The Court of Protection (Amendment) Rules 2005
These Rules make various amendments to the Court of Protection Rules 2001 (SI 2001/824).The amounts of various fees are amended, as follows—Rule 24(1C) is amended to enable the court to dispense with service of a relevant application where the court considers it necessary to appoint an interim receiver under rule 42(1)(b) (rule 3).Rule 58 is omitted because it is now outdated following the introduction of the Court of Protection Rules 2001 (rule 4).Rule 78(1) is amended to introduce a new administration fee, payable on the making of a short order, direction or authorisation under rule 8. The fee is set at £190.00 and is payable annually on the anniversary of the appointment and may be apportioned where the proceedings are terminated part way through a year (rule 5).A new rule 78B is inserted providing for an estate account fee. This introduces fees payable when the court approves an estate account if the patient has a life or an absolute interest in a residuary estate under the terms of a will, partial intestacy or intestacy. This fee is set at £100.00 (rule 6).A new paragraph (3A) is inserted into Rule 79 to provide that in any case where there is a readily ascertainable pecuniary consideration (including those where the value of the readily ascertainable pecuniary consideration is below £10,000.00) then that value shall be set out in the application (rule 7(b)).A new paragraph (3B) is inserted into Rule 79 to enable the court to direct that a fee paid under paragraph 3(1)(i) or (ii) of the Appendix which has been incorrectly assessed on making the application shall be adjusted (rule 7(b)).Rule 79 is amended to provide that a fee, or in a “special case” a standard fee, is payable upon the making of the application for the order, direction or authorisation. Rule 79 is also amended to introduce an additional fee for a “special case” payable upon the court fixing a date for a hearing under rule 9 (rule 7(c)) (see amendments to Appendix below). This additional fee shall be refunded or shall cease to be payable if the hearing is cancelled.A new transaction fee is inserted into rule 79 by rule 7(d). This introduces fees payable upon the making of an application to authorise a person to manage and let a patient’s property. This fee is set at £170.00.Rule 79 is amended so that transaction fees payable on an application for an order or direction ordering or authorising the sale or purchase of any land are refundable if already paid or are no longer payable if the proceedings are terminated before the order for sale or purchase is entered. (rule 7(d)).Rule 82 is amended introducing a new winding up fee payable on the anniversary of the patient’s death until the court passes the final account of the receiver or directs that the final account may be dispensed with (rule 8). This fee is set at £150.00.The Appendix is amended in various respects including—a new administration fee is inserted payable upon the making of short orders or directions under rule 10. This fee is set at £190.00; andfor special cases flat fees are introduced and are payable for transactions where the pecuniary consideration is up to and including £10,000.00. This fee is set at £100.00. The fee payable for special cases for transactions where the pecuniary consideration is greater than £10,000.00 is £360.00. The new fee (the additional fee) introduced in relation to special cases and payable upon the court fixing a date for a hearing (referred to above) is set at £500.00.Rule 10 provides a transitional provision for fees payable in a special case under rule 79(4) and provides that where an application for an order, direction or authorisation is received before 1st April 2005 in relation to a special case the previous fee structure shall be applied. This is because in the higher value transactions the fees payable could be up to £1,500.00 as opposed to a maximum under the new structure of £860.00.