Detailed Assessment of Costs: The Process Step by Step (CPR Part 47)

Detailed assessment is how the court decides the amount of costs one party must pay another when they cannot agree it. Under CPR Part 47 the receiving party starts it by serving a notice of commencement (Form N252) and its bill within 3 months of the order or other event giving the right to costs. The paying party has 21 days to serve Points of Dispute, the receiving party may reply within 21 days, and if the costs are still not agreed, the receiving party files a request for an assessment (Form N258) within 3 months after the last day for starting under CPR 47.7. Bills of £75,000 or less are normally assessed provisionally, on paper; larger bills, and any the court finds unsuitable for provisional assessment, go to a hearing.

This guide, from DMD Costs, law costs draftsmen in Westhoughton, Bolton (Greater Manchester), sets out each step with its rule, its form and its time limit. The free detailed assessment deadline calculator works out each date as the steps happen, and each form has a free builder, linked below.

Jump to: the steps · before you start · notice of commencement · Points of Dispute · default costs certificate · requesting an assessment · provisional assessment · the hearing · who pays for it

The steps at a glance

Before you start: the right to costs, and a payment on account

As a general rule, the costs of any proceedings, or of any part of them, are not assessed until the proceedings as a whole have concluded, though the court can order an immediate assessment (CPR 47.1). So the costs of an interim application are usually assessed at the end of the case. Proceedings are concluded when the court has finally decided the matters in issue in the claim, whether or not there is an appeal (PD 47 para 1.1); the court may order, or the parties may agree in writing, that they be treated as concluded (para 1.2), and a costs judge or District Judge can allow detailed assessment to start where there is no realistic prospect of the claim continuing (para 1.4). A paying party served with a premature notice can ask the court to decide whether the receiving party may commence (para 1.3). An appeal does not stay the assessment unless the court orders a stay (CPR 47.2). The document giving the right to detailed assessment is usually the judgment or order, the notice of acceptance of a Part 36 offer or the notice of discontinuance (PD 47 para 13.3).

When the court orders a party to pay costs subject to detailed assessment, it will order a reasonable sum on account unless there is good reason not to (CPR 44.2(8)); our guide to interim payments and payments on account covers how much. If the claim settled before proceedings were issued, with who pays the costs agreed in writing but not the amount, the route is costs-only proceedings under CPR 46.14: see our guide to costs-only proceedings. And if the parties agree the amount at any stage, either of them can apply for a costs certificate in the agreed sum, usually by consent (CPR 47.10; PD 47 para 9.1).

Step 1: prepare the bill

The bill is the receiving party’s itemised claim. In a Part 7 multi-track claim it must be an electronic bill for work done after 6 April 2018, unless the costs are fixed or scale costs, the receiving party is unrepresented or the court orders otherwise; other bills may be paper or electronic (PD 47 para 5.1). Our bill of costs guide explains what goes in it, and the J-code and Precedent S code lookup finds the code for any piece of work in an electronic bill.

Step 2: serve the notice of commencement

Detailed assessment proceedings start when the receiving party serves on the paying party a notice of commencement in Form N252 with a copy of the bill (CPR 47.6). PD 47 para 5.2 requires it to go with copies of counsel’s and experts’ fee notes for fees claimed in the bill, written evidence of any other disbursement over £500, a statement of the name and address for service of anyone else on whom the notice is to be served and, where a costs management order was made, a breakdown of the costs by phase (Precedent Q is a model), unless an electronic bill already gives it in full. The notice shows the total claimed and the extra sum payable for fixed costs and court fees if a default costs certificate is obtained (PD 47 para 5.3). The free N252 builder fills it in.

The deadline is 3 months from the judgment, order or other determination (or from an order lifting a stay pending appeal), from service of a notice of discontinuance (or the dismissal of an application to set it aside), or from the right to costs arising on acceptance of a Part 36 offer (CPR 47.7). The period is mandatory: in Awan v Patel [2025] EWHC 3332 (SCCO) the court held that a receiving party that has not served within it is in breach of the rules (at [31] and [39]). No permission is needed to start late (PD 47 para 6.2), but the paying party can apply for an order that the receiving party start by a set date, on pain of all or part of the costs being disallowed; if the paying party does not apply, the court may disallow all or part of the interest on the costs, but may impose no other sanction except under CPR 44.11 (CPR 47.8). In HD v North Devon the court made such an order for claims that had not been started.

