Terms and Conditions of Business
People responsible for your work
You will be told in your initial letter who will be responsible for your work and who will supervise them. If you are unable to contact the person responsible for your work there will be another member of the team available to assist you. Alternatively you may decide to leave a message and we will try to deal with your enquiry as soon as we can.
We do try to avoid changing the people handling your work but if this cannot be avoided we will notify you as soon as possible regarding any change and tell you why the change was necessary.
Our hours of business
The normal hours of opening at our offices are between 9.00 am and 8.00 pm on weekdays and 10 am and 4.00 pm on Saturdays. Messages can be left on the answer phone outside those hours and appointments can be arranged at other times if you so require.
Proof of identity
In order to comply with the law on money laundering, we need to obtain evidence of your identity as soon as practicable. We therefore ask that you provide us with documents to verify your identity and address at the start of your matter. We cannot proceed to open your file or carry out any work on your matter without this being done and if you cannot provide this information we may not be able to act for you.
Confidentiality
Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of the client confidential. This obligation, however, if subject to statutory exception; recent legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure. If this happens, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it.
Cash
Our firm’s policy is to only accept cash up to £500.
If clients circumvent this policy by depositing cash direct to our bank, we reserve the right to charge for any additional checks we deem necessary regarding the source of the funds.
Raising queries or concerns with us
We aim to provide you with a high quality service in all respects. However, in the unfortunate event that you are not happy with some aspect of our service you should first raise any concerns with the person responsible for your work. If you still remain dissatisfied you should contact the person named in your initial letter who is responsible for client care. Every attempt will be made to investigate any concern you may have in order to resolve the problem.
All firms of solicitors are obliged to attempt to resolve problems that clients may have with the service provided. It is therefore important that you immediately speak to us if you have any concerns. We value you and would not wish to think that you have any reason at all to be unhappy with us.
Charges and expenses
How we calculate our fees
Our fees will be calculated mainly by reference to the time we spend dealing with your work. This includes advising, attending upon you and others, dealing with papers, correspondence sent and received, telephone calls made and received, travelling and waiting time.
Routine letters are charged at 6 minute units of time and we charge for the time spent on making and taking telephone calls in 6 minute units and considering incoming letters at 3 minutes per page.
This hourly rate is reviewed on 1 January of each year and, therefore, if the matter has not been concluded before the next review takes place, the rate may rise. We shall let you know the new rate, which will apply to work done from then on as soon as this has been set. Please note that our hourly rate does not include VAT and is not inclusive of disbursements. Disbursements are monies which our firm has to pay out on your behalf such as search fees and Land Registry fees which will be added to your bill. VAT is payable on some disbursements.
You will be informed in your initial letter of the charging rate of the person dealing with your work.
Fixed fees
Sometimes we will deal with your work on a “fixed fee” basis. If we are able to offer you a “fixed fee” the details will be clearly explained in our initial letter to you.
Aborted cases
If your matter does not proceed for whatever reason following receipt of your instructions, we will add up the time spent on the file to calculate the fee payable by you. Please read the “How we calculate fees” section set out above for full details.
Referral Arrangements
If we have been requested to act on your behalf by an Estate Agent with regard to your interest in a property a referral fee may be payable by us to the Estate Agent for this introduction. Full details of the referral and the sum payable will be set out in our initial letter to you. Notwithstanding this, we would stress that throughout our dealings on your behalf as your Solicitors we shall be acting on your behalf and not on the part of the said Estate Agent. We will be independent and impartial and free from influence from the Estate Agent in all aspects of the transaction. You are free to raise any questions with regard to the transaction and the referral in particular.
We would point out to you that any information disclosed by you to this Firm will not be disclosed to the Introducer or to any third party, unless you consent.
Please note that the referral by you as a Client to this firm will not influence or constrain our professional judgement in any aspect of the advice given to you.
Reservation
We reserve the right to raise our fees if your matter becomes complicated and/or protracted. As soon as it appears that that our fees will require increasing full details of any increase in either the charging rate or any fixed fee arrangement will be notified to you in writing immediately
Equality and Diversity
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees, and we are required to produce a written Equality and Diversity Policy.
Data Protection Act
We are required by this Act to advise you that your particulars are held on our database. We may, from time to time, use these details to send you information, which we think, might be of interest to you.
Terms of retainer
It is normal practice to request clients to make payments on account of anticipated costs and disbursements.
We shall deliver bills to you at regular intervals for the work carried out during the conduct of the case. This enables you to budget for costs and also assists our cash flow.
In the event of a payment not being made either on account of anticipated costs and disbursements or in settlement of a bill, we will reserve the right to decline to act any further and the full amount of work done up to that date and any outstanding disbursements will be charged to you.
Requests for payment on account of anticipated costs and disbursements must be settled within 14 days, or if it is a matter of urgency, within the period specified in the request. Accounts must be settled within 28 days. If they are not, interest will be charged on accounts that are not paid within that time at the Law Society’s rate in force from time to time.
Termination of Instructions
You may terminate your instructions to us, in writing, at any time. For Example, you may decide you cannot give us clear or proper instructions on how to proceed or you may lose confidence in our work.
We are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while money is owing to us.
We will decide to stop acting for you only with good reason and on giving you reasonable notice.
If you decide to terminate instructions or we decide to stop acting for you, you will pay our charges on an hourly basis and expenses as set out in your initial letter from us.
Regulation of Investment Business and Insurance Mediation Activities
We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can carry on insurance mediation activity. Broadly this means that we can advise on, sell and administer insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Services Authority Website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register
The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.
We deal only with products from Stewart Title and Norwich Union for Title Indemnity, Restrictive Covenant and other similar insurance contracts but we are not contractually obliged to conduct business in this way.
Storage of Papers and Documents
After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. In addition, we will keep your file of papers for you in storage for not less than six years. After that, storage is on the clear understanding that we have the right to destroy it after such period as we consider reasonable or to make a charge for storage if we ask you to collect your papers and you fail to do so. We will not, of course, destroy any documents such as wills, title deeds and others securities which you ask us to hold in safe custody. No charge will be made to you for such storage unless prior notice in writing is given to you.
If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your affairs we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may make a charge based on time spent for producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions.
Agreement
Unless otherwise agreed these terms of business apply to any future instructions you give us.