We aim to offer our clients quality legal services at a fair cost. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in our dealings with clients, third parties and employees.
We will:
- Communicate in plain language;
- Explain the legal work required as the matter progresses;
- Provide regular updates on the cost and progress of the matter;
- Provide updates on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks associated with the matter whenever there is a material change in circumstances;
- Advise you of any circumstances and risks of which we are aware or consider to be reasonably foreseeable that could affect the outcome of the matter;
- Notify you of any changes in the law which may affect the progress or likely outcome of the matter;
- Continue to review whether the matter can be funded using alternative methods;
- Respond to your queries promptly;
- Deal with all information in accordance with our legal obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018.
We ask that you please:
- Provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions;
- Keep us updated with information relevant to the matter;
- Provide the relevant documents we need in a timely manner;
- Attend all scheduled appointments on time;
- Let us know of any change in your contact details;
- Respond to our queries and requests promptly;
- Pay our costs promptly.
We will communicate with you by email, telephone and letter. If you have a preferred method of communication please let us know.
All emails received will undergo a virus check. Unless you withdraw consent, we will communicate with others when appropriate by email or fax, but we cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence and documents sent by email or fax.
We do not accept service of documents by email.
During the time we are working with you it is likely we shall send you legal documents and papers to read and perhaps sign. These may be complex and onerous and we strongly recommend you carefully read these documents and come back to us if there is anything in them which is unclear.
If you instruct us to act not only on your behalf but also on behalf of another person or persons in relation to the same matter, – for instance husband and wife, family members or business partners, –we are thereby authorised to act upon instructions received from any one on the assumption that they have authority to give instructions on behalf of all of them. However, prior to accepting initial instructions the identity of each client must be confirmed.
In the case of companies, the instructions may come from an individual director of the company unless otherwise instructed in writing.
Unless agreed otherwise any one or more of those instructing jointly is jointly and severally liable for costs and disbursements.
If we are acting for you on a disposal where there will be proceeds of sale, those net proceeds will be paid to you. Joint owners will be paid equally unless you tell us otherwise. Unless so notified we shall take it that only you are interested in those proceeds and there are no trusts or similar in favour of third parties.
We will not normally act for two or more clients in the same matter where an actual or potential conflict of interest exists between those clients. We may act for two or more clients in the same matter if a substantially common interest exists and we have explained the relevant issues and risks to each client, who have subsequently given informed consent to us acting for all of them and we are satisfied that it is reasonable for us to do so, it is in the best interests of all clients and we are satisfied that the benefit outweighs the risks.
In any such case no individual within the firm will act for or be responsible for the supervision of work done for more than one of the clients. Appropriate safeguards will be in place to ensure each clients’ confidential information is protected. If for any reason we subsequently cease acting for one of the clients they will be required to pay the costs and disbursements incurred on their behalf up to that point.
Money held on your behalf is paid into a client account at such bank as we reasonably employ in accordance with our regulator’s rules.
We will pay money due to you by bank transfer or cheque as agreed where reasonably possible, or as we think appropriate.
No interest is payable where we are holding your money to pay a disbursement or to pay our costs or where the amount of interest calculated on the balance held is less than £20.00. In all other cases we will account to you for interest on your money held by us.
Interest is calculated from the date the funds clear until the date of payment (for payments in and out by cheque, this will be the date of receipt until the date of payment as the clearing periods cancel each other out). The rate of interest is the rate we receive in our client account for the amount deposited. The amount of interest will be calculated at the end of your matter. If we are acting for you on several closely related matters the balances will be aggregated for the purpose of calculating interest.
Where after completion of our work, or for any other reason, we retain a balance of your money we will return it to you on termination of instructions and completion of the matter.
We will at all times take all reasonable steps to keep your money safe.
We do not accept liability for any loss or damage caused by negligence, non-performance or breach of duty to a value in excess of £3 million unless we have made a special arrangement with you at the outset of your matter.
No member or employee of our firm will be liable to you for breach of contract or negligence in their personal capacity.
Other than in respect of liability arising from fraud, personal injury or death, we do not accept liability for claims received more than 12 months from the conclusion of our work or, if not apparent within that time, more than 6 months after it becomes apparent.
Your statutory rights remain unaffected.
When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company we may require a director or controlling shareholder to sign a form of personal guarantee in respect of the legal costs and disbursements of this firm.
Any work that we do for you may have tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We may not be qualified to advise you on any specific tax implications of a matter that you have instructed us to deal with, or the likelihood of them arising. If you have any concerns in this respect please raise them with us immediately. If we can undertake the research necessary to resolve the issue we will do so and advise you accordingly. If we cannot, we may be able to identify a source of assistance for you. If we instruct specialist tax counsel on your behalf or refer the issue to tax advisers, we reserve the right to charge you the fees incurred in doing so.
