Subject to any variations specifically agreed in writing when accepting your instructions these terms shall apply to all advice given and work undertaken by the solicitors and staff of Mullbar Solicitors to or for each of our clients (‘you’).
In these terms of business ‘we’ or ‘our’ or ‘us’ or ‘the firm’ refers to Mullbar Solicitors (Mullbar) a firm authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 620624 having its trading address at Weatherhill House, New South Quarter, 23 Whitestone Way, CR0 4WF.
Any business conducted with us is solely with Mullbar Solicitors and the firm has sole legal liability for the work done for you and for any act or omission in the course of that work. If a principal, employee, associate, or consultant signs in his or her own name any letter or other document in the course of carrying out that work it does not mean he or she is assuming any personal legal liability for that letter or document.
We will exercise due skill, care and diligence in carrying out legal work in accordance with your instructions. In performing our services, we shall use reasonable care to:
Our normal opening hours are from 9.00am to 5.00pm but individual fee-earners may advise you directly of their availability and how to contact them outside these hours.
Advice on commercial/financial acumen, and tax advice
Our role is to provide legal advice and not to provide advice on the commercial or financial acumen of any matter, or advice on tax matters. If you require tax advice, we may be able to identify a source of assistance for you.
Property issues
Where we are acting for you in relation to a property transaction, it will not be our responsibility to carry out a physical inspection of the property. It is your responsibility to inform us of any discrepancies between the documents/plans relating to the transaction and the situation on the ground. We shall not advise you on the valuation of the property or the suitability of the mortgage or any other financial arrangement. We shall not advise generally on environmental liabilities, and we shall assume, unless you tell us to the contrary, that you are making your own arrangements for any appropriate environmental surveyor investigation.
Your responsibilities as a client
You are responsible for:
4.1 Liability to persons who are not the client of the Mullbar Solicitors
Subject to clause 4.8, we shall have no liability to any parties except you and any third parties to whom our advice is expressly addressed.
4.2 Liability limited to £2 million
Subject to clause 4.8, our liability for losses arising out of, or in connection with, our retainer (including legal costs you incur in pursuing recovery of the losses, and including interest) shall be limited to the sum of £2 million in respect of any claim against us.
In defining what a claim is for the purposes of this clause, all claims against us arising from one act or omission, one series of related acts or omissions, the same act or omission in a series of related matters or transactions, similar acts or omissions in a series of related matters or transactions, and all claims against us arising from one matter or transaction, shall be regarded as one claim.
4.3 Proportionate liability
Subject to clause 4.8, if we are jointly, or jointly and severally, liable to you with any other party we shall only be liable to pay you the proportion of your losses which is found to be fair and reasonably due to our fault. We shall not be liable to pay you the proportion, which is fairly and reasonable due to the fault of another party.
4.4 Effect of limitation or exclusion of liability you agree with another person
We could be affected by any limitation or exclusion of liability, which you agree with another of your advisers or any other third party in connection with a matter on which we are acting for you. This is because such a limitation or exclusion of liability might also operate to limit the amount that we could recover from that other person, (for example by way of contribution or restrict the amount of damages that you might recover from them directly). Subject to clause 4.8, you agree that we shall not be liable to you for any increased amount thereby payable by us, or for an amount which we would have been entitled to recover from another of your advisers or other third party by way of indemnity, contribution or otherwise, but are unable to recover because of that limitation or exclusion of liability which you have agreed with third parties.
4.5 Making a claim against another person who is or may be liable
Subject to clause 4.8, if there is another adviser or person who is liable (or potentially liable) to you in respect of the same loss as you claim from us, then you will at our request join that person in any proceedings brought against us as soon as reasonably practicable following our request. This is subject to any legal prohibition against your joining them in that way.
4.6 Complying with our obligations under the money laundering legislation
Subject to clause 4.8 we shall not be liable for any loss arising from or connected with our compliance with any statutory obligation, which we may have, or reasonable belief we may have, to report matters to the relevant authorities under the provisions of the money laundering legislation.
