Terms and Conditions

1. WHO WE ARE

1.1 We are a limited liability partnership, registered in England and Wales, LLP No. OC359326. Our offices are situated at 2nd Floor, Winston House, 2 Dollis Park, London N3 1HF. We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA No. 554021. Our VAT number is 101 7994 19.

2. OUR HOURS OF BUSINESS

2.1 Our core office hours are between 9.00am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, but our telephones may be answered outside these hours.

2.2 Generally the switchboard deals with incoming calls only between 9.00am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Messages can be left on direct voicemail outside these hours or by email.

3. LEVEL OF SERVICE AND RESPONSIBILITY

3.1 We will endeavour to reply to letters and other communications from you and others promptly and to keep you regularly updated with progress of your matter and costs.

3.2 We will exercise reasonable skill, care and diligence in carrying out legal work identified in your instructions and agreed by us. Our duty to you does not extend beyond those instructions. We do not accept any duty to you which exceeds the contractual duty arising from those instructions. In particular, but without limitation, if we are engaged in transactional work, the decision as to whether to complete a transaction remains solely with you, and our work and our advice does not constitute a recommendation as to whether or not you should complete the transaction.

3.3 All work done and advice provided by us is for your use and benefit and may not be supplied or passed on to any other person without our approval. Our duty of care is to you as our client, not to any third party, unless we have agreed in writing to accept a duty to the third party. You may only rely on our advice for the purposes for which it was given.

3.4 We shall not be under any obligation to update any advice, report or product of our services to take account of events occurring after the advice, report or product has been issued in final form.

3.5 If you request us to perform any transaction within a time-scale which involves exceptionally long hours or is insufficient to enable us to consider or research fully all the issues that may arise in connection with the transaction, the standard of care which you are entitled to expect from us shall be no more than that which may reasonably be expected of us in the circumstances.

3.6 In the event of any third party investigating or intervening in your financial or business affairs or obtaining any rights or control over your assets we will not be liable for any loss occasioned to you or any delay on our part in carrying out your instructions.

4. PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR WORK

4.1 We will not change the person(s) dealing with your matter unless reasonably necessary for us to do so and if so we will inform you promptly of any change.

5. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND US

5.1 We will aim to communicate with you by such method as agreed and we will accept verbal or written instructions from you.

5.2 Where we act for two or more clients jointly, it is on the clear understanding that we are authorised to act on instructions from any of them unless we are otherwise instructed and on the understanding that we may share information about that matter with any of the joint clients.

6. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

6.1 We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.

7. SERVICE STANDARDS

7.1 We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care. In the unlikely event that you have a problem about any aspect of the service you have received or about our charges, please raise it in the first instance with the person dealing with your matter. If the problem is not resolved that way, please ask for the matter to be considered by one of the (other) partners. Should this still not resolve the matter, you may also raise any issues with Stephen Silverman, our partner in charge of service standards by phone, email or by post at our offices.

We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints, which is available here.

7.2 If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, or telephone: 0300 555 0333 to consider your complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.

7.3 The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of a protected characteristic. For further information to see how you can raise your concerns please visit the Solicitors Regulation Authority website.

8. CHARGES AND EXPENSES

8.1 Our charges for our services will be that agreed by you in advance or, if not agreed in advance, that which is fair and reasonable.

8.2 Our charges will mainly be calculated by reference to the amount of time actually spent by us in dealing with the matter. This work may include attending meetings; reading, preparing and working on papers; making and receiving telephone calls, emails, faxes and text messages; preparation of detailed costs estimates, schedules and bills; attending at court; and time necessarily spent travelling away from the office. Our charging rates for time spent vary according to the seniority of the persons involved, are reviewed regularly and may be increased from time to time.

8.3 Other factors may result in the rates charged for time spent on the matter being uplifted. Such factors include for example where the matter is of a high value or is complex or is of special importance or needs to be undertaken urgently. The percentage uplift will depend on what factors are involved.

8.4 In some matters (for example, property, administration of estates and trust work), we may also make an additional charge reflecting, for example, the value of the property or the sum involved. We call this a value element.

8.5 Unless we quote a fixed sum, any indication of our charges is an estimate only and may change as matters progress and the extent of the work becomes apparent.

8.6 Any fixed fee quoted or estimate given by us will be based on the information available to us at that time and so will only cover the scope of work in respect of which it is given. We reserve the right to revise the quoted fee or estimate if circumstances change or if we are required to carry out additional work.

