TERMS & CONDITIONS

CLIENT AGREEMENT

  • Our services will be provided in accordance with our initial letter to you and these Terms and Conditions, which should be read and signed in conjunction with the letter confirming your instructions. Our agreement with you is subject to English Law and the courts of England & Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
  • A fully qualified Solicitor, or alternatively a Legal Adviser will be appointed to handle your transaction and will be supervised by the partners of William Kateny Legal (WK Legal), who are Solicitors. The person with final responsibility and supervision for your transaction is the Firm’s Managing Partner William Wu. The partners and staff in WK Legal are specialists qualified to advise you in the area of law.
  • Our hours of business are 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday inclusive. We are also available on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm (you will have to contact your designated lawyer directly). We do not open on all Bank Holidays, and work reduced hours on some Bank Holidays and in the Christmas week. We do not take calls outside of our hours of business but we do have a voicemail service and we will deal with any messages you leave at the next opportunity during business hours.
  • If you have instructed us following the referral of an estate agent, broker, house builder or similar introducer, our client relationship is with you and not the referrer. Any financial relationship with the referrer will be set out in our introductory letter. You are free to choose your law firm. We work to serve your best interests by providing independent and confidential legal advice and you should feel free to raise questions on any aspect.
  • You should consult other suitably qualified professionals for advice on non-legal matters such as the condition of the property, its services and market value, environmental issues, or for specific financial, investment or tax advice (other than Stamp Duty Land Tax). We cannot advise you on the relative merits of your chosen mortgage or insurance products or whether the terms of those products are representative of those currently available in the market. These matters should be discussed with a Financial Advisor if you have any concerns.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

  • You should carry out your responsibilities in accordance with this agreement and as we request of you from time to time. You should bring to our attention immediately information or any discovery which you consider to be inconsistent with our understanding of your transaction, or any change in your circumstances, which may have a bearing on our acting for you or our provision of advice. It is particularly important that you provide us with instructions, information and requested forms and documents in a timely manner and that all information provided by you is true and accurate and not misleading to the best of your knowledge, information and belief. We cannot be held liable for any loss or damage arising from information or for inaccuracy or other defect in any document supplied by you

FEES

  • Wherever possible, our work is carried out on the basis of a fixed fee. Within this fixed fee we include all conventional work associated with a typical transaction. Occasionally, our clients require other legal services to assist them in their transaction. Wherever possible we will endeavour to provide you with a fixed fee for these additional legal services before undertaking these services on your behalf. A schedule of our typical prescribed additional charges is set out below. The schedule is for illustrative purposes only and is not exhaustive. The fee quoted in our client care letter is based on the information that we were provided with at the time. If your instructions differ in any way, the fees may need to be altered.
  • Should you require additional legal services which need us to refer you to another department within William Kateny Legal then that department will confirm its own terms and conditions and its basis for charging you.
  • Value Added Tax (VAT) will be added to our fees at the prevailing rate. The rate is currently 20%.
  • Any fee illustration provided to you by us is based upon available information at the time of provision. It may make reference to payments made to third parties on your behalf in the course of your transaction. These may be significant, including Stamp Duty Land Tax, Land Registration Fees, local authority and other searches. It is not always possible to be aware at the outset of all such payments.
  • Any estimate given for additional work to be carried out is not intended to be fixed unless it is expressly stated as such. In the absence of such a statement it will be our best estimate of likely cost based upon the facts then known.

WHEN MONEY IS REQUIRED

  • We may ask you to make a payment on account of disbursements. If you fail to do so, we may cease to progress your transaction until payment is received.
  • Money paid to us in advance will be held in a client account separately from the firm’s own money, subject to our right to transfer and use the same in payment of our fees and expenses. Whilst we always use reasonable endeavours to ensure client money held by us is invested in appropriate banks or other financial institutions, we do not accept any liability for any losses or associated costs which may arise as a result of any failure, restructuring or insolvency of any financial institution used.
  • If money is received and needs to be returned, we reserve the right to return the money to the same account from which it came. In no circumstances will we agree to transfer money to you to an overseas account, nor will we agree to transfer funds to a third party. We reserve the right to retain any nominal balance otherwise due to you to cover administration charges in dealing with your transaction where we consider it to be uneconomic to return.
  • We will not accept payments from anyone other than our clients or their lender. It is the firm’s policy not to accept cash above the amount of £200.00. In the case of corporate clients, payments must be received from the company bank account. Payments from the personal accounts of Directors or the Company Secretary will not be accepted.
  • Where monies are received through a bank transfer system, we reserve the right not to use such monies until we have sufficient information to identify the source of funds and allocate the payment to a client and a specific matter.
  • Where money is required from you it is essential that this is cleared in our client account the day before we are required to use it. We do not recommend payment of substantial sums by personal cheque because of the uncertainty on clearance.
  • Occasionally the timescale between exchange of contracts and completion can be very tight, even from time to time, on the same day, perhaps due to pressure in a chain of transactions. In such situations, and because your lender will require five

working days notice to release funds to us, we may need to request funds speculating on the proposed completion date, in order to achieve your target date. Where we request funds on such a speculative basis for your proposed move, then you alone will be responsible for any resulting administrative and interest costs.