We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service or about the bill, please contact Richard Seddon so that we can do our best to resolve the problem. If you still have queries or concerns, please contact Idris Natha who is the client care partner to whom any final issues can be reported.
We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through them and the Legal Ombudsman.
All law firms are obliged to attempt to resolve problems that clients may have with the service provided. It is therefore important that you immediately raise your concerns with us.
If we are unable to resolve any such concerns to your satisfaction within eight weeks you are entitled to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman: www.legalombudsman.org.uk or PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ.
The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about legal services. They expect complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
The Legal Ombudsman may consider complaints made after these deadlines if it is fair and reasonable for them to do so. They may decide not to pursue a complaint if:
- there was no significant loss, distress, inconvenience, or detriment;
- the size or complexity of the complaint, or your behaviour, results in the complaint requiring a disproportionate use of resources;
- there has been undue delay in bringing the complaint;
- you have already accepted a reasonable offer we made.
Complaints about a client’s rights under the General Data Protection Regulation must be submitted to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk.
Any disputes or legal issues arising from our Client Care and Terms of Business will be determined by the laws of England and Wales and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.
In accordance with the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 law firms are obliged to obtain certain information to establish the correct identity and address of clients. In certain circumstances we may be under an obligation to submit a report to the authorities if we have reason to suspect offences concerned with money laundering may have been committed or might be committed.
By accepting this Client Care and Terms of Business you accept that we are entitled to require you to produce appropriate evidence of your identity and address, that we may submit reports to the relevant authorities concerning your business and that we shall not be liable in any circumstance for any losses which you might incur as a consequence of any such steps which we might properly take in pursuance of our statutory obligations under anti-money laundering legislation.
In carrying out our statutory obligations we may incur certain expenses in order to verify the identity of a client to the satisfaction of the authorities, for example company search fees.
Acceptable identification documents
Acceptable evidence of personal identity includes:
- Current valid passport with a UK residence permit if appropriate;
- EU member state identity card;
- Current EU or UK photocard driving licence; or
- Armed Forces ID card.
Evidence of address can be determined by:
- Confirmation from the electoral register;
- Recent utility bill, bank statement or mortgage statement with the current address;
- Local authority rates or council tax bill;
- Current UK driving licence, but only if not used as evidence of personal identity; or
- Local council rent card or tenancy agreement.
The anti-money laundering guidance which UK banks and other finance services firms must adhere to is issued by the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG).
The JMLSG does not require banks to routinely identify the beneficial owners of law firm’s pooled accounts as they do with most other accounts on the proviso that this information is available upon request.
In the event of our bank requesting information about the beneficial owners of our pooled client account you agree to us disclosing your details to them. If further information including verification documentation is required from you in order to identify the owners of funds held by us, you agree to provide it.
We use the information that you provide to us 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 regulatory compliance.
Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation and our duty of confidentiality.
The Data Protection Act 2018 requires us to advise you that your particulars are held on our database and from time to time we may use these details to send you information which we think might be of interest. If you do not wish to receive that information please notify our office in writing. We do not make such information available to any other provider of products or services.
If you are an individual you have the right under the Data Protection Act 2018 to obtain information from us, including a description of the data that we hold about you. Should you have any queries concerning this right please contact our data protection officer Andrew Seddon.
Handling your personal data
We confirm the following:
- The fee earner handling your matter, their secretary and any legal assistant within the firm may handle your data.
- Your personal data will remain confidential.
- Your personal data will be used to carry out an identification check as is usual in this type of transaction, to make contact with you for the duration of the matter and to ensure that funds are sent or received to facilitate the transaction.
- The processing of your personal data is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the firm or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of an individual which require protection of personal data, in particular where the individual about whom data is held is a child.
- It may be necessary to provide third parties with your data to effect the transaction, namely other law firms, search providers, government departments including HM Revenue & Customs, the Land Registry and IT service suppliers.
Fair and transparent processing
We confirm the following:
- Your personal data will not be retained for any longer than is necessary to fulfil the firm’s statutory obligations.
- Upon signing the client care documentation provided to you at the outset of the matter you will be confirming that the contract which exists between us gives us the right to process your data in relevant and applicable ways.
- You have the right to request from the firm access to and rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing concerning your personal data.
- You have the right to object to processing.
- You have the right to data portability.
- You have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office in relation to any concerns you may have with regard to the processing of your personal data.
