Terms of Business

Contents

  1. Definitions
  2. Function
  3. Level of service
  4. Hours of business
  5. Fees and supplements
  6. Payment terms
  7. Our records
  8. Data protection
  9. Equality and diversity
  10. Prevention of money laundering
  11. Termination of the retainer
  12. Liability
  13. Electronic communication
  14. Complaints procedure

1.0 Definitions

  1. We/Us/the Company means Notable Notaries Limited.
  2. You/the Clients means the individuals or corporate bodies to which we provide notarial and/or legalisation services.

 

2.0 Function

  1. Notaries in England and Wales prepare, authenticate and keep records of the due execution of legal documents, principally for use abroad.
  2. Our notaries are regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury

2.1 Notarial Responsibility

    1. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our notaries’ responsibility is limited to the notarial formalities and does not extend to advice on or drafting of documentation or on the matter under consideration.
    2. We must be satisfied as to your identity, your legal capacity, your authority (i.e. when acting on behalf of a corporate body) and your understanding and approval of the transaction; in certain instances we may insist on a translation. Our aim is that the document as executed and formalised will be acceptable in the recipient country. However, we cannot be held liable if you ask us to follow particular instructions in terms of the requirements of the recipient country, after external advice received by you directly of by other professionals you direct us to. If we are not satisfied about any one of the above we may refuse to undertake the matter or issue a restricted certification.
    3. You/the Clients shall provide us with clear instructions and full and accurate information sufficient to enable us to carry out your instructions.

 

3.0 Level of service

  1. We shall provide notarial services with due speed and efficiency in accordance with your instructions. We cannot be held responsible for delays in returning notarised and legalised documents that have not to do with us but relate to third parties (i.e. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), courier etc.).
  2. All instructions or requests for services must be clearly set out in writing and addressed correctly to ourselves.

 

4.0 Hours of business

  1. Our office hours are 09:00 to 17:30 on Monday to Friday. In appropriate cases we can arrange to see you outside the usual office hours, or away from the office. In such cases we would charge a reasonable fee for travelling time plus the cost of our travel.

Principle place of business:

2 Portman Street,
London, W1H 6DU
Telefono: 0207 952 1100
Email: [email protected]

 

5.0 Fees and supplements

5.1 Fees

  1. Our current scale of charges is available on request. Our charges are usually based on the existing scale which is reviewed from time to time. They include the time incurred in making the appointment, travelling or waiting time, meetings with you and others, considering, preparing and working on papers and correspondence and the time required by our notaries to complete their notarial records. We reserve the right to vary these charges if the work is extremely urgent or needs to be done outside ordinary office hour, if we are required to carry out extra work or if the matter proves to be unusually difficult or complex. Regular or returning clients agree that they are aware of applicable fees unless otherwise requested. Where applicable or required, Value Added Tax will be charged in addition. We reserve the right to charge you for printing, couriers, overseas postage, overseas telephone and fax costs and any unusual expenses we incur.

5.2 Disbursements and legalisation

  1. You are responsible for all payments which we make on your behalf to Third parties including Companies House search fees, translators’ fees, courier charges, royal mail costs, Foreign Office, Consulates fees and costs of other third-parties and costs which may be payable to check and authenticate information. Disbursements may include fees payable to the Foreign Office, Foreign Embassies or agents in respect of documents whose recipient country/authority requires legalisation.
  2. Legalisation is the process by which either the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the London Embassy of the recipient country confirms the authenticity of the seal and signature of the English notary or the official that has signed the document (i.e. Companies House documents) and we can also provide this service separately from the notarisation with an appropriate handling fee.
  3. We may ask for such payments to be made to us in advance, however no liability is accepted by the Company, its directors, shareholders, notaries, agents or staff for losses or delays in using the services of third parties.

 

6.0 Payment terms

6.1 Payment

  1. Our invoice must normally be paid prior to our releasing the completed documentation. Should all or part of an invoice remain unpaid, we reserve the right to charge interest at the interest rate from time to time published by the Notary Society.
  2. Even if another person has agreed to pay or is responsible for paying all or part of our fees and costs, we may address our invoices to you as the instructing party and you will, in all cases, be responsible for paying them; irrespective of who pays our invoice, our duty of care is owed to you alone as the instructing party unless we agree otherwise.

