Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction

This leaflet sets out our terms and conditions of business. It covers the various ways in which our fees are calculated for different types of work. The fees charged by solicitors are subject to the Solicitors Remuneration Order 1972.

Our aim is to ensure at all times that the services provided to you are of a high quality and that our fees are fair and reasonable. This leaflet also contains details of your right to challenge our fees and what steps you should take if you have a complaint.

The use of the singular in these Terms and Conditions may include the plural and vice versa.

By instructing us you accept that you have carefully read and understood these terms and conditions. If you have any further questions about these Terms and Conditions please raise them immediately with the person with conduct of your matter or transaction.

2. Acceptance of Terms and Conditions

By instructing or continuing to instruct us you are deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions in their entirety except where they have been varied in writing with our consent.

Where these terms and conditions conflict with the contents of any letter sent to you by us, the terms of that letter will prevail.

We reserve the right to make small amendments to these Terms and Conditions. We will notify you of any such changes if they affect a current matter or transaction. We refer you in the first instance to the terms and conditions that will soon be published on our Website at www.engleharts.co.uk.

3. Identification

If you are a new client to our firm, we will require you to come and see us in person at our offices (or other place if agreed). You must provide us with original photographic identity (such as a passport or a driving licence) and proof that you reside at the address cited by you as a point of contact.

A recent utility bill or bank statement in that regard may be sufficient, provided that photographic identity is also produced. It is a condition of our instructions that you allow us to inspect such identification and to retain a photocopy of the same for our records.

If you are instructing us on behalf of a limited liability company or other legal entity, or personality, you may in addition be asked to produce evidence to support your authorization to instruct us on behalf of that company or legal entity.

If you fail to produce the identification set out above, we will be unable to act for you as to do so may be contrary to Money Laundering regulations and/or the Proceeds of Crime Act 2003 (or such other legislation that may be or come into force).

4. Responsibility for Work

You will be notified at the beginning of the matter or transaction the identity of the person with overall responsibility for your matter. You will also be advised of the name and status of the person responsible for the day to day conduct. That person may change from time to time, although we will endeavour to keep changes to a minimum.

5. Confidentiality

All information supplied to us by you will be treated as confidential at all times. We shall only disclose such information to a third party where required to do so by you on your instructions (implicit or actual) or by an Order of the Court or other legal requirements.

If we hold any sensitive personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) such as medical records, you must provide your express and written permission before we may disclose it to third parties.

6. Changes in the Law and Critical Dates

Unless we have current and specific instructions from you in writing to review the Law and report to you from time to time or to deal with the matters in question immediately prior to a critical date we will not remind you of changes in the Law which might affect you or future critical dates. For example, we cannot accept ongoing responsibility to write to you on such matters as rent review dates, lease renewals, the exercise of options, the service of notices and counter-notices within time limits reminding you of the expiry of limitation periods and the like.

We will charge you on a time basis for any research which may be necessary to obtain an up to date position of the legal position as it related to your matter or transaction.

7. Personal Responsibility for Fees

You will be personally responsible for the settlement of our fees, VAT and expense incurred on your behalf unless otherwise agreed in writing with you. All bills whether final or interim (unless otherwise stated) are payable within 30 days from the date of the relevant invoice.

If you are instructing us on behalf of a limited liability company or other legal entity or personality, it is a condition of our instructions that you must provide (upon request) a signed authorization of that limited liability company or other legal entity or personality. If requested and you fail to provide such information upon a request, we reserve right to cease acting for you. You may be asked to provide a signed and written guarantee for the legal fees your company will incur.

You must in the first instance provide us with confirmation as to who will be responsible for paying our legal fees.

When we are instructed by more than one person or legal entity to represent their joint interests those instructions are considered to be joint and several unless we have otherwise agreed in writing. This means that we can look to any one of those instructing us for payment of all or any monies due to us leaving the payer to collect appropriate contributions from the other or others.

8. Stakeholder Accounts

Where deposits in conveyencing transactions are held by this firm as stakeholders, any interest earned on that deposit shall belong to us unless we have specifically agreed to the contrary in writing with you to pay the interest to you. This is done to reflect the additional cost and responsibility of holding such deposits in separate accounts. The retention of interest by this firm will be treated as a full discharge of the cost of holding the monies in a separate stakeholder’s account as required by the Solicitors Accounts Rules.

9. Estimates

Estimates of time and cost are nearly always impossible in litigation matters. Where estimates of the likely fees or expenses in the matter have been given, they are only our estimate of the likely costs involved at the time of giving the estimate. If the matter has subsequently become more involved or other factors have affected the level of fees and expenses charged to you, then in such circumstances the actual costs will replace the estimate as the fee payable. Revisions of initial estimates will be given in writing on request from time to time.

If we ask for money upfront on account of ongoing costs in a mater or transaction, that amount does not constitute an estimate of the likely ultimate costs in any respect unless otherwise agreed between us in writing.