8.7 If we have to incur additional costs for non-legal staff working overtime on evenings or weekends in order to provide an effective service to you, we will charge you in respect of these costs.

8.8 As well as our charges, you will be responsible for payment (or reimbursement to us) of expenses such as stamp duty and other liabilities to third parties; for example barristers, enquiry agents, process servers, couriers and translators and also land registry, court and search fees. We refer to such payments generally as ‘disbursements’. As we are directly responsible for third party charges incurred in connection with your instructions, we may require a payment from you in advance in respect of any disbursements.

8.9 Our charges and expenses are payable even if the matter on which we are instructed is not completed.

8.10 Where these Terms and Conditions of Business apply to more than one person your liability to us will be joint and several, by which is meant that each person is individually liable for the full amount of our charges.

8.11 If you ask us to do work for any company which you control or for any other third party, we may submit our invoice to them but you will nevertheless be liable for payment of any amount which is not paid by them when due.

8.12 Unless otherwise stated, any estimate or quoted fee does not include value added tax (“VAT”), which will be charged where applicable at the appropriate rate to the client to whom we provide our services.

8.13 When acting on behalf of a Limited Company, we may require a director and/or controlling shareholder to provide us with an acceptable personal guarantee in respect of our charges and expenses. If such a request is refused, we shall be entitled to cease acting and to require immediate payment of our charges and expenses incurred.

8.14 In some court proceedings, another party may be ordered to make a contribution to your costs. It is unusual for the amount awarded to cover the full amount of our fees. You remain liable for all our fees whether or not any such order is made.

8.15 You have the right to object to our bill(s) and apply for assessment of the bill(s) under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

9. PAYMENT TERMS AND ARRANGEMENTS

9.1 Payment of our bills is due on delivery. We reserve the right to charge interest from the date of the bill on a daily basis at the rate specified in paragraph 9.2 below on any invoice which is not paid within 30 days of its date.

9.2 The amount of interest which will be charged on unpaid amounts will be the higher of:

(a) the rate payable on Judgment debts from time to time; and

(b) the amount resulting from charging interest (compounded quarterly in arrears) on the unpaid amount from the due date of payment at a rate of 3% above the yearly rate of interest from time to time announced by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England as the official dealing rate; and

(c) the amount to which we would be entitled by way of statutory interest under The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

9.3 If we are satisfied that our services are outside the scope of UK VAT, then we will not charge VAT. If you are a non-UK European Union business client (and the services do not relate to UK land) we would normally expect not to charge VAT in relation to our services. In order to enable the VAT status of our services to be classified correctly, in particular in relation to European Union business clients, you shall provide to us such evidence as we may reasonably require for this purpose.

9.4 If our services are subject to VAT, you agree to indemnify us fully on demand for any interest, penalties or legal costs as a result of any information on your VAT status being incorrect.

9.5 If you are required to make a payment on completion of a transaction on which we are acting, you must, before completion, arrange for the payment (and all applicable charges, expenses and taxes) to be transferred into our account in fully cleared funds

9.6 If our bills are not payable by you as our client but by a third party, you will still be liable for any VAT in respect of our charges.

9.7 If we hold any of your money in our client account, we may deduct from it any fees, expenses, VAT and other amounts owing from you to us. If we are holding any monies from proceeds of sale of any property we will use these monies towards payment of any outstanding bill.

9.8 We may invoice you for fees and expenses for work done as the matter progresses, even though the work is not completed, and from time to time we may require you to make a payment on account of anticipated fees and/or expenses before any work is undertaken or expense incurred and at stages throughout the matter.

9.9 When we render bills to you we will offset any payment on account you have made to us against the bill.

9.10 Unless we have agreed a different billing frequency, we may invoice you monthly or more frequently if we consider that the circumstances or the likely amount due makes it appropriate to do so. The final bill will normally be sent at the conclusion of the matter or on the termination of our retainer.

9.11 If you do not pay any bill when due or do not comply with any request for payment on account of costs incurred or to be incurred, we reserve the right to stop working on any matters on which we are acting for you even though matters may not be completed and we may also terminate any of our retainers with you and to charge the full amount for the work carried out up to that date. We shall have no liability for the consequences of either action by us, including without limitation any resulting loss.

9.12 You remain responsible for paying our bills in full, even if a third party is liable to reimburse you for any sums included in the bill or if there is an agreement between you and another person that our bills will be paid by that other person.

9.13 Payments can be made to use by cash, cheque, standing order, direct debit, BACS, CHAPS and most credit and debit cards.

