 for the same cover in England and Wales. Scotland registers the document and England and Wales register each power separately, so the pair is cheaper north of the border and a single power is dearer. Neither figure can be quoted for the other country.
Scotland: taking one attorney out, without starting again
£32 to register a partial revocationTaking one attorney out of a Scottish power of attorney, without tearing the whole thing up, costs £32 to register.
Applies in: Scotland.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland), read 24 September 2026.
Scotland: a replacement certificate
£32 for a duplicate or replacement certificateLost the certificate? £32, and only if the power of attorney was registered on paper rather than through the online service.
Applies in: Scotland.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland), read 24 September 2026.
Northern Ireland: a gap we are leaving open on purpose
Northern Ireland does not have lasting powers of attorney. It kept the older enduring power of attorney, which is registered with the Office of Care and Protection only once the person who made it is starting to lose capacity. Different instrument, different trigger, and neither the English nor the Scottish fee can be borrowed for it.
We went looking for its registration fee and did not find it on a source we are willing to publish from. So this page does not state one. Printing the English figure under a Northern Irish heading is the commonest error in this subject and we would rather carry the gap until the figure is read properly.
What firms publish for drafting one
Will and power of attorney prices are not covered by the transparency rules the way probate prices are, so every figure here is a firm choosing to publish. That is worth saying out loud, and it is why this table is short.
| Firm | What they publish | What kind of number | VAT | Their own page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bindmans | £500 plus VAT | Fixed fee | plus VAT, court fee shown separately | bindmans.com |
| Needle Partners | £400 | Fixed fee | not stated beside this figure, court fee shown separately | www.needlepartners.com |
| O'Hara Solicitors | £400 plus VAT | Fixed fee | plus VAT, court fee shown separately | oharasolicitors.co.uk |
Every one of those is for the drafting only. The registration fee is a separate payment to the Office of the Public Guardian and it is the same figure whoever fills the form in.
Four hundred plus VAT to have one drawn up, and ninety two pounds to the Office of the Public Guardian to register it. The drafting is nearly five times the registration. You can do the drafting yourself on the government's own service, and the registration fee is the same either way.
That firm's own page: O'Hara Solicitors, read 24 September 2026.
Four hundred pounds to draft one, with the registration fee on top, and their page is one of the very few that tells you the registration fee depends on your income. It does. Most pages do not say so.
And theirs: Needle Partners, read 24 September 2026.
One of those pages prices the registration fee at a figure that has been superseded
Five hundred plus VAT for one, and their page adds a registration fee of £82, which has not been the fee since it rose to £92. Four LPAs priced off that page leaves you forty pounds light before you start.
The Office of the Public Guardian charges £92. That page states £82, which is £10 light on every single registration it totals up.
The difference is our arithmetic, added up from the sourced figures on this page.
Nobody is being called dishonest. A fee line written once and never reread is carelessness, and it is the same carelessness we found across the probate pricing pages. What it means for a reader is the same thing either way: check the registration fee against the government's own page before you take any total on trust.
The page that states it: Bindmans, read 24 September 2026.
If it comes back wrong
Correcting a mistake and applying again
£46 to correct a mistake and apply again within 3 monthsGet it wrong and the Office of the Public Guardian may let you fix it for half the fee, if you are back inside three months. May, not will. It depends on what the mistake was.
Applies in: England and Wales.
Source: Office of the Public Guardian, read 24 September 2026.
Note the word may. It is not a right and it depends on what the mistake was, which is the honest reason a lot of people decide the drafting is worth paying for. That is a reasonable decision and nobody should feel got at for making it. It is simply not the same thing as being told you have no choice.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to register a lasting power of attorney?
Ninety two pounds for one, paid to the Office of the Public Guardian, in England and Wales. There are two kinds of lasting power of attorney and they are registered separately, so one person wanting both pays one hundred and eighty four pounds in total. Scotland works differently: it charges for the document rather than for each power.
Do I need a solicitor to make a lasting power of attorney?
No. The government runs a service that takes you through it and the registration fee is the same whoever sends the form in. The firms on this page publish several hundred pounds for drafting one, and paying for that is a reasonable decision where the arrangement is complicated, where somebody might later dispute it, or where you simply want it checked.
Can the registration fee be reduced or waived?
Yes, and it is on the government's own page one paragraph below the fee. There is a reduction if your income is under twelve thousand pounds a year, and on certain benefits, Income Support among them, the fee can be removed altogether. Both mean posting the forms rather than using the online service, and the application form carries the full eligibility.
What is the difference between the two types of LPA?
One covers property and financial affairs and one covers health and care decisions. They are separate documents, they are registered separately and they are paid for separately. A page quoting a single fee without saying which kind it covers is the commonest way people end up budgeting for half of what they meant to set up.