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Free Form H and Form H1 Builder

Led by Diellza Nika Hyseni and Mentor Nika · Updated 21 October 2026

Fill in the official financial remedy costs estimate (Form H) or statement of costs (Form H1) with your own figures: every total added up, the FPR 9.27 deadline worked out and the statement of truth checked. From DMD Costs, law costs draftsmen in Westhoughton, Bolton.

  • Free, with no sign-up
  • No paywall, no watermark
  • The official forms
  • Nothing leaves your browser

Choose the form, then enter your own figures; the totals, the deadline and the checks update as you type. Nothing leaves your browser.

The form
Which form?

The builder applies FPR 9.27 and Practice Direction 9A, as they stood on 21 October 2026, to the official Form H (08.20) and Form H1 (08.20). What the two money columns and the page-1 summary of Form H mean is our reading of the forms, which do not say: it is shown as guidance, not enforced. Check every box against your file and any order before filing. It is a guide, not legal advice.

Key points

  • DMD Costs’ Form H and Form H1 builder is a free online tool that fills in the official financial remedy costs forms, adds up every sub-total and total, and downloads the PDF ready to sign, file and serve.
  • It is completely free, with no sign-up or paywall, and runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to DMD Costs. It uses your own figures and never estimates costs for you.
  • Form H is the estimate of costs filed and served not less than one day before every hearing or appointment except the final hearing (FPR 9.27(1) to (3)).
  • Form H1 gives full particulars of all costs incurred and expected, filed and served not less than 14 days before the final hearing, unless the court directs otherwise (FPR 9.27(4)).
  • Both forms must be verified by a statement of truth, in the wording PD 9A paras 3.2A to 3.2C set out, and a legal representative must confirm the form has been discussed with the client (FPR 9.27(5)).
  • The court must record the figures in the order; if a party fails to file, the order records that and the court directs filing within three days, unless it sets another period (FPR 9.27(7) and (8)).

How to use the Form H and Form H1 builder

  1. Choose the form. Form H for any hearing or appointment except the final hearing; Form H1 for the final hearing.
  2. Enter the hearing. Choose the hearing type (for Form H), the kind of claim and the hearing date. Add the deadline from the court’s order if it sets one.
  3. Enter the case. Enter the court, the case number, the parties and whether the party is the applicant, the respondent or another party.
  4. Say how the party is funded and represented. Privately or with legal aid, and whether a legal representative signs. This sets the columns and the statement of truth.
  5. Enter your figures. Type your own figures, including VAT, into each box. The builder adds up every sub-total, total and the page-1 summary.
  6. Complete the statement of truth and download. Tick the confirmations, enter the signer’s details, clear the checks and download the filled form. Sign it, file it and serve it by the deadline shown.

FPR 9.27 explained

Rule 9.27 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 sets four duties. Not less than one day before every hearing or appointment, each party files and serves an estimate of the costs incurred up to that hearing (r 9.27(1)). Before the first appointment the estimate adds the costs expected up to the FDR (r 9.27(2)), and before the FDR appointment the costs expected up to the final hearing (r 9.27(3)). Not less than 14 days before the final hearing, each party files and serves full particulars of all costs incurred or expected (r 9.27(4)). Each must confirm that it has been served and, for a represented party, that it has been discussed with the client (r 9.27(5)); a copy comes to the hearing (r 9.27(6)); and the order records the figures (r 9.27(7)). The forms to use are Form H and Form H1, listed in PD 5A and made compulsory by FPR 5.1.

The rule exists so that the court and the parties can take account of each party’s costs liability when deciding the financial remedy, and any sums already paid should be clearly set out (PD 9A para 3.2). Costs of other proceedings between the parties, such as the divorce, children matters or injunctions, are left out and referred to in the financial statement instead (PD 9A para 3.2).

Form H or Form H1?

Form H is an estimate, with Sections A and B (costs incurred before and after the application was issued), Section C (expected to the FDR) and Section D (expected to the final hearing). Form H1 is a statement of full particulars for the final hearing: Sections A to C split the costs incurred before issue, up to the FDR and since the FDR; Section D gives the costs expected to the end of the final hearing, including counsel’s fees for it; Section E gives the costs of implementing the proposed order; and page 1 names the fee earners and their hourly rates. Rule 9.27(1) does not apply where rule 9.27(4) does, so before the final hearing you file Form H1 instead of Form H. If the final hearing is adjourned, a fresh Form H1 for the new date is the safe course, as the rule runs from “the date fixed for the final hearing”.