9.14 Where we have to pay money to you, it will be paid by cheque or bank transfer and will not be paid in cash or to a third party.

10. LIEN

10.1 If our retainer terminates, then, without prejudice to any of our other rights, we are entitled in accordance with common law to retain any money, papers or other property belonging to you which properly came into our possession pending payment of our charges, whether or not the property, etc is acquired in connection with the matter for which the charges were incurred. We are not entitled to sell such property but we are entitled to hold property even if the value of it greatly exceeds the amount due to us in respect of our charges.

10.2 Subject to any applicable law, if we release to you or, on your instructions, to a third party, any of your property at a time when you have any liabilities to us, the property will be held by you or such third party to our order and subject to our lien and must be returned to us immediately on request.

11. PAYMENT OF INTEREST

11.1 Any money we receive on your behalf will be held in our client account. Our policy is to account to you with the interest we earn on such sums if the amount earned is above £20. The rate of interest will be fair and reasonable in accordance with the provisions of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Accounts Rules 2011.

12. FINANCIAL SERVICES

12.1 We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised to provide the necessary advice.

12.2 However, we may provide certain limited investment advice services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you. This is because we are members of the Law Society of England and Wales, which is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

12.3 The Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society and the Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints against lawyers. If you are unhappy with any investment advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

13. INSURANCE MEDIATION

13.1 We are not authorised by the FCA. However, we are included on the register of Exempt Professional Firms maintained by the FCA so that we may carry out insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the SRA. The register can be accessed via the FCA’s website.

13.2 The Law Society of England and Wales is a designated professional body for the purpose of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The SRA is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints against lawyers. If you are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

14. IDENTITY AND MONEY LAUNDERING

14.1 In accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act and the Money Laundering Regulations, we confirm:

  • OGR Stock Denton Solicitors is the data controller;
  • Robert Talbot, our Data Protection Officer is the nominated representative for all data protection matters; and
  • We will only process any documentation or personal data received from you in respect of client due diligence for the purposes of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing unless (a) use of that data is permitted by or under any enactment or (b) you give your express consent for the documentation or personal data to be used for other forms of processing.

We are required to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations and in particular to verify the identity and permanent address of all new Clients. This is to ensure that the policy adopted worldwide by Financial and Government Authorities to prevent the use of laundering systems to disguise the proceeds of crime is achieved. From time to time we may require up-to-date evidence of identity to be supplied in order to ensure compliance with the regulations. If we are not given satisfactory evidence, or if there is non-compliance with our identification procedures, then we reserve the right not to accept or to terminate instructions. In any event we may check your identity with an outside supplier of information who makes a charge to us. We may add this charge to your bill.

Individual clients: If you are a new client or an existing client who has not previously supplied information, you are requested to supply the following: One item from list A and one item from List B (please note we require certified copies if you are sending these by post or if you are bringing in the original documents to our offices – we will make certified copies here).

List A – Proof of Identity

  1. Current fully signed Passport
  2. Current full UK Photocard Driving Licence

List B – Address Verification

  1. A bill for the supply of electricity, gas, water or telephone services (provided it is fewer than three (3) months old). Mobile phone bills are not acceptable.
  2. Television Licence renewal notice
  3. Council Tax bill (provided it is fewer than three (3) months old).
  4. Recent Tax Coding Notice
  5. Recent Mortgage Statement
  6. Credit Card/Bank Statement (provided it is fewer than three (3) months old) showing current address

Body Corporate: If you are a new or existing body corporate client not listed on a regulated market who has not previously supplied information, we will require the following:

  • Company/organisation full name;
  • Company or other registration number;
  • Registered address and, if different, principal place of business address;
  • Memorandum of association or other governing documents;
  • Names of the Board of Directors or members of your management body and its senior management;
  • Documentation in accordance with lists A and B above for any beneficial owners.

Please note we require certified copies of any of the documents highlighted in the lists provided above if sending these by post. Certified copies can only be accepted from other regulated professionals such as another solicitor, mortgage broker, financial adviser, bank or post office document checking service. Alternatively, if you are bringing in the original documents to our offices – we will make certified copies here. Please do not post original documents to us.

14.2 We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, solicitors may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. If we make a disclosure in relation to your matter, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working on your matter for a period of time and may be unable to tell you why.

14.3 We may decline to accept amounts tendered by you in cash of sums exceeding £500. If you try to avoid this policy by depositing cash directly with our bank, we may decide to charge you for any additional checks we decide are necessary to prove the source of funds. In such circumstances, we will not accept any liability for any resultant delays to your matter whilst such enquiries are completed which may result in work being suspended until such enquiries are concluded.