The time for starting can be extended by written agreement (CPR 2.11) or by the court (PD 47 para 6.1). But the date for requesting an assessment runs from the end of the CPR 47.7 period, or of a period the court has directed (CPR 47.14(1)), so an agreed extension may not move it, and starting late does not move it either. If more time to start is agreed, agree the N258 date too, or ask the court.

Service follows CPR Part 6. The 21 days for Points of Dispute run from the notice’s deemed date of service (CPR 6.26), and email is good service only where the paying party or its solicitor has said in writing that it accepts service by email and given the address (PD 6A para 4.1). A default costs certificate obtained after defective service must be set aside (CPR 47.12(1)).

Step 3: Points of Dispute

The paying party, and any other party to the assessment, may dispute items in the bill by serving Points of Dispute within 21 days after service of the notice of commencement (CPR 47.9(1) and (2)). They must be short and to the point, follow Precedent G so far as practicable, and identify any general points of principle before the specific points, stating concisely the nature and grounds of each dispute (PD 47 para 8.2). They must come with an open letter stating what sum, if any, the paying party offers in settlement of the total costs claimed (para 8.3). A party that serves them late may not be heard further in the assessment without the court’s permission (CPR 47.9(3)). Our guide to Points of Dispute and Replies covers the format and the usual challenges.

The time can be extended by written agreement or by the court (PD 47 para 8.1). Because CPR 47.9(3) sets a consequence for serving late, CPR 3.8(3) and (4) may limit an agreed extension to 28 days unless the court orders otherwise, so a longer extension is safest recorded in a consent order.

If no Points of Dispute arrive: a default costs certificate

If no Points of Dispute are served within the 21 days, or any agreed or ordered extension, the receiving party can request a default costs certificate in Form N254, signed and filed with a copy of the document giving the right to detailed assessment (CPR 47.9(4) and 47.11; PD 47 para 10.1). The certificate is issued in Form N255 and includes an order to pay the costs (CPR 47.11(2); PD 47 para 10.2), with fixed costs of £80 plus a sum equal to the court fee for issuing it, unless the small claims rule in PD 45 para 1.2 applies or the court orders otherwise (PD 47 para 10.7); that fee is £82 (fee 5.3). The costs are then payable within 14 days (CPR 44.7). Points of Dispute served late, but before the certificate is issued, stop the court issuing it (CPR 47.9(5)). The free N254 builder prepares the request. In the London County Court hearing centres listed in PD 47 para 4.2, default costs certificates, and applications to set them aside, stay with the local hearing centre, even though a request for an assessment goes to the Senior Courts Costs Office (para 4.2(2)).

The court must set a default costs certificate aside if the receiving party was not entitled to it, and may set it aside or vary it if there is some good reason why the assessment should continue (CPR 47.12). An application needs evidence, the court considers whether it was made promptly, and as a general rule the applicant files the bill, the certificate and draft Points of Dispute with it (PD 47 para 11.2). The court can set it aside on conditions, including a payment on account (PD 47 para 11.3; CPR 3.1(3) and 44.2(8)). Our guide to setting aside a default judgment explains how that test differs from CPR 13.

Step 4: Replies

A Reply is optional. The receiving party may serve one within 21 days after service of the Points of Dispute (CPR 47.13). It must be limited to points of principle and concessions, with no general denials, specific denials or standard form responses (PD 47 para 12.1), and set out in Precedent G whenever practicable (para 12.2). In a provisional assessment the court decides on paper, from the completed Precedent G with the bill and its supporting papers, so the Reply is the receiving party’s only written answer to the points: use it, within the limits of para 12.1, for the points of principle and the concessions that matter. A party can vary its bill, Points of Dispute or Reply by filing and serving an amended or supplementary document; permission is not needed, but the court may disallow the variation or allow it only on conditions, including as to costs (PD 47 para 13.10).

Negotiation and offers

Many bills settle between Points of Dispute and the assessment. Part 36 applies to the costs of detailed assessment proceedings with modifications, and for CPR 36.17 the assessment is treated as an independent claim (CPR 47.20(4) and (7)). It works both ways. A receiving party that fails to beat a paying party’s Part 36 offer on the bill will usually be ordered to pay the paying party’s costs of the assessment from the end of the relevant period (CPR 36.17(3)), and one that does at least as well as its own Part 36 offer gets the consequences in CPR 36.17(4) unless that would be unjust. On a provisional assessment that goes no further, though, the £1,500 cap still applies even where the receiving party beats its own offer (W Portsmouth and Company Ltd v Lowin [2017] EWCA Civ 2172).