  • Any invoices outstanding at completion will attract interest from the date of delivery at the rate payable on Judgment debts (currently 8% per annum). This will be charged on a daily basis.
  • When we receive instructions from, or on behalf of, more than one person or company to deal with any particular matter, each person or company for whom we are acting will be separately responsible for payment of the full amount of our fees and expenses.
  • Money held by us on your behalf may be taken in payment or part payment of our invoices whether they are overdue or not. The law also entitles us to retain any money, papers or other property belonging to you, which properly come into our possession pending payment of our costs, whether or not the property is acquired in connection with the matter for which costs are 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.
  • Unless otherwise agreed you remain liable for payment of expenses, whatever the outcome of your transaction.
  • We will in each case deliver a VAT invoice, but this must by law, be addressed to the client for whom we have performed the service. Where a third party is to pay our fees the third party will not usually be able to recover the VAT element.
  • This firm does not provide general long term client deposit service. Our client account is designed to pay on behalf of the client when it is required by legal services we provide. Therefore, it is the firm’s policy not to pay interest from the client deposit interest generated by the firm’s bank.  
  • This firm does not provide designated client deposit account i.e. open a specific bank account under that client’s personal/business name. 
  • SRA Account Rules 2018 7.2 has permitted law firm to have a written agreement  with the client if interest shall be payable when the firm holds funds for clients.
  • 7.2 You may by a written agreement come to a different arrangement with the client or the third party for whom the money is held as to the payment of interest, but you must provide sufficient information to enable them to give informed consent.
  • Any money received from clients will be held in our general client account.
  • As a general rule, we do not pay any interest for any money received to pay on behalf of client, professional disbursements, third party costs and our professional fees. We do not suggest our client to send any money to us earlier than one week except in exceptional circumstances.  For any exceptional circumstances, a partner of the firm shall decide when we can accept any funds. For example, the client will be on a holiday trip for one month and no one else can make the payment during that period, the firm is prepared to accept the funds under the condition that client is informed that the firm does not pay any interest.
  • The firm must act reasonably to promote the client’s best interest
  • The firm shall immediately or reasonably as early as possible return the funds to the client upon requests of the clients unless AML rules contradict;
  • In case of large deposit is necessary in the extreme situation i.e. holding over £1m for more than one month when the completion is delayed and client does not require the refund, the firm shall at the discretion of the responsible partner use all the firm resources to provide extra service for the client such as offering a free will, introducing a private bank, introducing an accountant/auditor; introducing a broker, or providing additional legal service.
  • The firm must put the client funds in the instant accessible client deposit account and the firm is not allowed to seeking high interest fixed term deposit account.  The firm must make sure the client funds are instantly accessible.

YOUR AGREEMENT TO INDEMNIFY US

  • You agree to indemnify us against any liability or expense, which we are legally obliged to pay or incur as a result of acting for you. This includes errors or omissions that we make which result in a benefit to you.

FINANCIAL SERVICES AND INSURANCE MEDIATION SERVICES

  • We are not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to provide investment advice but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are members of the Law Society (a designated professional body). We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and The Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.
  • We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Conduct 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 Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Services Authority website at https://register.fca.org.uk/
  • If we believe it is advisable, during the course of your transaction, for defective title insurance to be put into place, we generally obtain our policies from preferred reputable providers, where they are able to provide suitable cover. We are not contractually obliged to conduct business in this way. We may charge a fee for producing the policy by prior agreement with you to cover our administrative costs in obtaining the policy.

LIABILITY

  • All reasonable skill and care will be used in the provision of our services to you. We cannot accept responsibility for changes in the law or its interpretation that occur subsequent to our advice being delivered to you or which could not reasonably be known by us at the time. We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities. We only limit our liability to the extent the law allows.
  • Advice given by us in the course of a matter is provided to you and you alone and only in relation to the particular circumstances of your instructions. We do not accept any liability for the use of any such advice by any other person without our express prior written consent. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 is excluded from this agreement.
  • Where you instruct other professional advisers in conjunction with your transaction, you agree that our position in the event of a claim will not be adversely prejudiced by any arrangement or limitation agreed with another of your professional advisers in respect of their potential liability.
  • Independent legal advice. Where we have provided you with independent legal advice only for a fixed fee, such as for the implications of entering in to a personal guarantee for a company loan, the implications of entering in to an indirect mortgage (joint owners sole-proprietor or vice versa), the implications of entering in to a mortgage that you won’t benefit from, on a transfer of equity etc we are reliant on the instructions provided to us by you and you agree that the solicitors who are solely responsible for the conduct of the overall transaction that you are involved with.

COPYRIGHT REMAINS WITH US

  • We retain copyright in documents prepared by us but where documents are prepared for your use, we grant you an irrevocable, royalty free licence to use those documents for the purpose for which they were prepared.