14.4 If we consider that you may have been involved in money laundering, fraud or other criminal activity, we reserve the right to terminate all our retainers with you without notice and without liability, and in those circumstances you expressly confer on us a right to retain all your property in our possession (including without limitation money, deeds, all documents and papers) until all our outstanding invoices have been paid in full.

15. CONFIDENTIALITY AND CONFLICTS

15.1 We will keep information and documentation entrusted to us confidential subject to any duties or obligations imposed on us by law or by our professional rules. We may share such information and documentation with any associated partnership in any jurisdiction with which we have one or more partners in common and/or with which we share profits where that other firm has agreed to keep it confidential (subject to obligations imposed on them by law or by their professional regulations).

15.2 Sometimes we ask other companies or people to do typing, photocopying and other work on our files to ensure this is done promptly. We will always seek a confidentiality agreement with these outsourced providers. If you do not wish your file to be outsourced, please tell us as soon as possible.

15.3 External organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice. These external organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.

15.4 We may wish to obtain internal and external publicity for work undertaken on your behalf. We will seek your permission before publicising work we have done for you. In the case of matters about which you have made a public announcement, or which are otherwise in the public domain (other than by our default), we may make public our involvement, unless you expressly prohibit such disclosure.

15.5 It is our practice to check for conflicts of interest when taking instructions from you. However, it may not be possible for us to identify all situations where there may be a conflict with your interests. If we identify a conflict of interest after we have commenced acting for you, we will notify you as soon as reasonably practicable. We have established procedures to deal with such situations. However, in some circumstances we may be professionally obliged to withhold information concerning the conflict or to terminate our engagement. If there are any specific circumstances in which you consider we should not act, because to do so would be in conflict with your commercial interests, you must notify us promptly.

16. DATA PROTECTION

16.1 We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including updating and enhancing client records, analysis to help us manage our practice statutory returns and legal and professional compliance.

16.2 Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018 / the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and our duty of confidentiality. Further information is contained within our Privacy Notice, a copy of which is attached.

16.3 If you have any questions regarding our use of your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer, Robert Talbot. Further information regarding data protection and privacy is available from www.ico.gov.uk

17. COMMUNICATIONS POLICY

17.1 We may electronically store any information you give us or that we obtain in the conduct of your matter. We may also make that information available to you through electronic means.

17.2 We will use reasonable endeavours to keep that information secure and take appropriate technical and organisational measures against the unauthorised or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction or damage of any personal data within that information. It is impossible to guarantee that your information will be free from every possible security breach and you acknowledge and accept that risk in instructing us.

17.3 We may communicate with you via e-mail. We cannot guarantee that our e-mails are virus free although we try to ensure that they are. You should ensure that all your incoming messages are scanned for viruses.

17.4 Use of e-mail carries certain risks. Confidentiality may be breached and messages may be lost or delayed. We shall not have any liability to you or to any third party as a result of using e-mail for communication between us or with any third party in relation to your matters.

17.5 We may not allow certain types of e-mails and attachments into our system, for example if they do not meet our security criteria.

17.6 We reserve the right to monitor all correspondence, including e-mail correspondence and telephone calls, to the extent permitted by law.

18. LIMITATION OF OUR LIABILITY

18.1 Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our total liability in connection with or arising, directly or indirectly, from this or any other matter will be limited to the sum of £10,000,000 per matter or linked matters. Subject to paragraph 18.2, this limit will cover all claims of any sort whatsoever whether arising in contract, negligence, or otherwise and all losses or damages including interest, costs and expenses. We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities or banking failure.

18.2 We can only limit our liability to the extent the law allows. In particular, we cannot limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, any liability as a result of fraud on our part, or any liability which cannot be lawfully excluded.

18.3 For your information we hold professional indemnity insurance with Maven Underwriters, The Aon Centre, The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AN

18.4 To the extent that it is effective in law to do so, these Terms and Conditions of Business also limit our liability to those who are not our clients but who it is foreseeable may benefit from or be affected by the services we provide, to the same extent as if they were also our client. This limitation shall not be interpreted as an assumption of liability on our part to anyone who is not our client and unless expressly stated, nothing in these terms confers any rights on any person pursuant to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

19. TAX ADVICE

19.1 Any work that we do for you may involve tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We will only advise you about the taxation aspects of any proposed course of action where we have specifically agreed to do so.

