THE SMALL PRINT (LEGAL STUFF)

As a regulated law firm authorised to conduct the reserved activity of Conveyancing we are required by the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing & Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 to apply procedures to guard against the risk of money laundering.  Identification Checks: Please refer to client care letter.   Cash: We will only accept a cash amount up to a limit of £500 in any 28-day period and will not accept any cash deposited directly into our bank account. When we must pay money to you, it will be paid by cheque or bank transfer. It will not be paid in cash or to a third party.   Source of Funds: At the start of any matter we will normally ask you to tell us the source of any funds you will be using and may ask you to explain the source of these funds. It is simplest for us if the source is an account, in your name, in a UK bank or building society. If the source is an unusual one, such as an account in another country, or in the name of someone other than yourself, please tell us as early as possible, including the reason.   Confidentiality: We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, lawyers may be required under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency (NCA) where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. Money laundering includes all proceeds of crime and covers all offences, including for example tax evasion and benefit fraud. If we make a disclosure in relation to your matter, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working on your matter for a period and may not be able to tell you why.    

Under the Land Registration Act 2002 (which came into effect on the 13th October 2003), there is an obligation that all overriding interests are disclosed to the Land Registry on first registration, or on a dealing with any title, so that they can be noted on the Register. Overriding interest is an interest, right, or power not entered on the Register which buyers or mortgagees will be subject to. These would include easements (including rights of way, light support or for services), rights of occupation, certain leases and a variety of things that would only be apparent from inspection.   On registration of land, we must state either that there are no overriding interests affecting the property, or if there are, give particulars of them. A disclosable overriding interest is one which affects the land in question and which is within the actual knowledge of the applicant i.e. you.   There is therefore an obligation upon you to provide information to us of any disclosable overriding interests and any easements affecting the land in question. If any such interests affect the property, please advise us immediately. If you are not sure whether something should be disclosed or not, please ask us.   There is an also an obligation on you as owner of the land to keep the Land Registry notified of your current correspondence address. This is important because any notice relating to the property will be sent to the address stated on the Register and if the notice does not reach you because you are no longer at that address, your rights in respect of the property could be affected. You must therefore tell the Land Registry if the address recorded on the Register is no longer applicable for you.  

We reserve the right to cease to act for you in a matter, or in all your matters, and to decline to accept further instructions from you, if you fail to comply with any of your obligations to us. This includes obligations to pay our accounts as and when they fall due, and in such additional circumstances as may be prescribed by the SRA from time to time. We must give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.   You may end your instruction 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 fees and expenses. Please see the next section for more details of our right to a lien.   If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up until that point, based on our normal charging rates.    

The common law entitles us to retain any money, papers or other property belonging to you which properly comes into our possession pending payment of our costs, whether the property is acquired about the matter for which the costs were incurred. This is known as a “general lien”. We are not entitled to sell property held under a lien but we are entitled to hold property, other than money, even if the value of it greatly exceeds the amount due to us in respect of costs.  

Any monies held or received by us on your account will be placed and held on our general Client Account in accordance with the CILEx Account Rules.   Our policy on the payment of interest in relation to money that we hold on your behalf is to account to you for all sums earned if the total exceeds £20.00. Below this sum we will retain any such sums earned without accounting to you for them. We believe that this policy is fair and reasonable and we will keep it under continual review, in the light of changing interest rates.   By prior arrangement with you, we can sometimes place especially large sums of money on specific deposit if we feel the length of time we expect to hold it justifies doing so, in which case you will receive all the interest received on the account. General payments of interest are made without the deduction of tax but tax is deducted at source on specific deposits.   Please note that the rates of interest we might earn on your behalf are likely to be lower than you might otherwise obtain as an individual investor since we need to have instant access to all such funds.  

At the end of your matter, we can provide you with the papers to which you are entitled, subject to any right we may have to retain them if our charges have not been paid.   A full copy of your file is held on our case management system electronically for 6 years.  There is no fee for this service.