LGN LAURA GARCIA NAVARRETE’s TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Service Commitment – I shall provide services as solicitors with reasonable skill and care in accordance with your reasonable and lawful instructions and subject to our professional rules and code of practice. I will :
1. Carry out your legal work in accordance with your instructions and the documentation that you provide.
2. Explain to you the legal work, which may be required.
3. Ensure that your interests are represented.
4. Ensure that you understand any financial risk that you may be taking.
5. Keep you regularly informed of progress.
6. Endeavour to use plain language.
7. Endeavour to be available to deal with your queries and concerns.
My office will be open daily between 9.30 am and 5.30 pm.
I will not advise upon, assist, or carry out work in connection with any of the following:
1. Any form of UK or overseas taxation.
2. Planning, financial advice or investigations of adjacent properties.
3. Surveys or valuations.
4. Checks on the existence or financial standing of third parties e.g. regarding guarantees.
5. The dimensions of properties being sold and/or purchased.
6. The Boundaries of properties being sold and/or purchased or that the same correspond with any plans and in this respect we would strongly recommend that you carry out your own site inspection or instruct a surveyor as appropriate
Nor will we:
1. Give undertakings on your behalf.
2. Complete any transaction unless we are in funds to do so.
3. Agree a completion date which is not realistic.
4. Keep third parties advised of any developments.
5. Instruct outside third party agents such as agents, surveyors, engineers or other professionals unless instructed in writing to do so and we are in possession of cleared funds.
6. If we are requested to do any of the above matters then we reserve the right to revise any fee estimate.
Equality and diversity – This firm is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all its dealings with clients, third parties and employees.
Termination – You may end our retainer at any time. If you fail promptly to pay our invoices or any requested monies on account or if you fail to give us instructions as reasonably requested, we may end our retainer or temporarily cease further work. We may exercise these rights irrespective of any prejudice suffered as a result. We may also end our retainer if any conflict of interest should or may arise between you and us or you and another of our clients. Otherwise a specific retainer will end on completion of the work and a general indefinite retainer may be ended by us on reasonable notice.
Fees – Unless otherwise agreed in writing, my fees will be based on hourly charge rates for time spent on the matter with an uplift to reflect the following factors: any particular complexity, difficulty or novelty involved; any particular knowledge or expertise required; urgency; seniority and skills of the persons involved; and the value or importance of the matter to you. The hourly charge rates will be either those quoted to you or (in the absence of quoted rates) our current rates applying for the persons working on the matter. My rates are reviewed periodically and may be varied upon giving you notice.
If we agree in writing a fixed fee for any work, I will charge that fee for work within the scope of the agreement but may charge additional fees on the basis explained above for any work outside the scope of the agreement. Unless otherwise agreed in writing any fixed fee agreed with you will not include expenses.
Expenses – I will charge for the following expenses.
1. incidentals; e.g. photocopying, bank charges, non-local telephone calls, faxes, courier and other deliveries, travel, document storage and retrieval, and other incidental costs directly attributable to the services provided;
2. disbursements and other expenses reasonably incurred by us or authorised by you.
Wills – Although I may advise you on the likely inheritance tax consequences of the provisions of your will, on the basis of the information you give us and the current law, we will not advise you on the most tax-efficient method of drafting your will or lifetime tax-planning as part of our standard will service. I will provide such advice for an additional fee at your request.
I offer advice on any foreign assets you might own. The will which we prepare may not be effective for property located in England and Wales. If you agree, I may be able to arrange alternative specialist advice for which there will be a separate charge.
Whether I hold your wills or not, I am not responsible for advising you on any changes to the law – even if I may do so from time-to-time. You should review your will periodically, and also in the event of a material change in your circumstances which may affect or revoke your will – such as marriage, divorce, a large inheritance, birth or property purchase.
Your will is only valid once you have performed all of the formal signing procedures required by law.