4.7 Qualification to limitation of liability
Nothing in these Terms excludes or restricts liability for:
4.8 Reasonableness of limit
We believe the limitations on our liability we have set out are reasonable having regard to the availability and cost of professional indemnity insurance and possible changes in its availability and cost in the future but should you consider them inappropriate we invite you to discuss the limits with us and we will then investigate the options for you, including the option of providing further cover at additional cost.
You will be notified by letter at the commencement of each matter that we undertake on your behalf the basis upon which we will charge you. There are four bases of charge, which may be referred to in our letter.
A fixed fee
This will either be a stated fixed amount or will be calculated by reference to a percentage of an ascertainable sum (for instance the sale price of a property). This fee is payable at the beginning of the matter or an agreed stage being reached. All conveyancing fixed fees are payable at completion of the transaction and prior to registration formalities unless otherwise agreed;
Time basis
Our charge will be calculated by reference to all time spent by individual fee- earners on the matter. This will include meeting you and others where appropriate, considering, preparing and working on papers, correspondence, making and receiving telephone calls, research, internal consultations and travelling. Such time is recorded and charged in six minutes units at the hourly rates applicable to the relevant individual. Where less than six minutes is taken on a matter, a full unit of six minutes will be charged. You will be notified by letter of the rates chargeable by fee-earners dealing with your matter. These rates are exclusive of VAT. Charging rates will be reviewed from time to time and you will be notified of any changes as soon as reasonably possible.
Standard Basis
This will be a fee, which is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case as recognised by the relevant regulatory legislation or guidance. The main element in any such calculation is likely to be the amount of time spent by our professional staff in dealing with the matter. Other factors relevant to the calculation of a Standard Basis fee include but are not limited to: the complexity of the matter; the value of the assets involved; the degree of responsibility undertaken by us; the place where the work is performed; the investment in IT programs utilised; the level of office support services utilised; the urgency.
Agreed fee
A fee that cannot be varied upwards and is payable whether or not the work is completed.
Unless you are being charged on a fixed fee or agreed fee basis, any indication of fees is an estimate only (whether stated to be an estimate or quotation). We will endeavour to ensure that estimates are as accurate as possible. We will be entitled to charge for all time spent even if it transpires that our estimates understate the level of fees properly incurred in the matter. Any fixed fee or estimate will only apply to the work covered by your initial instructions and we reserve the right to vary the fees if the scope or nature of those instructions changes.
Unless expressly agreed otherwise, no work is undertaken on a contingent basis and with the exception of fixed fees our fees are payable in full whether or not the proposed matter is completed. We do not undertake work, which is publicly funded. Should it appear to us that any work that you may instruct us to undertake is eligible for public funding, we will advise you of this and the implications thereof.
If you have legal expenses insurance, it is your responsibility to advise us of this fact. Further, you should check whether your household insurance or any other policy provides cover for our fees and notify us if applicable. You may also have cover under a scheme relating to your employment. In all such instances where you advise us that you have cover from a third party, we shall consider the terms of the cover and advise you whether we are prepared to continue our retainer on the basis of third party cover. You may also have cover in respect of your liability to another party’s costs and you should check any insurance policy you may have for this should you be involved in a contentious matter. Should it be appropriate for you to take out such cover, you will be specifically advised of this.
We shall be entitled to make any additional charge for:
We will also charge separately for sums spent or to be spent by us on your behalf (‘disbursements’) such as company and property search fees, land registry and court fees, the fees of counsel and experts, travel expenses, courier fees and computer search fees.
Unless agreed otherwise we will expect all disbursements to be paid in advance. At the outset of a matter, we will advise you of the disbursements that are likely to be incurred and their likely timescale. Should you fail to pay disbursements when requested, we shall be entitled to determine the retainer with immediate effect.
All fees and expenses are exclusive of VAT, which will be charged where applicable at the appropriate rate.
You will be responsible for the payment of all stamp duty and other taxes arising in respect of your transactions.