20. ADVICE ON THE LAW OF COUNTRIES OTHER THAN ENGLAND

20.1 We may obtain and forward to you advice from lawyers in countries other than England as to the law of such other countries but we will not ourselves give advice on such laws or vouch for the accuracy of the advice obtained.

21. FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPENSATION SCHEME (FSCS)

21.1 Please note that we are unlikely to be held liable for losses resulting from a banking failure. We will be holding your money in our client accounts with either Barclays Bank or Allied Irish Bank (GB). The £85,000 FSCS limit applies to the individual client and so if you hold other personal monies yourself in the same banks, the limit remains at £85,000 in total. It may be that the same banks have several brands and could be trading under different names. You should therefore check with your banks, the FCA or a financial adviser for more information.

21.2 If we make a claim under the FSCS in respect of client money we are holding on clients’ behalf, we will, subject to your consent, provide the FSCS with information about you to help them identify clients and amounts to which clients are entitled. Not all clients are eligible for compensation under the FSCS; for example, a company which is not considered a small company by the FSCS will not be eligible for compensation.

22. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY BY OTHERS

22.1 Please tell us if you have agreed or intend to agree to a limitation on the liability of any adviser who is acting or may act for you on a matter on which you have also instructed us. If you agree such a limitation, our liability to you in respect of any claim which you may make against us, will be reduced by any amount which we are unable to recover in contribution proceedings against such other adviser as a result of your agreeing such limitation.

22.2 Paragraph 22.1 shall not apply to any liability for death or personal injury arising out of our negligence, any liability which cannot be lawfully excluded or limited or liability arising as a result of fraud on our part.

23. INTRODUCTIONS AND REFERRALS

23.1 We shall inform you if we have any relationship with a third party concerning your matter and will provide full disclosure regarding the extent of any payments made between us and the third party.

23.2 Despite any financial arrangement with the third party, we will provide you with independent legal advice and you are free to raise questions with us about any aspect of your matter.

23.3 Any information you provide to us during your matter will not be shared with the third party without your consent. However, because the third party may require us to share information about your matter, if you refuse to give consent we may be unable to continue acting for you.

24. TERMINATION

24.1 Completion of Services: An agreement between you and us for the provision of defined Services ends on the completion of the provision of those Services. An open-ended agreement for the provision of Services ends three (3) months after the last date on which we provided Services to you. Unless new or different terms are agreed, our acceptance of instructions to perform Services for you subsequent to the ending of any agreement gives rise, from the time of acceptance of the instructions, to a new agreement on these terms. If we provide you free of charge with any seminar, information, or other document after the ending of an agreement, such provision does not give rise to a new agreement.

24.2 Early Termination: Either you or we may terminate the provision of all or any of the relevant Services at any time by giving written notice to the other. We will not do this without good and substantial reason, such as:-

  • the threat or risk of violence, injury or other danger to the physical, psychological or moral well-being of any of our personnel; or
  • the discovery or creation of a Conflict of Interest; or
  • your requesting us to break the law or any professional requirement; or
  • the relationship of trust and confidence necessary between solicitor and client ceasing to exist between us; or
  • your failure to pay to us any amount due, or money on account requested; or
  • your insolvency; or
  • your failure to give us adequate instructions; or
  • our being forbidden to act by the National Crime Agency; or
  • our reasonable belief that our continuing to represent you may cause damage to the professional or personal reputation of our firm or any of its personnel; or
  • any other breach by you of these terms.

24.3 Rights on Early Termination: On early termination, by either you or us, you will remain liable to pay all fees and expenses incurred before termination and due under our contract or due on the basis of the time spent at our usual hourly rates, whichever is the less, together with any further fees and expenses for work necessary to transfer our files to another adviser of your choice. All our rights set out in these terms shall continue to apply even if we terminate the agreement.

24.4 If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, our charges and expenses up to that point will be payable by you.

24.5 Where we are on the record as acting for you in any proceedings and should you fail to take steps to have us removed from the record promptly after we cease acting for you, we will take steps to be removed from the record, in which case you will be liable for our charges in applying to come off record, based on time spent at our hourly rates at the time and any disbursements incurred.

25. STORAGE OF PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS

25.1 After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for our charges and expenses. You may request your papers from us after matters have been concluded and your account has been settled in full.

25.2 We will keep our file of papers for a reasonable period after the matter is completed and we keep files on the understanding that we can destroy them a year after the date of the final bill. We will not destroy documents you specifically ask us to deposit in safe custody, although we may charge for this service.

