In April 2017 the fee for registering Powers of Attorney Documents with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) was reduced from £110 per document to £82. For a married couple preparing both Health and Welfare and Financial documents, this was a saving of £112. At the time, it seemed that it was just bad luck to those who had set theirs up previous to this.

The OPG have however now admitted that the fees charged over the last four years were excessive and all those who were overcharged will be refunded during the current financial year. Government agencies are not permitted to charge more than the cost of processing applications unless the Ministry of Justice have exercised the power provided by legislation to do so.

We still await details of how the refunds will be processed by the OPG and the administration involved in ensuring monies are returned to those overcharged will be incredibly involved. We do, however, welcome the fact that the OPG are correcting the position so that those who were overcharged are repaid.

Caption: Donna Bothamley. Partner, Head of the Wills & Probate Team