You are entitled to set an upper limit on the firm’s costs, which may be reached without further authority. Fees in excess of that limit may only be incurred with your specific further authority.
On all matters that are being charged upon a standard basis or time basis, we will, at intervals of no longer than every 6 months, update you as to the current costs position.
Unless you are being charged on a fixed fee or agreed fee basis, any indication of fees is an estimate only (whether stated to be an estimate or quotation). Whilst we endeavour to estimate fees as accurately as possible, the actual fees that are incurred are subject to factors outside our control and you should therefore treat any estimate as a guide only. We cannot guarantee that the final charge will not exceed the estimate.
We will send you written engagement terms specifying the scope of work and basis of charge (as well as other information relevant to your individual matter) and those engagement terms will specifically incorporate these Terms of Business. You will be asked to sign and return a copy of the engagement terms to confirm your agreement to the terms of our retainer. In the event of you instructing us to take any action or give any advice having received our written engagement terms but not having signed and returned the copy, you will be deemed by instructing us to have accepted our engagement terms and will be bound by them.
Our invoices are payable on delivery. If email is the normal method of communication between us, sending an invoice by email will constitute valid delivery of that invoice. In the event of any invoice not being paid on delivery we shall be entitled not to undertake any further work on your behalf until the invoice is paid in full. If the invoice remains outstanding for 28 days we shall be then entitled to terminate the retainer in accordance with clause 17 and/or charge interest as specified below. In property or other asset purchases we usually ask you to provide us with cleared funds sufficient to pay all fees and other sums due to us prior to completion. In the event of monies being paid to the credit of your client account when there are outstanding fees or other sums due to us, you agree and authorise us to forthwith transfer funds equivalent to the amount of the debt due to us from your client account to the credit of our office account and thereby discharge your debt. If the funds held are less than the full amount of the debt, then you agree to us transferring to our office account the entirety of the funds on your client account in partial settlement of the debt.
We are entitled to deliver invoices from time to time for all work carried out to the date specified in the bill. Such bills are ‘statutory bills’ which we are entitled to sue upon in default of payment. The interval between bills will in most circumstances be between one and three months. An invoice will be sent at the conclusion of all matters.
In some circumstances, particularly litigation matters, we may request a payment on account of our fees, expenses and disbursements. If a payment is requested, we reserve the right not to act or continue acting for you until payment has been made.
All payments on account will be held in our Client Account, pending delivery of an invoice. In litigation matters we may give you notice, usually not less than 28 days before any hearing, requiring the estimated total costs of that hearing to be paid to us 14 days before the hearing. If we receive less than 28 days’ notification of the hearing, we may give you notice within 7 days of receiving the notification, requiring you to put us in funds for the estimated total costs of that hearing within 3 days or before the hearing if sooner. If the required payment is not paid we may immediately cease acting for you on that matter and any other matters with which we are then acting.
We will charge interest on any amount remaining overdue by 28 days or more. Failure to pay invoices in accordance with our terms of business is analogous to an unauthorised overdraft. Accordingly the rate of interest we will charge on overdue amounts is 15% per annum with interest compounded on each quarter date. We may at our absolute discretion discount the interest rate in individual cases and such discount will only apply if you receive written notification thereof.
Please note that Rule 17 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2018 provides that where money is held in our Client Account on behalf of a Client or Trust, we must within 14 days of sending our bill to the Client or paying party (or notifying them of the sum due) transfer sufficient monies to settle the bill from our Client Account to the firm’s Office Account. Accordingly you agree that where money is held in our client account on your behalf or on behalf of a trust, when we send a bill to you or the paying party for work that has been done we may transfer sufficient monies to settle the bill from our Client Account to the firm’s Office Account. The only circumstances in which we do not have to make such transfer is where the client has:
Payment of our charges may be made by cheque, BACS money transfer, banker’s draft, credit or debit card (not American Express) but we cannot accept any payment in cash above £500 in respect of our fees or for any other purpose
If you object to any bill you are entitled to apply to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974
Without prejudice to any other rights or remedies we may have we shall have a general and particular lien (a right to retain documents or other items) over any of your property coming into our possession or under our control as security for all amounts and liabilities of whatever sort due or becoming due to us from you. The lien may be enforced by sale by auction or private treaty of all or any part of your property in our possession.