TERMINATION AND SUSPENSION OF SERVICE

  • You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time. We may decide to stop acting for you where we have reasonable grounds to do so. In this event an explanation of the reasons will be provided. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate our service if any of our invoices are unpaid or any sums requested to be paid on account are not paid in accordance with our Terms & Conditions.
  • If our instructions are terminated we are entitled by law to retain your papers and documents if there is any money owing to us or there is any liability outstanding for which we remain without recourse. In the event of termination a final invoice for any outstanding expenses will be delivered which is payable upon receipt.

STORAGE AND DESTRUCTION OF PAPERS & DOCUMENTS

  • Your file of papers on completed transactions will be retained for a minimum of six years on the understanding that we have your authority to destroy it after this period of time. This does not apply to documents or deeds deposited with us for safe custody. We reserve the right to destroy correspondence files without notice where your transaction aborted prior to exchange of contracts (or completion if no exchange of contracts necessary).
  • We do not normally charge you for retrieving papers or documents from storage if it is in relation to continuing or new instructions. However we reserve the right to make a charge, other than in such circumstances, based upon time spent producing stored papers or documents together with time spent reading, corresponding or other work necessary to comply with your instructions. We also reserve the right to make a reasonable charge for copies of correspondence or documents requested of us once we have closed and stored your file.

DATA PROTECTION

  • We will need to store personal information about you in order to provide you with legal services, and may disclose that information to relevant third parties to enable us to fulfil your instructions. Our use of this information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality. You have a right of access to the personal data we hold about you. We will also keep some of your personal information so that we can contact you with legal updates and information about our services, which may be of interest to you. This information will not be passed to any third party for marketing purposes. If you do not wish to receive updates and information about our services, then please provide us with written instructions to this effect.

MONEY LAUNDERING PREVENTION

  • Evidence of a new client’s identity will be required in accordance with the Money Laundering Regulations. We will also require evidence of the identity of any third party upon whom we are relying to successfully implement your instructions. In addition we will usually need to make enquiries regarding the purpose of your transaction and the source of any funds being used. We reserve the right to make electronic checks as part of our identity checks and agreement with these terms will be taken as your consent to any such checks being made.
  • If we have a suspicion of money laundering we are required to disclose this to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, overriding our duties of confidentiality to you. In the event of such a disclosure being made we do not accept any liability for consequential damages arising from compliance with the appropriate legislation.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY

  • This firm is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealings with clients, third parties and employees and is required to produce a written equality and diversity policy. Please contact us if you would like to be sent a copy of our equality and diversity policy.

JOINT INSTRUCTIONS

  • Where we are instructed by more than one person, firm or company to represent its legal interests those instructions will be considered to be joint and several unless the instructions are otherwise varied and agreed in writing between us.

COMMENTS ON OUR SERVICE

  • We aim to provide you with a high quality service. If you believe that the service could be improved or you are dissatisfied with any aspect then please raise this matter with the person handling your matter in the first instance. If you feel that this is inappropriate or they fail to resolve your concerns then please raise the matter with the firm’s Managing Partner. In the event that you wish to take matters further then you should write to William Wu, the Partner with responsibility for the firm, at William Kateny Legal, 3 More London Riverside, London SE1 2RE. info@wklegal.co.uk
  • The responsible partner shall deal with your complaints within 30 working days. If it is unresolved, or if you are unhappy with the resolution, you can complain the matter to Legal Ombudsman:
    • web: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/
    • email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
    • tel: 0300 555 0333
    • address: PO Box 6167 Slough SL1 0EH
  • If you think the solicitor dealing with the work has breached the principles, you can complain the solicitor and/or our firm to SRA. You can also report a firm or someone regulated by SRA for non-payment of professional fees (such as agent fees)
    • web: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor
    • address: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street Birmingham B1 1RN
    • DX 720293 BIRMINGHAM 47
    • email: report@sra.org.uk

CONFIDENTIALITY

  • Information received as a result of your instructions will be treated in confidence in accordance with our professional conduct rules. However we will be entitled to disclose confidential information to our insurers, our auditors, and any other third party to the extent required by law or regulation, or where we consider it appropriate to ensure the successful implementation of your instructions. This term will continue in force beyond the termination or expiry of this agreement.
  • Because of the unregulated nature of the internet, any e-mail received could conceivably be copied, read and tampered with. Though the chance of interception may be small, the risk could be great. By accepting our terms and conditions, with e-mail as a communication method of communication between us, you agree that risk of loss of confidentiality or third party tampering is yours.
  • In respect of mortgages, we have a duty of disclosure to your lender and/or their acting solicitors in respect of any information that may be material to their lending decision. By signing these terms you are confirming that you are waiving the duty of confidentiality which this firm owes to you in favour of a duty of disclosure which is owed to your lender and/or their acting solicitors.

FORCE MAJEURE

  • We will not accept any liability for any delay or failure to fulfil our obligations under this contract as a result of causes beyond our reasonable control. Such causes include but are not limited to fire, floods, acts of God, acts and regulations of any government or authority, war, riot, strike, lockouts and industrial disputes