Deputyship Application: a step-by-step guide for families

Key points

•     A deputyship application asks the Court of Protection to appoint you to manage someone's money or property because they can no longer manage it themselves.

•     You will normally need forms COP3, COP4, COP1A, COP14PADep and COP15PADep.. Applications can be submitted online or by post. The forms required differ depending on the route used.

•     You must tell the person themselves, and at least three other connected people, before you submit.

•     Those people have 14 days to respond, and you then have three months from notifying them to get the application in.

•     There is usually no hearing for a property and financial affairs application.

•     The court application fee is £432 . The rest of the costs are set out on our deputyship fees page .

What a deputyship application is

A deputyship application is a formal request to the Court of Protection asking it to appoint a named person as deputy for someone who has lost the mental capacity to manage their own affairs. It is made on the court's own forms, at least three people connected to the application must normally be notified before it is submitted There is usually no hearing for a property and financial affairs deputyship application.

This page covers the property and financial affairs application, which is what the overwhelming majority of families need. It explains which forms you complete, who you have to tell, the two deadlines that catch people out, and what the court does once it has your papers.

What this page does not cover. Personal welfare deputyship, which the court grants far more rarely, follows a different process and is not dealt with here. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems. Everything below is the law and procedure in England and Wales, and it is general information rather than advice about your own situation.

If you are not yet sure whether deputyship is the right route, or you want to know what a deputy actually does once appointed, start with deputyship and the Court of Protection explained .

Before you start

Two things are worth checking before you spend any money.

Does the person already have a lasting power of attorney? If they made one and it is registered, the attorney can act now and no application is needed. It is worth searching the Office of the Public Guardian register rather than assuming.

Do they still have capacity to make one? Capacity is decision specific under section 2 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 . Someone in the early stages of dementia may still be able to put a lasting power of attorney in place instead , which is faster, cheaper and gives them the choice of who acts. Once that window closes, deputyship is the only route left.

If neither applies, a deputyship application is the way forward.

The forms you will need

This is where most people get stuck, partly because the forms changed and a lot of published guidance is out of date. The current set for a property and financial affairs application, per the Ministry of Justice guidance last updated on 2 December 2024, is:

Source: gov.uk, Apply for a property and financial affairs deputyship order .

Two things to note.

Form COP1 is no longer the standard deputyship application route. Applications are made online, and the paper COP1 form is reserved for applicants who need a reasonable adjustment. A good deal of published guidance still presents COP1 as the ordinary starting point, and it is not.

COP3 is the one you do not control. It has to be completed by a professional who has assessed the person, and waiting for that assessment is the most common cause of delay in the whole process.

The application step by step

1.      Arrange the capacity assessment. A suitable professional completes COP3. Start here, because everything else waits on it.

2.      Complete your own declaration. COP4 asks about your finances, any criminal record and any bankruptcy. Answer it honestly. The court is assessing suitability, not perfection.

3.      Gather the financial picture. Bank accounts, pensions, benefits, property, debts, regular outgoings. This feeds COP1A or the equivalent online questions.

4.      Notify the person themselves. Send them COP14PADep together with COP5.

5.      Notify at least three connected people. Send each of them COP15PADep together with COP5.

6.      Wait for responses. They have 14 days. If no response is received, you can then proceed without it.

7.      Submit. File the application online, with the fee, within three months of the notifications.

Who you have to tell, and the 14 day rule

You cannot make a deputyship application quietly. The court requires you to tell the person you are applying about, and at least three other people connected to them , before the application goes in.

Who counts as connected is a matter of judgement rather than a fixed list. In practice it means people with a genuine interest in the person's welfare: other children, siblings, a spouse or partner, a close friend of long standing, sometimes a care home manager or a social worker where family is thin on the ground.

People notified of a deputyship application have 14 days to respond. If no response arrives within 14 days, the applicant may proceed without it. Silence is not an obstacle. An objection is a different matter, and is dealt with below.

If you genuinely cannot find three people to notify, you explain why in a COP24 witness statement rather than skipping the requirement.

The three month deadline nobody mentions

After notifying the person and at least three connected people, an applicant has three months to submit a deputyship application to the Court of Protection before the notifications lapse. Miss it and you notify everyone again.

This deadline appears in the official guidance and on almost no law firm page about deputyship. It matters because the capacity assessment and the financial information often take longer to assemble than families expect, and it is easy to notify the family early, feel that progress has been made, and then run the clock down while waiting for a COP3 to come back from a busy GP surgery.

The practical order is: get the COP3 and the financial picture first, notify second, submit third. Notifying first feels productive and creates a deadline you may not be able to meet.

Submitting the application

Applications are made online or via post. You complete the financial questions as part of the service rather than on a separate COP1A in most cases, upload the completed forms, and pay the court fee.

The paper route using COP1 still exists, but it is now reserved for applicants who need a reasonable adjustment. If posting is the only realistic option for you, say so and ask for the adjustment rather than assuming the paper forms are simply an alternative.