If for any reason we permit you or any other person to have possession or use of any property subject to the above lien, it shall be held at all time subject to that lien and shall be returned to us immediately upon request.
We will hold any money we receive on your behalf in our client account. We will account to you for interest in accordance with Rules 22 and 23 of the SRA Accounts Rules 2018. A copy of our policy relating to the payment of interest can be provided on request. In certain circumstances we are required by law to provide information to HM Revenue & Customs in connection with interest paid to you on money we hold on your behalf.
We have no expertise in relation to 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 any bank to whom we pay money to on your behalf becoming insolvent or being unable to meet its obligations.
We are constantly reviewing and upgrading our e-mail technology to ensure that we can communicate with you as effectively as possible by e-mail with the minimum risk of virus infection. However, e-mail carries some inherent risks, namely potential lack of security and lack of authenticity. Further, where sender and recipient use different internet service providers, there can be no guarantee of prompt transmission and incompatibility may also create delivery problems. Notwithstanding these potential problems, the vast majority of e-mail communication is secure and prompt, but we are nevertheless required to advise you of these potential risks. If you request us to communicate by e-mail or send us an e-mail, you will be deemed to have accepted the inherent risks in e-mail communication and we shall have no liability for any losses arising from such risks.
By virtue of this legislation and regulations, we are required to abide by the following procedures:
Failure by us to comply with these obligations will result in a criminal prosecution against us. Because of our duty to comply we may ask for evidence of identity, and we may ask you detailed questions concerning the source of any relevant funds. We may make use of internet-based searches of existing databases to help ascertain your identity and money laundering risks. Personal information that you provide may be disclosed to a credit reference agency, which may keep a record of that information. Unless you contact us after being advised how to access these terms to inform us that you object to the use of such searches it will be deemed that you consent to their use. If we have any concerns about the legitimacy of the funds or the legitimacy of the matter, we are obliged to either terminate the retainer or make notification to the authorities. Such disclosure is required under the legislation and is an exception to our normal duty of confidentiality. Accordingly, we shall not be liable for any loss that you may suffer as a result of our complying with any statutory or regulatory provisions, even if it ultimately transpires that no offences were being committed.
We cannot accept cash in excess of £500 for any purpose.
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. 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. The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services Markets Act 2000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman handles complaints independently by virtue of the Legal Services Act 2007. If you are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.
You agree not to make our work available to third parties without our written permission.
We will at all times keep your business confidential, subject to:
By accepting these terms you consent to disclose in the above circumstances on the basis that the third parties will be required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.
In common with many law firms, we sometimes engage other companies or people to provide certain support functions and to provide secretarial, paralegal, clerical or administrative services on our files. We may also refer our files to counsel, an expert or a costs draftsman for specialist advice. We will always seek a confidentiality agreement with these outsourced providers. If you do not want your file to be outsourced, please tell us as soon as possible.
In property transactions, you authorise us to disclose to the other parties to the transaction and, if applicable, other parties in the chain of transactions, all information which we have in relation to your involvement in the transaction, including any related sale or mortgage, financial arrangements and desired dates for exchange and completion. You may withdraw this authority at any time, but if you do so we may be obliged to inform other parties that the authority has been withdrawn.
Where we are also acting for your lender in a transaction we have a duty to fully reveal to your lender all material facts, which will include:
You agree to waiver confidentiality in respect of your name, address and details of unpaid invoices in so far as such waive of confidentiality is necessary to enable the firm to charge its book debts or enter into any factoring agreements or instruct other solicitors to collect any debt.