An offer to settle the bill, under Part 36 or otherwise, should say whether it includes the cost of preparing the bill and VAT, and an offer that is not a Part 36 offer should say whether it includes interest; unless it says otherwise, it is treated as including them (PD 47 para 19). A Part 36 offer is treated as including all interest until the relevant period expires (CPR 36.5(4)). Whether VAT is claimable at all depends on the receiving party’s own VAT position: the free VAT on costs checker works it out. If the costs settle after the court has given a hearing date, the receiving party must tell the court immediately (PD 47 para 13.8(2)).

Step 5: request an assessment

Where Points of Dispute have been served and the costs are not agreed, the receiving party must file a request for a detailed assessment hearing within 3 months after the end of the period for starting set by CPR 47.7 or by a court direction, usually 6 months after the order (CPR 47.14(1); PD 47 para 13.1). The request is Form N258, filed with the documents in PD 47 para 13.2: among them the notice of commencement, the bill, the document giving the right to detailed assessment, the Points of Dispute annotated to show which items are agreed and which remain in dispute, with their values, any Replies, the orders about the costs, the fee notes and other evidence served with the notice, the retainer documents explaining how the charges are calculated where the receiving party’s liability to its own solicitors is disputed, and the phase breakdown where there was a costs management order. If the request is late, the paying party can apply for an order that the receiving party file it by a set date, on pain of costs being disallowed; if it does not, the court may disallow interest (CPR 47.14(2) to (4)). The free N258 builder prepares it.

The court fee is set by the amount of costs claimed (fee 5.2; these bands have applied since 30 September 2021):

The fees order does not say whether VAT counts towards the amount claimed. The civil court fees calculator uses the total with VAT, the higher figure, and says when leaving VAT out would put the bill in a lower band. That fee question is separate from the £75,000 line for provisional assessment, below. Requests and applications go to the appropriate office (CPR 47.4); for cases from the London County Court hearing centres listed in PD 47 para 4.2, a request for an assessment goes to the Senior Courts Costs Office, as our guide to the SCCO explains.

Step 6a: provisional assessment, for bills of £75,000 or less

Where the costs claimed are £75,000 or less, the court normally assesses them provisionally, on paper (CPR 47.15; PD 47 para 14.1), though it may decide at any time that a case is unsuitable and list it for a hearing (CPR 47.15(6)). The rules do not say whether VAT counts towards the £75,000, and views differ; the N258 builder follows the bill without VAT and warns where VAT changes the answer, and in a borderline case filing the provisional assessment documents as well does no harm.

With the N258 the receiving party files the documents in PD 47 paras 8.3 and 13.2, an additional copy of any paper bill, a statement of the costs of the assessment drawn on the assumption that there will be no hearing after the provisional assessment, the offers made (those marked “without prejudice save as to costs” or made under Part 36 in a sealed envelope marked “Part 36 or similar offers”, without saying who made them) and the completed Precedent G (para 14.3). No party attends. The court aims to carry out the provisional assessment within 6 weeks and returns Precedent G with its decisions noted on it, and the parties then have 14 days to agree the total due; if they cannot agree the arithmetic, the court decides it on written submissions (para 14.4). The receiving party then completes the bill and the court issues the final costs certificate, because CPR 47.17 and PD 47 para 16 apply to provisional assessments (PD 47 para 14.2).

In proceedings that go no further, the costs of the assessment are capped at £1,500 plus VAT and court fees, not counting the cost of drafting the bill (CPR 47.15(5)). A party that wants to challenge any part of the provisional assessment must, within 21 days of receiving the court’s notice, file a written request for an oral hearing and serve it on every other party, identifying the items to be reviewed and giving a time estimate; otherwise the provisional assessment binds the parties save in exceptional circumstances (CPR 47.15(7) and (8)). The party asking for the hearing pays its costs unless it achieves an adjustment in its favour of 20% or more of the sum provisionally assessed, or the court orders otherwise (CPR 47.15(10)); the court takes the parties’ conduct and any offers into account in deciding whether to order otherwise (PD 47 para 14.5). Our post on provisional assessment of housing disrepair costs looks at how it works in practice.