What happens after you apply

The court reviews the papers. It will then tell you one of four things: that the application has been approved, that it has been rejected, that more information is needed, or that a security bond has to be put in place before the order is issued.

The security bond is an insurance policy protecting the person's money against a deputy who misuses it. Where one is required, the order does not take effect until it is in place, so deal with it promptly. The cost depends on the size of the estate, and what the security bond costs is set out separately. The Office of the Public Guardian supervises deputies once the order is made.

There is usually no hearing for a property and financial affairs deputyship application. Gov.uk states this directly in its deputyship guidance , last updated 2 December 2024. That is worth knowing, because the prospect of standing up in court is one of the things that puts families off applying at all, and for most of them it will not happen.

When the order arrives, read it before you act on it. It lists exactly which decisions you may make, and that list is the limit of your authority.

How long it takes

A straightforward, unopposed property and financial affairs application usually takes 4-6 weeks to prepare (cannot advise on timescale for response as this varies for each case).

Where the delay actually sits, in order: waiting for the COP3 capacity assessment, waiting for responses to notifications, and the court's own processing time. Only the first of those is within your control, which is why it is worth chasing the assessment hard from day one.

If money is needed before the order arrives, for example because care fees have already started, the court can be asked to make an interim order releasing funds while the main application is decided.

What it costs

The Court of Protection application fee for a deputyship order is £432 , as published on gov.uk and verified on 2 September 2026. There are annual Office of the Public Guardian fees once you are appointed, and there may also be a security bond premium.

Rather than repeat it here, the full breakdown, including what a solicitor charges and when fees can be reduced or waived, is on our deputyship fees page .

What goes wrong, and how to avoid it

The application is not legally difficult. It is procedurally fussy, and the same handful of things send it back:

•      An incomplete COP3. The assessor leaves a section blank or assesses capacity in general terms rather than for the specific decisions the application covers.

•      Fewer than three people notified , with no COP24 explaining why.

•      The three month window missed while waiting for paperwork.

•      A vague financial picture. Accounts listed without balances, or property listed without an indication of value.

•      Asking for powers the order will not give. Selling a property to a family member, or making substantial gifts, needs a separate application even after you are appointed.

•      Not budgeting for the security bond , then finding the order is held up.

None of these is fatal. All of them cost weeks.

If the family disagrees

If someone objects, they say so on form COP5 within the notification period. The court then decides how to deal with it, and this is one of the situations where a hearing genuinely may be listed.

Say so in the application if you already know there is a disagreement. The court would far rather be told at the outset than discover it from an objection, and an application that anticipates the problem tends to be handled more smoothly than one that conceals it. Contested applications take considerably longer and cost more.

Applying when someone has dementia

Dementia is the most common reason families end up making a deputyship application, and it brings one particular difficulty: capacity fluctuates.

Someone may be perfectly clear in the morning and confused by the evening. That does not prevent an application, but it does mean the COP3 assessment should be carried out by someone who understands the condition and who assesses capacity for the specific decisions in question rather than making a general judgement.

It also means the lasting power of attorney window may still be open in the early stages. If there is any prospect of that, take advice quickly, because it closes.

When the local authority applies instead

Where there is no suitable family member or friend, or where relatives cannot agree, a local authority can apply to act as deputy. It usually happens when someone is already receiving social care and there is nobody else available.

Families sometimes discover this is being considered rather than being asked about it. If that is your situation and you would rather act yourself, say so early and in writing, because once an application is under way it is harder to redirect. If social services are already involved, speak to us in Harrow before the position hardens.

Do you need a solicitor to apply for deputyship?

No. You can make a deputyship application yourself, and a great many people do it successfully without help.

It is worth taking advice where the estate is substantial or complicated, where property has to be sold, where family members disagree, where the person has a business or overseas assets, or where the application has already been returned to you once. Those are the situations where the cost of getting it wrong exceeds the cost of getting help.

If you decide you want help, you can talk to a deputyship solicitor about handling the application for you.

Checklist: what you need before you start your deputyship application

▪     Confirmation that no registered lasting power of attorney exists

▪     The name and contact details of a professional who can complete the COP3

▪     The person's full name, date of birth and address

▪     A list of bank and building society accounts with approximate balances

▪     Details of pensions and any benefits received

▪     Property details and an indication of value

▪     Regular outgoings, including care fees

▪     Any debts

▪     Names and addresses of at least three people to notify

▪     Your own financial details for the COP4 declaration

▪     The court fee, or evidence to support an application to reduce it

Frequently asked questions

If you would rather talk it through

Getting the forms right matters less than getting the order right, and most people only find out what they should have asked for after the order arrives. A short conversation before you start usually saves a return trip to the court. You can also read more about our Court of Protection service.

Book a free, no-obligation 20-minute chat with Ash Hill Solicitors in Harrow, or call 0208 515 2790.