Court fees rose on 13 July 2026 across civil, family, probate and tribunal work. Most increases track inflation at about 2.6%. Two do not: the legally aided detailed assessment fee jumped by a quarter, and the Property Chamber moved to an entirely new five-tier framework. Fee schedules and precedent documents need checking.
Which court fees changed?
Almost all of them. The Court and Tribunal Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2026, SI 2026/642, amends eleven separate fee instruments.
Those cover civil proceedings, family proceedings, magistrates’ courts, non-contentious probate, the Court of Protection, enrolment of deeds, the Upper Tribunal Lands Chamber, the First-tier Tribunal Gambling and Property Chambers, and both immigration and asylum chambers.
One detail catches people out. The order was originally due on 6 July. A second instrument, SI 2026/665, pushed commencement back a week to 13 July. Anything filed in that gap paid the old fee correctly.
What are the new figures?
The everyday ones first.
A general application without consent rises from £313 to £321. An application by consent goes from £123 to £126. Part 8 costs-only proceedings move from £67 to £69.
Costs practitioners face a bigger change. The fee for requesting a legally aided detailed assessment rises from £237 to £296. That is roughly 25%, well beyond the general uplift, and it lands on publicly funded work.
Determination of costs where the sum claimed exceeds £100,000 but not £150,000 goes from £1,365 to £1,400. In the Court of Protection, a request for detailed assessment moves from £99 to £102, and an appeal against a costs assessment from £79 to £81.
Where a party requests a detailed assessment other than a legally aided one, the fee still bands by the amount of costs claimed. That structure has not changed.
What happened in the Property Chamber?
The most substantive change, and it is not really an increase at all.
Eighty fees across the Residential Property Division moved onto a new five-tier framework. Tiers reflect case type and access to justice considerations rather than a flat schedule.
Most case types now attract either £200 to apply and £300 for a hearing, or £114 to apply and £227 for a hearing. A smaller group pays less. Appealing a rent increase costs £47 with the hearing fee waived. Determining a pitch fee costs £23, again with no hearing fee. Urgent building safety matters carry no fee at all.
This is the second tranche of a wider reform. The framework already applied to cases under the Renters’ Rights Act from 1 May 2026.
An application filed at the old fee is liable to be rejected, which costs days rather than pounds. Precedent documents, bill templates and costs budgets carrying fee figures all need checking against the July schedule. The legally aided assessment fee moved far more than inflation, so a rate assumed from last year will be wrong.
Does the increase apply to existing cases?
No. The order is not retrospective. The new fees apply to fees paid, and applications issued, on or after 13 July 2026.
That means the relevant date is when the step is taken, not when proceedings started. A long-running matter reaching detailed assessment now pays the new fee.
Help with Fees remains available where a party cannot pay, and the increases do not change eligibility.
What should firms check?
Four places where an old figure hides.
Bill of costs templates and Precedent documents that carry court fees as fixed disbursements. Costs budgets already filed with estimated fees for future phases. Client care letters quoting disbursement figures. Any internal fee crib sheet, which is usually the last thing anyone updates.
The practical cost of getting it wrong is not the shortfall. It is the rejected application, the letter asking for the difference, and the days lost while that goes round.
The Legal Brief covered the residential reforms that drove the Property Chamber framework in its report on the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force, and the parallel movement on publicly funded fees in its report on the AGFS consultation.
GOV.UK summarises the package in Court and tribunal fees: updates from July 2026. The commencement change sits in SI 2026/665, which also lists every instrument the fees order amends.