You may terminate your instructions by writing to us at any time. The firm is entitled to determine its retainer for good reason, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing we shall be entitled to terminate our retainer if you instruct us to take any course of action which we advise is inappropriate, you decline to accept our advice, we consider that the potential outcome does not justify the expense being incurred or that it is not in your best interests for us to continue to act, or you are in breach of your responsibilities under clause 3.3 above or you make unwarranted complaints about the firm or the level of service or it is evident to us that the necessary mutual trust and confidence no longer subsists. Further, we may terminate the retainer in the event of any of our accounts being outstanding for more than 28 days or as provided for in clause 8 above. We will give you such notice as is reasonable in the circumstances to determine the retainer, but such notice shall be no longer than 28 days. We shall have no liability to undertake any work or actions on your behalf once the period of notice has terminated. We will release papers relating to your matter once all fees for which you have become liable have been paid by means of cleared funds.
After completing the work we will be entitled to keep your papers whilst there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses. Except those papers that you request to be returned to you, we will retain papers arising from our work for you in storage for six years from the date of the final bill, after which time they may be destroyed by us without reference to you. You should make special arrangements with us to ensure the permanent retention of papers such as deeds and wills. We may make a charge for the production or delivery of any deeds or other papers not connected to continuing instructions and for dealing with any correspondence in respect of papers held in storage.
We will retain all electronic data for at least 6 years after which we will take all reasonable steps to destroy such data unless we are satisfied that there is good reason for retaining it or you instruct us to do so. You may instruct us to retain data at any time. This provision may change without reference to you if there are changes to the relevant legislative or regulatory requirement.
The copyright in all documents prepared by us and our publications and practice notes is and shall remain our property.
Our complete Data Protection and Privacy Statement will be provided on request.
If any difficulty or unhappiness should arise relating to any aspect of the matter or about our bill you should in the first instance raise this with the person who is stated to have responsibility for the matter in our engagement terms. If that person fails to resolve matters in a satisfactory manner then you should write to us and address your comments to the Best Practice Department (email: bestpractice@mullbar.com) who thereafter will respond to your concerns.
A copy of our formal complaints procedure will be made available to you on request. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our complaints procedure you may refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 OEH. enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk The Legal Ombudsman’s time limits for accepting a complaint are six years from the date of act\omission or three years from when the complainant should have known about the complaint. Where you have been provided with full information about your right to take a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (as is the case here) you must make your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months from the end of our complaints process. We will inform you when our internal complaints process has been concluded.
Under the above regulations, for some instructions, you may have the right to withdraw if our contract to provide you with legal services is concluded prior to meeting you. This right to cancel without charge will subsist for 14 days after the contract was concluded. Notice of cancellation should be sent by email or fax to the person named in our engagement letter as being the person responsible for the matter.
Before entering into a formal engagement with you we may obtain a report on your credit status from a regulated credit agency and in those circumstances we will obtain your consent prior to requesting the report. Once we have entered into an engagement with you, we may seek such a report if we deem it necessary for our business interests. By agreeing to our terms of engagement you consent to us obtaining a report on your credit status should we require to do so.
If we receive requests for information from third parties duly authorised by you (such as accountants requesting information to complete an audit) we will charge on a time basis (subject to minimum charge below) for researching the information and supplying such information as we are able to provide and there will be a minimum charge of £100 exclusive of VAT.
We may transfer all rights and obligations under any contract with you to any successor to the firm in the context of its business. In the event that such a successor, whether it be a sole trader, partnership, limited liability partnership, or body corporate takes on the business of Mullbar Solicitors. By continuing to instruct us having been notified of these Terms of Business you agree to the future novation of any contract you have with us in favour of the successor entity.
No person other than a contracting party may enforce any provisions of our engagement by virtue of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
The firm and you or other contracting party may rescind or vary the engagement terms without reference to any third party.
If all or any part of any individual provision of the retainer between us and you is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any respect then the remainder of the terms of the retainer will remain valid and enforceable.
These terms and our engagement letter(s) form the entire agreement between us and you as to the terms of our appointment by you, to the exclusion of all other correspondence and discussion.
This agreement is governed by English Law and by accepting these terms you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
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