6.2 Interest

  1. The Notaries Accounts Rules require us, in certain circumstances, to account to you for interest. Please find the relevant rules at the following link.

 

7.0 Our records

  1. At the end of the matter, a formal entry of the main details of your matter together with copies of the notarised document and proof of identity will be kept as per respective regulations.

 

8.0 Data protection

  1. We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of our services to you and for related purposes including: updating and enhancing client records, analysis to help us manage our practice, statutory returns, legal and regulatory compliance, for other legitimate business purposes.
  2. Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality.
  3. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as professional advisers, third parties as defined in 5.2 and others as the occasion might be. You consent to this information being passed to third parties for lawful purposes. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.
  4. We may from time to time send you information which we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information please notify our office in writing.

 

9.0 Equality and diversity

  1. Notable Notaries Limited is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealings with clients, third parties and employees.

 

10.0 Prevention of money laundering

10.1 Money laundering legislation

  1. Notaries are obliged under the Money Laundering Legislation to take measures to protect against fraud and forgery. To ensure that we comply with this you acknowledge and agree that:
    • We may make all such enquiries as we deem necessary or appropriate in order to comply with our duties, and
    • You will provide us with such documents and information as we may request.
  2. Your failure to do so will entitle us to terminate our retainer and cease acting for you forthwith.
  3. If, in the course of acting for you, we discover or suspect, or have reasonable grounds for knowing or suspecting that any person is engaged in money laundering we may, and in some cases will be required to, disclose this information to the to the National Crime Agency. Depending upon the particular circumstances of the case, we may not be able to tell you that such a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it.

10.2 Proof of identity / corporate authority

  1. Identification of individuals and proof of residential address is required. This is usually by way of a current passport, photo card driving licence or national identity card and a recent gas, electricity or other bill or bank statement. Exceptionally, other proof may be acceptable, and we will be happy to advise exactly what will be required in any particular case.
  2. If you act on behalf of a company or organisation, we will need to establish that it exists and that the signatory has authority to represent it. We generally conduct our own checks on United Kingdom based entities. In some cases (particularly for companies or organisations established overseas) we may ask you to produce a certificate of incorporation, good standing certificate or other similar evidence.
  3. If certification of the signatory’s authority to represent a company or organisation is required, we will need to review additional documentation, for example:
    • constitutional documents (e.g. the Articles)
    • a power of attorney
    • board resolutions
    • authorised signatory book (in the case of banks)
    • extract from a commercial register (generally for foreign companies)

 

11.0 Termination of the retainer

  1. We reserve the right to suspend the provision of our services, for example when our invoices are deemed by us materially overdue, you fail to give us clear or proper instructions or instructions which conflict with our rules of professional conduct. We shall not consider ourselves liable for any losses, cost or penalties arising from the suspension of our services.
  2. You may at any time terminate our engagement in writing, but in this case you will be liable to compensate us for any work that has been carried out up to that moment.

 