25.3 Most files are stored off site in a secure facility and we are charged for retrieving files from that facility. If we take papers or documents out of storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act for you, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may charge you for the cost of retrieving the documents from storage, the time spent in producing stored papers that are requested and reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to retrieved papers.

25.4 We retain copyright in all original documents prepared by us, and in our publications and practice notes.

25.5 If, on your behalf, we obtain a barrister’s opinion or any other advice from a third party, we may store a copy of the opinion or advice in our knowledge management system so long as nothing in the copy so stored reveals anything which is confidential to you.

26. APPLICATION OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS

26.1 Unless otherwise agreed and subject to the application of the then hourly rates, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to us.

26.2 Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business, it may not be possible for us to start work on your behalf until we have received a signed and dated copy of these Terms and Conditions of Business from you.

27. PARTICULAR PROVISIONS FOR PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

27.1 Where we also act for your proposed lender in this transaction, we will have a duty to fully reveal to your lender all relevant facts about the purchase and mortgage. This includes any difference between your mortgage application and information that we receive during the transaction, as well as any cash back or discount schemes that a seller is giving you.

27.2 We will not advise you on the planning implications of your proposed purchase unless agreed, but we will report to you on the results of the ‘local search’.

27.3 We shall not advise on the valuation of the property, nor the suitability of your mortgage nor any other financial arrangements.

27.4 By signing these Terms and Conditions of Business and returning it to us you authorise us to disclose to the other parties in the transaction and, if applicable to all other parties in the chain of transactions and their agents and advisers, all information which we have in relation to your involvement in the transaction.

28. CONSUMER PROTECTION REGULATIONS (CPR)

28.1 The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (as amended) regulate transactions between traders and consumers and prohibit trading practices that amount to unfair commercial practices and misleading acts and omissions. Neither you, the client, or us, your legal representative, must mislead a buyer or tenant either by providing incorrect or ambiguous information, or by omitting to provide material information about the property you are selling.

28.2 Certain information will be revealed through searches and other enquiries of public databases, surveys and valuation reports. However, you must disclose to us any known defects and other material adverse matters relating to the property known to you and failure to do so may mean that, in certain circumstances, the buyer or tenant would have rights of redress against you.

28.3 We encourage you to make all known disclosures as early in the transaction as possible to prevent delays.

28.4 If we become aware of any such existence of material information, and you decline to authorise disclosure to the buyer or tenant, then we would have to consider whether it was possible to continue to act for you as the CPR’s impose a duty to act fairly towards you as our client and also towards third parties, especially those that are unrepresented.

29. CRIMINAL FINANCES ACT 2017

29.1 The firm is committed to promoting compliance with the requirements of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 within its practices as well as in those areas in which it has influence.

29.2 The firm does not tolerate tax evasion, or the facilitation thereof in any circumstances, whether committed by or facilitated by a client, personnel or associated persons/companies.

30. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

30.1 Any dispute or legal issue regarding our services to you or these Terms and Conditions of Business will be determined by the law of England and Wales.

30.2 No courts other than the courts of England and Wales are to have jurisdiction over any claim brought by you against us and you may not subsequently bring proceedings against us in any other country.

30.3 We may bring proceedings against you in any jurisdiction, including (without limitation) any jurisdiction in which you are resident, domiciled, incorporated or have assets, and you irrevocably and unconditionally submit to such jurisdiction.

31. REGULATIONS AFFECTING YOUR CANCELLATION RIGHTS

31.1 Under the Consumer (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 if we have not met you either in person (because, for example, instructions and signing of the contract documentation is taking place by telephone/mail, email or on-line-i.e. by way of a “distance” contract) or we have taken instructions and a contract has been concluded away from our business premises (because, for example, we have met with you at home – i.e., by way of an “off-premises” contract) and the contract was entered into on or after 14 June 2013, you have the right to cancel your instructions without any cost to you within 14 calendar days of entering into the contract. A cancellation notice is included with this document. To exercise your right to cancel, you will need to complete and return the Notice or exercise your cancellation rights by any of the other means specified in the Notice.

31.2 Should you require the work to be commenced within the 14 calendar day cancellation period, you must provide your agreement to that in writing, by email, post or fax to enable us to do so. Where you have provided your explicit consent for work to commence within the 14 calendar day cancellation period and you later exercise your right to cancel, you will be liable for any costs, VAT and disbursements incurred up to the point of cancellation. Unless you make an express request for us to commence work within the 14 day period, we will not be able to undertake any work during that period if this paragraph 29 applies.