10. Calculation of Fees

Our fees are calculated principally on the basis of all the time spent dealing with your matter which includes attending you and others, time spent on the telephone, preparing and reading or considering documents (including letters in from an opponent and/or third parties), travelling and waiting time, correspondence, research, preparatory work, retrieval of papers and information from a stored file, preparation of invoices, statements and other accounting work, typing, word processing and other secretarial/clerical work, reading incoming letters, generally supervising and administering your file.

We will also (unless otherwise agreed) charge you for postage and packaging costs where they exceed the price of a first class stamp, and we will also make charges for calls made to mobile phones and for large amounts of photocopying. Such charges will not exceed a reasonable amount to reflect our own costs in this regard.

In litigation matters, unless the claim is allocated to the small claims track (normally for claims with £5,000 or less but that is not a hard and fast rule) there is a possibility that you may recover some of your costs back from the other side. You will be advised separately on this by the solicitor with conduct of your matter, however please note that you will not recover all of your costs even in the best of cases. The most you can realistically expect to recover is between 60 and 75% (unless otherwise advised).

11. Annual changes in Hourly Charging Rates

The hourly charging rate of the person handling your matter will be specified in the rates enclosed with the letter of engagement sent to you with these terms and conditions. That rate is reviewed annually and may be increased with effect from 1st January every year.

12. Time Records

All time spent working on your matter is recorded save for certain matters where the fee is agreed in advance, and copies of our records are available on request.

13. Other Factors taken into Account in Fees

In accordance with the Solicitors Remuneration Order 1972, we may also take into account other factors in calculating the charge made to you and an additional charge may be made where a case is complex, urgent or of special importance to you. In matters not involving Court proceedings, we may in addition to the hourly charging rate charge a value element which will be based on the value of the transaction as a whole. We will have previously agreed this with you in writing. The addition of a value element will not apply where a fixed fee quotation has been given for residential conveyencing. In such a case a reasonable charge may be made in the case of abortive transactions.

In the event of emergency work such as work on emergency injunctions, or where there are tight deadlines to comply with, we may charge an uplift on hour hourly rate. We will notify you of this in writing beforehand.

14. Value Added Tax

All quotations, estimates and hourly charging rates are exclusive of Value Added Tax (VAT). If you or the organisation you represent is exempt from VAT you must provide us with written satisfactory evidence to support this within 14 days form the date of any bill whether final or interim otherwise we will charge you VAT.

Please note that VAT is chargeable on all photocopying, postage and telephone and travel expenses. This is a requirement under the Solicitors Accounts Rules and the VAT treatment of solicitors overheads by HM Customs and Excise. We will not charge you VAT for Court or Land Registry fees. If you have any queries in this regard (including your residency in the U.K) please raise this with us as soon as possible.

Note that we do not have expertise to offer any financial or tax planning advice. We suggest that you speak to your financial advisor/accounts for further information in this regard.

15. Payment of Conveyencing Fees

We request payment of conveyencing fees and expenses for all types of property sales and purchases prior to legal completion. We will notify you on or before completion of the amount of our fees, VAT and expenses, and request that you pay all balances due on or before actual completion with cleared funds. We will not accept personal cheques as cleared funds unless they are given to us in sufficient time to enable them to be cleared before actual completion. In the event that all payments due including our own fees have not been received by the date of completion we reserve the right to refuse to complete on your behalf until such time as payment has been made. In such circumstances, we cannot be held responsible for any loss that may be suffered as a consequence of such failure to complete.

16. Payment in General

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, we will only accept payments of bills or money on account of costs by cheque, bankers draft, telegraphic transfer or other electronic method of payment but not by credit card or cash.

17. Expenses

These are the expenses that we incur on your behalf from time to time during the course of the transaction or matter. For example they may be in the form of search or court fees. We reserve the right to request payment in advance for such expenditure. In instructing us you shall be deemed to authorise us to incur such expenses where necessary on your behalf unless otherwise agreed. In any event we ask that you settle such costs as soon as possible after having been notified by us of the amount incurred.

Please note that VAT is chargeable on all photocopying, postage and telephone and travel charges. This is a requirement under the Solicitors Accounts Rules and the VAT treatment of solicitors’ overheads by HM Customs and Excise. We do not charge VAT for Court or Land Registry fees. If you have any queries in this regard please raise this with us as soon as possible.

18. Responsibility for Fees and Expenses

We reserve the right where appropriate to arrange for third parties not employed by us to undertake work on your behalf such as barristers, experts, locums, other solicitors acting as our agents, planning consultants, bailiffs, sheriffs, interpreters, enquiry agents and process servers. You will be responsible for their fees, expenses and VAT. We expressly reserve the right to incur such fees, expenses and VAT on your behalf and your acceptance of these terms and conditions of business will be treated as sufficient authority for us to incur such expenditure. In the event that this cost exceeds the figure quoted above, we will advise you beforehand of the cost involved, and obtain your specific authority before incurring them.

19. Charges - Photocopying, Fax Charges, Travelling, Telephone Calls and other Costs

In calculating the final bill, a charge will be made for all photocopying and fax transmissions carried out on your behalf which shall include photocopying and faxes carried out to supply other parties with information and to ensure that our records are full and complete. A charge may also be made for telephone calls especially when we are involved in long distance calls or to a mobile telephone.

