•  In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of factors including any need to carry out work outside our normal office hours, the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action has to be taken, any particular specialist expertise, which the case may demand. In particular, in property transactions, in the administration of estates and in matters involving a substantial value or benefit to a client a charge reflecting for example, the price of the property, the size of the estate or the value of the financial benefit may be considered. It is not always possible to indicate how these aspects may arise but on present information we would expect them to be sufficiently taken into account in the rates, which we have quoted above. When a charge reflecting any value element is to be added we will explain this to you separately.

•  Solicitors have to pay out various expenses on behalf of clients ranging from land or probate registry fees, court fees, experts’ fees, and so on. We refer to such payments generally as ‘disbursements’. We will require you to pay in advance all disbursements. We have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. VAT is payable on certain disbursement expenses.

•  Telegraphic transfer fees include a bank charge of £12 the remaining balance being a service charge made by us.

•  Unless we are dealing with a residential conveyancing transaction for you on a no exchange, no fee basis, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and expenses incurred up to the date it becomes apparent that for whatever reason the matter is unable to proceed.

PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS

•  Property transactions - We will normally send you our bill following the exchange of contacts and payment is required on a purchase prior to completion; and at completion; on a sale. On completion we will deduct our charges and expenses from the funds available before accounting to you for any balance of monies left on your client account.

•  Wills – We will send you a bill for your Will(s) when we provide your draft Will for approval. We require payment during the meeting during which your Wills are completed unless other arrangements have been agreed between you and us. We will provide you with a quote during our first meeting.

•  Administration of estates - We will normally submit an interim bill at regular stages during the administration, starting with the obtaining of a Grant. The final account will be prepared when the Estate Accounts are ready for approval.

•  In other cases or transactions - As your matter progresses we will send you interim bills on account from time to time. These will normally be at six to eight weekly intervals. We can bill you on a monthly basis if you prefer. We find that interim billing helps clients budget for costs as well as keeping them informed of the legal expenses that are being incurred. Bills on account, unless indicated otherwise, are not an exact costing of the full amount due. They give a broad indication of the work done taken from our computer timed records. At the end of your matter the full costs over the whole period will be calculated. If interim bills are not met with prompt payment delay in the progress of a matter or court case may result. In the unlikely event of any bill or request for payment not being met this firm reserves the right to stop acting for you further.

•  Payment of all invoices raised is due to us within 28 days of our sending you a bill. Interest will be charged on a daily basis calculated at 8% per annum from the date of the bill in cases where payment is not made within 28 days of our sending the bill to you.

•  We cannot receive payment of more than £500.00 (Five Hundred Pounds) in cash.

•  We reserve the right to refuse to transfer funds to an unknown third party

INTEREST PAYMENT

•  Money received on your behalf will be held in our Client Account. Subject to certain minimum amounts and periods of time set out in the Solicitors Account Rules 1998, interest will be calculated and paid to you at the rate from time to time payable on Lloyds TSB Bank Plc’s Client Account. The period for which interest will be paid will normally run from the date(s) from which cleared funds arrive with us until the date(s) of issue of any cheque(s) from our Client Account.

•  Where a client obtains borrowing from a lender in a property transaction, we will ask the lender to arrange that the loan cheque is received by us a minimum of four working days prior to the completion date. If the money can be telegraphed, we will request that we receive it the day before completion. This will enable us to ensure that the necessary funds are available in time for completion. Such clients need to be aware that the lender may charge interest from the date of issue of their loan cheque or the telegraphing of the payment.

STORAGE OF PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS

•  Following completion of 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 seven years. After that, storage is on the clear understanding that we have the right to destroy your papers after such time, as we consider reasonable. We will not of course destroy any documents such as wills, deeds and other securities, which we hold in safe custody.

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 the 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.

TERMINATION

•  You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incurring charges and expenses on your behalf you must tell us this clearly in writing.

•  If we decide to stop acting for you, for example, if you do not pay an interim bill or comply with a request for a payment on account we will tell you the reason and give you notice in writing.

•  Under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, for some non-business instructions you may have the right to withdraw, without charge, within 7 working days of the date on which you ask us to act for you. HOWEVER, if we start work with your consent within that period, you lose the right to withdraw. Your acceptance of these terms and conditions of business will amount to consent. If you wish to withdraw instructions you should give notice by telephone, email or letter to the lawyer named in these terms of business as being responsible for your work. The Regulations require us to inform you that the work involved is likely to take more than 30 days.

LIMITED COMPANIES

•  When accepting instructions to act on behalf or a limited company, we will usually require a director and/or controlling shareholder to sign a form of personal guarantee in respect of the charges and expenses to this firm. If such a request is refused we will be entitled to stop acting and to require immediate payment of our charges on an hourly basis as set out above, together with any expenses incurred.

TAX ADVICE

•  Work that we do for you may involve tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We may not be qualified to advise you on the tax implications of a transaction that you instruct us to carry out, 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.

IDENTITY AND DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS

•  We are entitled to refuse to act for you if you fail to supply upon demand appropriate proof of identity for yourself or for any principal whom you may represent.

•  We have a statutory obligation to report to the appropriate authorities our knowledge or suspicion that funds derive from the proceeds of crime. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or delay arising out of the firm’s compliance with any statutory or regulatory requirement.

•  In property transactions, 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 advisors all information which we have in relation to our involvement in the transaction including any related sale or mortgage and other financial arrangements and wishes as to dates for exchange and completion. You may withdraw this authority at any time but if you do so you should appreciate that we will inform the other party or parties and their agents or advisors that this authority has been withdrawn.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND US

•  Our aim is to offer all our clients an efficient and effective service at all times. We hope that you will be pleased with the work that we do for you. However, should there be any aspect of our service with which you are unhappy, please raise your concern with Victoria Kenny, to whom any difficulty can be reported.

•  We aim to communicate with you by such a method as you may request. We may virus check disks or email. 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.

•  The Data Protection Act requires us to advise you that your particulars are held on our database. We may, from time to time use these details to send you information we think might be of interest to you.

TERMS & CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS

•  Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of the current hourly rates, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.

•  Your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business.

This firm is 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, 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.

Sometimes conveyancing, family or probate work involves investments and we are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority and so may refer you to someone who is authorised to provide any necessary advice. However, we can provide certain limited services in relation to investments, provided they are closely linked with the legal services that we are providing to you as we are regulated by The Law Society.

If you have any problem with the service that we have provided for you in this connection, then please do let us know. We will always try to resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaints handling system to help us resolve the problem between ourselves. If, for any reason, we are unable to resolve the problem between us then we are regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which also provides a complaints and redress scheme.