12.0 Liability

  1. The engagement you make is with us, Notable Notaries Ltd. You agree to pursue only Notable Notaries Ltd for any claim in connection with our services, and you will not bring any claim, howsoever arising, against any of our individual employees, consultants or directors personally in respect of losses which you suffer or incur, howsoever arising, in connection with our services. This does not limit or exclude our liability for the acts or omissions in any other situation where the law prohibits us from excluding or limiting our liability to you. We only accept liability for loss to you/the Clients covered by the limits of our Professional Indemnity Insurance and you agree to that.
  2. Our liability will be reduced, to take account of the degree of responsibility or any contributory negligence by the client or of any other professional or other advisors whom the client has consulted in relation to the matter, as if we had successfully claimed contribution from them under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978, taking no regard for any limitation agreed between the client and such advisor, provided that we shall not be obliged to make or pursue any such claim for contribution.
  3. No liability whatsoever will be accepted on the part of the Company, its directors, shareholders, notaries, agents or staff in relation to any loss, damage or liability whatsoever caused directly or indirectly to any party other than the client for whom the Company has agreed to act in connection with the relevant matter. No third party shall have any right to enforce any contract by the Company to provide advice or services or to rely upon any advice given or opinion expressed by or on behalf of the Company Any legislation conferring on third parties contractual or other rights, including the Contract (Rights of Third Parties Act 1999) shall be excluded insofar as permitted by law.
  4. In any event, no liability whatsoever will be accepted on the part of the Company, its directors, shareholders, notaries, agents or staff [where such liability either arises from any instructions or information given by the client or by any third party being incomplete, inaccurate or incorrect; or where such liability is for any indirect, economic or consequential loss or damage, costs or expenses whatsoever or howsoever caused which arise out of or in connection with the services provided by the Company or for loss of profit, loss of business or opportunity, loss of data, depletion of goodwill or force majeur or otherwise.
  5. We shall not be liable to you to the extent that we are unable to perform our services as a result of any cause beyond our reasonable control including without limitation industrial action (other than solely on the part of our personnel), act of God, war, civil commutation, terrorism, theft, malicious damage (other than by our personnel) accident, failure to breakdown of computers, machinery, systems, extreme weather conditions or power failure. Rights as a consumer as defined in the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 shall not be adversely affected by these terms to the extent prohibited by those Regulations.
  6. All searches of the Register of Companies and other Public Bodies carried out by the Company are made using appropriate means including on-line service. No liability whatsoever will arise from any inaccuracy in the information so received.
  7. These limitations will apply notwithstanding any express or implied term of business or any collateral agreement or warranty, whether express or implied.

 

13.0 Electronic communication

  1. Electronic Communication (e-mail) can be used between the Company and its clients and others but please note that because of the nature of e-mail, we cannot guarantee its confidentiality. If you use e-mail to contact us or if you inform us of your e-mail address we will assume that you accept this risk and you impliedly allow us to communicate to you by e-mail unless you expressly instruct us not to do so.

 

14.0 Complaints procedure

14.1 Complaints

  1. We aim to provide all clients with an efficient and high standard of service. However, in the unlikely event that you should wish to complain, then you should follow the complaints procedure set out below.

14.2 Complaints procedure

  1. As stated above, our notaries are regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury:
    1. The Faculty Office
      1, The Sanctuary
      Westminster
      London SW1 3JT
      Telefono: 020 7222 538
      Email: [email protected]
      Website: www.facultyoffice.org.uk
  2. If you are dissatisfied about the service you have received, please do not hesitate to contact us in the first instance. You shall contact the responsible Notary and we will do all we can to resolve the issue.
  3. When you contact us in relation to a complaint you wish to make, we will let you know if a specific notary is also a member of the Notaries’ Society.
  4. If we are unable to resolve the matter, then in the case where a notary of our firm is also a member of the Notaries’ Society, then the Notary will refer the complaint to the Notaries’ Society, to the following address:
    1. The Secretary of The Notaries Society,
      Old Church Chambers,
      23 Sandhill Road,
      St James,
      Northampton, NN5 5LH
      Telefono: 01604 758908
      Email: [email protected]
  5. The Notaries’ Society has a Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Faculty Office. This procedure is designed to provide a quick resolution to any dispute.
  6. If one of our Notaries is not a member of the Notaries’ Society, complaints should then be made to the Faculty Office directly (address as above) and they will deal with the matter.
  7. If you have any difficulty in making a complaint in writing, please do not hesitate to call us/ the Notaries Society/the Faculty Office for assistance.
  8. Finally, even if you have your complaint considered under any of the above Complaints Procedures, you may at the end of that procedure or after a period of eight weeks from the date you first notified us that you were dissatisfied, make your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you are not happy with the result:
    1. Legal Ombudsman
      Baskerville House, Centenary Square
      Broad Street,
      Birmingham B1 2ND
      Telefono: 0300 555 033
      Email: [email protected]
      Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
  9. If you decide to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you must refer your matter to the Legal Ombudsman within six months from the conclusion of the complaint process.

14.3 Law and jurisdiction

  1. The terms of our appointment (including these Terms of Business) are governed by and construed in accordance with English law. You and we hereby irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in respect of any claim, dispute or difference of whatever nature concerning our appointment and arising from it.