The deadlines, worked out

Periods in the Family Procedure Rules are clear days, and a period of 7 days or less leaves out weekends and bank holidays (FPR 2.9; PD 9A para 3.1A). Service by email, by hand or by delivery counts that day only if made before 4.30pm on a business day; first class post (or DX) is deemed served on the second day after posting if that is a business day, or otherwise the next business day (FPR 6.34): so a letter posted on a Friday is deemed served on the Monday. So a Form H for a Wednesday hearing is due by 4.30pm on the Monday, and a Form H1 for a final hearing on Monday 1 February 2027 is due by 4.30pm on Friday 15 January 2027. Where the court’s order sets its own time, the order governs. On the online system, uploading a document is not service (PD 41H para 2.3(b)): file it on the system, then email each other party to say it can be downloaded (PD 6A para 4A.2, as inserted by PD 41H para 10.3). To check any other service date, use the deemed service calculator.

Why the builder adds up the totals

The PDF of the official Form H1 on GOV.UK was replaced in May 2023 without a change note, and its fields were renamed, but its built-in sums still refer to the old names, so every total on the form stays at 0.00. Its hearing-date year box also takes only two characters. The builder works out every sub-total and total itself, removes the broken sums, and widens the year box so that the year prints in full: modifications the circumstances require (PD 5A para 1.2(a)). It also removes the Adobe usage rights, as filling the form would break them anyway.

Mistakes judges criticise

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Yes. It is completely free, with no sign-up, no paywall and no limit. It fills in the official forms in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to DMD Costs.
Form H is an estimate of costs, filed and served before every hearing or appointment except the final hearing (FPR 9.27(1) to (3)). Form H1 is a statement of costs giving full particulars of all costs incurred and expected, for the final hearing (FPR 9.27(4)). Before the final hearing, Form H1 replaces Form H: rule 9.27(1) applies “except where paragraph (4) applies”.
Not less than one day before every hearing or appointment (FPR 9.27(1)). That is one clear day, and because the period is 7 days or less, weekends and bank holidays do not count (FPR 2.9; PD 9A para 3.1A). Email service counts that day only if sent before 4.30pm on a business day (FPR 6.34), so in practice file and serve by 4.30pm two business days before the hearing: Thursday for a Monday hearing. If the court’s order sets a time, follow the order.
Not less than 14 days before the date fixed for the final hearing, unless the court directs otherwise (FPR 9.27(4)). The 14 days are clear calendar days (FPR 2.9), so serve on or before the hearing date less 15 days, or the business day before if that day is a weekend or bank holiday. The applicant’s open statement under FPR 9.28(1) is due the same day.
Sections A and B before every hearing (the form says so). Before the first appointment, Section C as well: the costs expected up to the FDR (FPR 9.27(2)). Before the FDR appointment, Section D: the costs expected up to the final hearing (FPR 9.27(3)). Form H1 needs Sections A to D, and Section E if there will be costs of implementing the order.
The forms do not say, and no rule defines them. On our reading, a privately paying party completes the indemnity rate column; a legally aided party puts legal aid work at legal aid rates in the prescribed rates column, puts costs paid privately before or outside the certificate in boxes 6, 13 and (on Form H1) 20, and completes the indemnity column too if a costs order may be sought, as the note on the original Form H asked (SI 2000/2267, Form H (12.00)). The builder shows this as guidance, not as a rule.
A party who is not legally represented completes the first statement: the contents are true and accurate, and the form will be filed and served under FPR 9.27 (PD 9A para 3.2B). A legal representative completes the second, which also confirms the form has been discussed with the client (PD 9A para 3.2C; FPR 9.27(5)(b)). The representative signs in their own name, not the firm’s (PD 17A paras 3.7 to 3.10).
The order made at the hearing must record the failure, and the court must direct that the form be filed and served within three days of the hearing or another period it sets (FPR 9.27(8)). In proceedings covered by FPR 28.3, the court must also have regard to any failure to comply with the rules when deciding costs (FPR 28.3(7)(a); see also PD 9A para 3.4).
No. A party asking for a costs order should ordinarily say so in open correspondence or a skeleton argument before the hearing (PD 28A para 4.5). Where summary assessment of costs would be appropriate, file and serve a statement of costs on Form N260 not less than 24 hours before the hearing (PD 28A para 4.5; CPR PD 44 para 9.5(4)(b), applied by PD 28A para 2.4). In most financial remedy proceedings the general rule is no order as to costs (FPR 28.3(5)).
Because the official Form H1 cannot. Its built-in sums still point at field names from an older version of the form that no longer exist, so its totals stay at 0.00. The builder works out every sub-total and total in pence, writes them into the form and removes the broken sums, so that a PDF reader cannot reset them.
Yes. A “financial remedy” includes an order under Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989 (FPR 2.3), and Part 9, including rule 9.27, applies to every financial remedy (FPR 9.1). Read “Form A” on the forms as the Form A1 application. The FPR 28.3 rule on costs does not apply to Schedule 1 claims (PD 28A para 4.2).

Costs work in civil claims

DMD Costs prepares and negotiates costs for claimant solicitor firms in civil claims. We do not do family work, so this free builder is here for anyone completing Form H or Form H1 themselves.

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