Legal aid if you have capital

If you have disposable capital (savings) of over £8,000, you won’t get legal aid. Disposable capital includes:

money in the bank
valuable items
the value of your home (if you own it). This depends on how much the property is worth and how much your mortgage is.
You have to include your partner’s capital unless your partner is the person who you are in dispute with.

If you are getting Legal Representation and your disposable capital is under £3,000, you won’t have to pay a contribution towards the costs of your case.

If you have more than £3,000 of disposable capital, you will have to pay a contribution towards the costs of your case. This contribution has to be paid straight away and it will be all of the capital you have over £3,000 up to the total cost of the legal advice.

If you own a home

If you own a home, it will be considered as capital. However, not all the value of your home will be taken into account. You can deduct your mortgage or any charges on your home, up to a maximum of £100,000. This is called mortgage disregard. You can also deduct 3% of the market value of your home (the amount for which it could be sold for on the open market) for sales costs.

Example

The market value of your home is £150,000.

Your mortgage is £90,000.

3 % for sale costs = £4,500.

The capital that’s taken into account is £55,500 (£150,000 – £4,500 – £90,000).

If you jointly owned the property, and you owned an equal half, your capital would be £27,500 (half of £55,500).