By accepting this Client Care and Terms of Business you agree to provide personal data and consent to our use of it accordingly.
We must observe a general duty of confidentiality.
Subject to data protection legislation and our duty of confidentiality we may share your personal data with:
- Third parties and other persons who help us provide our products and services;
- Companies and other persons providing services to us;
- Our legal and other professional advisors, including our auditors in the conduct of audit or quality checks on our practice;
- Fraud prevention agencies, reference agencies and debt collection agencies during your service management;
- Government bodies and agencies in the UK and overseas;
- Courts to comply with legal requirements and for the administration of justice;
- To other parties connected with your matters; and
- Anyone else with your consent or as required by law.
Circumstances where it may be necessary for our firm to disclose information about you other than as a result of the normal conduct of your matter include:
- In an emergency or to otherwise protect your vital interests;
- To protect the security or integrity of our business operations.
External firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.
We use cloud storage for client files. Our cloud software provider is LEAP. LEAP’s cloud infrastructure is provided and maintained by industry leading cloud platform provider Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services demonstrates a commitment to information security at every level of the organisation and complies with internationally recognised standards, the EU Data Protection Directive, the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We will monitor and maintain on file, be it paper, electronic or both, records of our calls, letters, emails, text messages, social media messages and other communications in relation to your dealings with us. We will do this for regulatory compliance, self-regulatory practices, crime prevention and detection, to protect the security of our communications systems and procedures, for quality control and staff training and in preparation for circumstances where a record of what has been said becomes necessary.
After completing the work we will be entitled to keep all of your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for costs and disbursements.
The retention of files varies according to the type of matter completed. For example, in the case of conveyancing files we will generally retain a purchase file for 12 years and a sale file for 6 years. Of course, if we know that a property where we have acted on the purchase has been sold within 12 years of the date of when it was purchased then we will destroy the purchase file 6 years after the date of the sale of the property. If you require your files to be retained longer you must instruct us accordingly.
On the completion of the retention period the file is destroyed.
Time limits imposed by documents such as rent review dates, dates for service of a break notice under a lease et cetera. are your responsibility to diarise. The firm does not take responsibility for diarising dates which occur after a transaction is concluded for you. In certain circumstances, and only by express agreement with you, the firm will diarise dates.
We shall not be responsible for advising you of any future changes in the law which may impact upon you.
If we take papers 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 time spent producing stored papers and reading and related work to comply with your instructions.
We will not destroy documents deposited into safe custody.
We have professional indemnity insurance in accordance with statutory requirements. Our professional indemnity insurance cover does not extend to damages or other monetary awards, judgments or negotiated settlements or claims made or suits brought before any arbitrator, tribunal or court in any country outside of England and Wales.
Where work involves investments, although we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to give advice, we are able to refer you to an authorised advisor. We can provide limited services in relation to investments, provided they are closely linked with our legal services as regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
It is not our responsibility to carry out a physical inspection of the property, but if you wish us to do this for any reason please make a specific request. We will not advise on the valuation of the property nor the suitability of your mortgage nor any other financial arrangements.
The local authority search only relates to the land being bought or mortgaged and will not cover neighbouring properties or any wider area unless specifically requested.
We will not give any advice on the planning implications of a proposed purchase beyond reporting on any relevant information provided by the results of the ‘local search’ unless specifically requested to do so.
We will not advise generally on environmental liabilities. We will assume, unless you tell us otherwise, that you are making your own arrangements for any appropriate environmental investigation. On occasions it may be necessary for us to obtain an environmental search on your behalf or on behalf of your lender. In such circumstances we will not advise you about issues relating to the possible contamination of any land unless specifically requested by you to do so.
If you believe the property might be located within a Church of England parish of a medieval church please let us know and we can arrange to obtain a chancel repair liability search.
We are not qualified to advise on non-legal results of any search and will only provide the actual results of such a search.
We are required to be vigilant in order to protect our lender clients against mortgage fraud. Therefore we are obliged to ensure, in all conveyancing matters, that all purchase funds, including the deposit, are paid through our own bank account and are not directly transferred to the seller. We are also obliged to report to your lender any allowances or incentives offered by the seller.
By signing this Client Care and Terms of Business you authorise us to disclose to the other parties in a transaction, and if applicable to all other parties in a chain of transactions and their agents and advisers, all information which we have in relation to your part in the transaction including any related sale or mortgage and other financial arrangements and wishes as to dates for exchange of contracts and completion.
Where we also act for your lender in the transaction we have a duty to make full disclosure to the lender of all relevant facts relating to you, your purchase and the mortgage. This will include disclosure of any discrepancies between the mortgage application and information provided to us during the transaction and any cashback payments or discount schemes which a seller is providing to you. If a conflict of interest arises we must cease to act for your lender in this matter and in some instances we must cease to act for you as well.
