Fixed costs and remuneration of professional and public authority court appointed deputies: the new approach for deputies.

This article will be of interest to professional deputies and those assisting professional deputies, who manage the day-to-day property and financial affairs of the protected party.  Here, we take a look at the implications of the new guidance, recently issued by the Office of Public Guardian (OPG) regarding the fixed costs and remuneration of progressional and public authority court appointed deputies, of which many of you will be familiar and also discuss the implications of the same.

Further to the new guidance published on 18 June 2025, the same detailed the purpose and scope of the general principles regarding fixed costs and remuneration, and how the same should apply, further to Practice Direction 19B.

In accordance with Paragraph 10 of the revised Practice Direction, professional deputies, appointed in property and financial affairs cases, will not be entitled to have the costs assessed where P’s net assets are less than £20,300.00, unless the Court has made a specific order for detailed assessment. ‘Net assets’ are defined within the matter of PennTrust Ltd v West Berkshire District Council & Anor [2023] EWCOP 48, and are detailed as including P’s property, regardless of whether P resides in the said property. Net assets are also determined to include any capital held by P, whether they are yet in possession of the same or not, such as debt, inheritance or damages award where liability has been agreed.  We’d highly recommend giving the above case a read; it’s not an overly lengthy read and also contains some useful information regarding securing your costs against P’s property and the additional steps required here.

Where the deputy has their costs assessed, despite the Order not providing authority for them to do so, the Office of the Public Guardian will expect the deputy to make an application to the Court of Protection for retrospective authority to take costs at the higher rate and relief of liability attached to taking an unauthorised fee. The deputy is invited to consider the following when making the application;

• The circumstances of the original deputyship appointment;
• An explanation of the steps the deputy has taken in the discharge of their functions during the relevant period and why fixed costs are not considered to be appropriate in the matter at hand;
• An explanation as to why an assessment was sought without authorisation;
• The size of P’s estate;
• The sum of the assessed costs.

It should be strongly noted, if the deputy fails to make the application, the Office of the Public Guardian will consider making their own application to discharge the deputy.

In accordance with Paragraph 10 of Practice Direction 19B, the professional deputy may take an annual management fee not exceeding 4.5% of P’s assets on the anniversary of the court order, where P’s assets are below £20,300.00.  Where the deputy takes fixed costs that will reduce P’s assets below the threshold of £20,300.00, the Office of the Public Guardian expects the deputy to be able to state why costs are reasonable and proportionate in accordance with the extent of P’s estate.

Where P’s nets assets were above the previous threshold of £16,000.00, but below the new threshold of £20,300.00 prior to 1 April 2024 and interim payments have been taken, the Office of the Public Guardian does not expect these to be refunded to P.

Therefore, further to the guidance above, we understand the below to be the position regarding fixed costs going forward:

1. If the deputyship order states P’s costs can be assessed if assets remain over £16,000.00, this remains in place for the life of the deputyship (a specific court order effectively “trumps” a practice direction)
2. If the deputyship order states P’s costs can be assessed if assets remain over £20,300.00, this remains in place for the life of the deputyship
3. If the order is silent as to a specific threshold, the threshold of £16,000.00 applies, until where the deputyship period ends on or after 1 April 2024, in which case the £20,300.00 threshold applies.

Seldom are these rules straightforward and there are usually different elements of a case which may fall between these rules and the subsequently published guidance.  As ever, our friendly, yet professional and knowledgeable team are on hand to answer any specific queries you may have in relation to these, or any COP related, costs queries, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.

23.07.2025