OPG Fees - outrageous!

[MistletoeAndWino]

Just a moan - I work for a solicitor and new Regulations require Lasting Powers of Attorney to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before they can be used. Their registration fee is £150 (not including solicitors' fees) and instead of the old Power of Attorney being about 5 pages long, the new document is 25 pages.

Because of a minor clerical error, the OPG have rejected a form and sent it back. Fair enough, we will do it again.

They want another £150 because 2 boxes weren't ticked!

We can't ask the client for a further £150 - my solicitor is a one man band and not a huge firm that can afford to swallow unnecessary admin fees.

We set up an enduring power of attourney for my mum before the new regs came in...does that mean we have to register it, or only when it is needed?

Check on this - the fee is for registering not returning form with questions.

Scaryteacher, you will only need to register the EPA (at a cost of £120 at the moment) when your mum is losing or has lost the mental capacity to manage her own affairs, but you (assuming you are the Attorney) could of course use the EPA before then if, say, your mum was unable to deal with bills, etc.

Random, you are right that the fee is for registering, which we have already paid, they want a further £150!

Well, I might think she's lost her marbles at times, but she's perfectly sane really!!

Thanks for that.

You've paid your fee so call them & see why they want another. The person who sent the letter might not have been aware you'd already paid your fee.

They won't budge, I'm afraid (this is MistletoeAndWino, btw).