Gowlings Solicitors is an accredited member of the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS). The CQS provides a recognised quality standard for residential conveyancing practices which we must comply with ensuring that we:
- Meet our duties to you and your lender where we act for them;
- Take action to prevent fraud in the conveyancing process;
- Deal with the other parties in a fair and honest manner, which includes not withholding relevant information; and
- Respond to the other parties in accordance with agreed timeframes.
All obligations under the Law Society Conveyancing Protocol are subject to overriding client confidentiality obligations and our obligation to act in your best interest.
The CQS audit procedure requires examination of client files from time to time. Your file may be selected for auditing. If that happens the examination is conducted under strictly controlled circumstances and only with duly appointed and qualified individuals.
By accepting our terms and conditions you agree that we will act in accordance with the terms of the Law Society Conveyancing Protocol. This includes consent to disclosure of your confidential file if necessary. Such consent may be withdrawn by you in writing at any time.
We have no expertise in relation to the fitness for purpose or solvency of any bank. We assume that any bank licensed to operate by the appropriate statutory authority in the jurisdiction in which it operates will be able to honour its obligations. Accordingly we will have no liability to you in the event of the bank at which the firms client account is held becoming insolvent or being unable to meet its obligations.
In such an event you may be eligible for limited compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). In the event of our client account holder’s collapse you consent to us disclosing your details to the FSCS for the purposes of making a claim on your behalf.
We currently hold our client account funds in Barclays Bank Plc. The £85,000 FSCS limit will apply to each individual client. If you hold personal money in an account with the same bank as our client account the limit remains £85,000 in total.
We may pay a referral fee for work to be referred to us. In such a situation we will inform you in writing and will tell you what fee we have paid. The advice which we give to you will be independent and we will treat you the same as any other client. You are free to raise questions on all aspects of the transaction and any information which you disclose to us will be treated as confidential and not disclosed to the referrer or to any other third party without your consent. We will not act for the referrer in connection with the same transaction in any way and you are under no obligation to instruct us in connection with the transaction.
If a court orders another party to pay some or all of your legal costs and disbursements it is important to appreciate that you have to pay the legal costs and disbursements in the first place and any amounts then recovered will be repaid to you.
The other person will not be liable to pay the VAT element of costs if you are able to recover the VAT yourself.
If the other party is in receipt of legal aid no costs are likely to be recovered.
It is possible to claim from the other party interest on these amounts from the date of the court order and we will account to you for such interest to the extent that you have paid our costs and disbursements.
You will be responsible for paying our costs and disbursements of seeking to recover any costs that the court orders the other party to pay to you.
A client who is unsuccessful in a court case may be ordered to pay the other party’s legal costs and disbursements which would be in addition to our legal costs and disbursements. Arrangements can be made to take out insurance to cover liability for these circumstances. Please discuss this with us if you are interested in this possibility.
You may end your instructions to us in writing at any time but we can keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for costs and disbursements.
We will only cease acting for you on good reason and after giving you reasonable notice. Possible reasons for our firm to terminate our retainer with you may include:
- Failure to respond twice to requests for instructions;
- Failure to respond to a request for information required by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002;
- Failure to comply with a request for payment on account of costs and disbursements;
- Failure to pay an interim account;
- If a conflict of interest arises whereby we are no longer able to continue acting for you.
We also reserve the right to stop acting at any time in the event of rude or abusive conduct being directed against any member of staff.
If we stop acting for you, you must pay our charges up until that point. These are calculated by proportion of the agreed fee.
- Distance selling – The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013
If we have not met you in person, because for example instructions and signing of the contract documentation is taking place by telephone, mail, email or on-line – 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 – by way of an ‘off-premises’ contract and the contract was entered into on or after 14 June 2014, you have the right to cancel this contract within 14 calendar days of entering into the contract without giving any reason. The cancellation period will expire after 14 calendar days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.
To exercise your right to cancel you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement, for example a letter sent by post, fax or email. You may use the model cancellation form on our website but this is not obligatory. We will acknowledge receipt of such a cancellation on a durable medium, for example by email, without delay. To meet the cancellation deadline you must send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.
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. By signing and returning one copy of this document, you are confirming that we can begin work immediately. Where you have provided your 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.
Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of then current hourly rates, your Client Care documents and these Terms of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.
Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of your Client Care and these Terms of Business, it may not be possible for us to start work on your behalf until a copy has been returned to us.
If you require clarification on any of these points please do not hesitate to let us know.