Please note that VAT is chargeable on all photocopying, postage and telephone and travel charges. This is a requirement under the Solicitors Accounts Rules and the VAT treatment of solicitors’ overheads by HM Customs and Excise. We do not charge VAT for Court or Land Registry fees. If you have any queries in this regard please raise this with us as soon as possible.

20. Telegraphic Transfer Charges

Where it is necessary, or we are requested to transmit monies by way of telegraphic transfer, a separate charge will be made for each transfer.

21. File Production

In the event that you require us to send any of your files, deeds, documents or papers to you or any third party, we will levy a charge for the retrieval of the deeds, documents or papers and to cover postage. A photocopying charge may be made where we require to retain copies of documents and papers within that file to maintain our records.

22. Payment of Accounts

Before accepting your instructions, we will (unless otherwise agreed) ask you for payment on account of fees, expenses and VAT, in which case we may not commence work until that payment has been received.

If we make a request for payment on account of costs and it is not provided within 14 days of such a request (or other period if agreed) then we may cease to act for you.

When work has been carried out to the amount of a payment on account, we will render an interim account and require a further payment on account of fees to be made at the time. We are prepared to consider regular payments on account of our fees provided these are made by Bankers Standing Order. The detailed terms of such an arrangement must be strictly adhered to.

23. Suspension of Work

Where an interim account has been sent to you, or where a payment on account of fees has been requested, and in either case payment has not been made within the time specified in these terms and conditions or agreed separately, we may decide to suspend work on your matter until such time as payment is made. In such circumstances, we cannot accept responsibility for any loss arising as a result of work being suspended.

In the event that we had to suspend or cease acting for you, we may retain your file of papers and any other documents or property we may be holding at the time on your behalf as a lien abasing full and final settlement of our bill and/or other request for payment.

24. Your Right to Challenge our Fees

In any case where the level of fees and expenses is more than you expected you should in the first instance contact the person notified to you in writing as being the person responsible for the day to day conduct of your matter. If following discussion with then, you have not had your complaint dealt with to your satisfaction, and then you should contact David Englehart in writing.

If you dispute the amount of a bill sent to you, you are entitled to require us to obtain a remuneration certificate from the Law Society stating whether or not the fees charged are fair and reasonable.

This right applies in all cases not involving Court proceedings. Where the account relates to Court proceedings, you may require us to have the account checked by the Court. In both cases you must notify us within one month of receipt of our account of your request to obtain a remuneration certificate or, alternatively, have the account checked by the Court.

25. Complaints Procedure

We hope that you will be satisfied by the quality of our service, but if you do have any cause for complaint then please contact the person responsible for your matter or David Englehart in writing.

26. Ceasing to act for you

We will continue to act for your until such time as we tell you that we will no longer act on your behalf or, alternatively, when you tell us in writing that you do not wish us to continue to act for you.

If you notify us in writing that you no longer wish us to act on your behalf, there may be further work that we are required to carry out on your matter even though you have requested us to cease acting for you. For example, we may be required to notify a Court of our ceasing to act, or other parties, or make a formal application, with attendance at Court, to have ourselves removed from the record. In such cases the work will be kept to an absolute minimum, and you will be responsible for our fees and expenses in carrying out such work.

In the event that there is at any time a conflict of interest between you and another party whether or not we act or have acted for that other party, we may cease to act for you and/or that other or those other parties.

If you consistently fail to provide us with prompt instructions or replies to our letters or other communications whether written oral or verbal, we have the right to cease to act for you if it proves impossible for us to reasonably carry on work on your behalf as result of lack of instructions. You would still be liable for or costs to date and we have the right to retain your file of papers or any other property held by us for you as a lien against payment of any outstanding bills in respect of your matter.

If having interviewed and/or advised you (in person or over the telephone) initially you decide not to instruct us, unless otherwise agreed, we may charge you for the time spent on your matter.

27. Waiver

Any failure to enforce at any time one or more of these terms shall not be a waiver of them or the right at any time subsequently to enforce all applicable terms and conditions.

28. Status Disclosure

We are not authorized by the Financial Services Authority. However, we are included on the Register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can 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 Law Society. The Register can be accessed via the Financial Services Authority website at: www.fsa.gov.uk\register

29.

If you have any problems with the service we have provided for you then please let us know. We will try to resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaints handling system to help us to resolve the problem between ourselves. If, for any reason, we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then we are regulated by the Law Society which also provides a complaints and redress system.

30. Explanation of Terms

If you are unclear as to the nature and extent of either our or your obligations under these terms and conditions of business, or you require further information, please contact the person responsible for your matter.

31. Risk

By instructing us you accept that there is a risk that due to matters outside your and/or our reasonable control, the transaction may not complete or in litigious matters, you may not be successful in resolving your depute and where proceedings are issued may lose at trial.

32. Jurisdiction and Law

The law of England and Wales applies to these terms and conditions and any dispute that may arise in respect of them. The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction of any matters of dispute that may arise in respect of these terms and conditions.