Step 6b: the detailed assessment hearing

For larger bills, and those the court finds unsuitable for provisional assessment, the court fixes a hearing date or gives directions (PD 47 para 13.4) and gives at least 14 days’ notice of the hearing (para 13.6). The receiving party files the papers in support of the bill, in the order PD 47 para 13.12 sets, not less than 7 and not more than 14 days before the hearing, unless the court directs otherwise (para 13.11). Only the receiving party, the paying party and anyone who served Points of Dispute may be heard without permission, and only items in the Points of Dispute may be raised without permission (CPR 47.14(5) and (6)). In the Costs Office, authorised court officers are authorised to deal with bills whose base costs, excluding VAT, are up to £35,000 or £110,000, depending on their grade (PD 47 para 3.1), and a party can object to assessment by one (CPR 47.3).

At the hearing the court notes any disallowance or reduction on the bill (PD 47 para 16.1). The receiving party then files the completed bill within 14 days after the hearing (CPR 47.17; PD 47 para 16.3), with receipted fee notes and accounts for the disbursements, other than those covered by a certificate in Precedent F(5) (para 16.4). The court issues a final costs certificate, which includes an order to pay unless the court orders otherwise (CPR 47.17(5)), once the court fees on the assessment are paid (PD 47 para 16.5), and the costs are payable within 14 days of it (CPR 44.7). Once a request for an assessment hearing has been filed, the court may also issue an interim costs certificate for such sum as it considers appropriate (CPR 47.16), on an application under Part 23 (PD 47 para 15).

Who pays for the assessment

The receiving party is entitled to the costs of the detailed assessment proceedings unless an Act, a rule or a practice direction provides otherwise or the court makes another order (CPR 47.20(1)). In deciding whether to make another order, the court considers all the circumstances, including the conduct of the parties, how far the bill was reduced and whether it was reasonable to claim or dispute particular items (CPR 47.20(3)). The court will usually assess the costs of the assessment summarily at the end of it (CPR 47.20(5)), so have a statement of them ready, and unless the court orders otherwise, interest on them runs from the date of the default, interim or final costs certificate (CPR 47.20(6)). The bill itself may claim the costs of preparing and checking it, but no other costs of the assessment proceedings (PD 47 para 5.19).

Appeals

A decision of an authorised court officer can be appealed, without permission, to a costs judge or a District Judge of the High Court, by an appellant’s notice (Form N161) filed within 21 days after the decision; the appeal is a rehearing (CPR 47.21 to 47.24; PD 47 paras 20.2 to 20.4). Other appeals arising out of detailed assessment, such as from a costs judge or a District Judge, go under Part 52 and need permission (PD 47 para 20.1; CPR 52.3). Where the assessment took more than one hearing, time for appealing runs from the end of the final hearing unless the court orders otherwise (CPR 47.14(7)). The free appeal deadline and route checker works out the route and the time limit.

After the certificate

A default costs certificate includes an order to pay (CPR 47.11(2)); an interim or final costs certificate may be enforced as if it were a judgment for money (PD 47 para 16.12); and none is enforced through the Costs Office (PD 47 paras 10.6 and 16.12). Costs against the Ministry of Defence are not enforced by execution: the court certifies the order and the department pays. Our guide to enforcing a costs order or costs certificate covers both, and how interest on costs runs; the free interest on costs calculator works it out.

How DMD Costs can help

DMD Costs supports claimant solicitor firms through this process in housing disrepair, clinical negligence and MoD NIHL claims: we prepare the bill and the notice of commencement for your firm to serve, draft the Replies to the Points of Dispute, negotiate, and prepare the papers for a provisional assessment or a hearing. We prepare the costs documentation and support your team through the process. The instructing solicitor retains conduct of the matter. We do not appear as advocates; we brief whoever attends. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins.

Sources

• CPR Part 47 (rules 47.1 to 47.17 and 47.20 to 47.24) and Practice Direction 47 (paras 1.1 to 1.4, 3.1, 4.2, 5.1 to 5.3, 5.19, 6, 8, 9.1, 10 to 16, 19 and 20)
• CPR Part 44 (rules 44.2(8), 44.7 and 44.11), CPR Part 46 (rule 46.14), CPR Part 36 (rules 36.5(4) and 36.17) and CPR Part 52 (rule 52.3)
• CPR Part 2 (rule 2.11), CPR Part 3 (rules 3.1(3) and 3.8), CPR Part 6 (rule 6.26) and Practice Direction 6A (para 4.1)
• Awan v Patel [2025] EWHC 3332 (SCCO) and W Portsmouth and Company Ltd v Lowin [2017] EWCA Civ 2172
• HMCTS: Civil court fees (EX50) (fees 5.2 and 5.3)