Budgets/estimates – Even if a fixed fee or a fixed limit on fees and expenses is agreed, our fees and expenses shall not be limited to any budget or estimate but we will use our reasonable efforts to keep within any budget or estimate. We will always explain to you if more work is needed, which may result in increasing our fee.
VAT – Laura Garcia Navarrete is not VAT registered.
Invoicing – I may render interim invoices on a monthly or other periodic basis. I may render an invoice for expenses only and a later invoice for our fee for the work in question. If we have agreed a fixed fee for certain work we may, unless otherwise agreed in writing, render periodic interim invoices or “on account” bills as work progresses on account of the agreed fee and in respect of expenses to date. A final invoice will be delivered at the end of the work covered by the fixed fee agreement.
Payment terms – My invoices are due to be paid promptly on delivery. If an invoice is not paid within one month of delivery we may charge interest at 4% above Barclays Bank base rate applying from time to time. Payments can be made by cheque payable or by bank transfer.
Payment responsibility – Each client is responsible for prompt payment of my invoices and any monies on account which we request. If we act for more than one client in a matter, each will be jointly and severally liable to me for such payment unless we agree otherwise in writing.
Monies on account – I may require payment of a non-refundable deposit on account of future fees and expenses within 14 days of request or immediately in case of urgent matters. Monies paid on account will be credited to you in our general client account. We will convert currency receipts into sterling, unless agreed otherwise.
Client monies – Other monies which I receive on your behalf or to your account will be credited to you in our general client account. If we do not have a client account for the currency received we may convert to sterling unless specifically instructed to hold the monies in a separate client account in that currency in which case we may make a reasonable charge. Unless they are held for a specific purpose, we may apply monies held to your credit in client account to payment of any sums due to us from you. If at the end of the matter we hold a credit of £10.00 or less in your account we will transfer it to our office account not being necessary to notify you.
Interest – In respect of monies held for you in our general client account, we will credit you periodically with a sum in lieu of interest calculated at the appropriate rates less a reasonable administration charge.
Lien on documents and property – Unless I end our retainer without good cause I will have a right to retain all documents and other property belonging to you in our possession or control until payment of sums due to me. I may exercise this right irrespective of any prejudice which may be suffered as a consequence.
Money Laundering Regulations – I am covered by the same regulations as UK Banks, Building Societies, Solicitors and Accountants and need to verify your identity before I act for you.
Document storage and destruction – To be reviewed
E-mail Policy – If it is available and unless you tell me otherwise I may communicate with you and others involved in your matter by e-mail with or without attachments. Whilst we take every reasonable precaution e-mail, as with other systems of communication, cannot be guaranteed to be secure. I cannot guarantee against viruses and so any attachment received by you and sent by me should be scanned with up to date virus detection software of your own.
I will not be held responsible for any loss or damage caused to a client’s computer, other hardware or software, resulting from a transmission sent by me.
I will not accept queries, documents, nor instructions received by telephone text or WhatsApp.
Distance selling – 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 asked us to act for you. However, if I start work with your consent within that period, you lose the right to withdraw. That consent is given by returning a signed copy of these terms of business. If you do not want me to proceed please give notice by telephone, email or letter. The Regulations also require us to inform you if the work involved is likely to take more than 30 days. This will be the case for all property related work.
Quality Assurance – Laura Garcia Navarrete is committed to providing its clients with a high quality service. If you have any concerns please let me know in writing as soon as possible and I will do our best to meet your concerns. I will provide a copy of our Complaints Handling Procedure on request.
Limit on Liability – Except in respect of Death or Bodily Injury resulting from our negligence, the limit of my liability in contract or tort or other applicable laws will not exceed the value of €1.500.000,00 (euros).
Applicable Law – Except in relation to disputes concerning fees, where the applicable law shall be English Law, the applicable law shall be the Law of Spain in matters in relation to Spain, and English law in matters in relation to England.
Data Protection – As a data controller I am bound by the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1988, 2003 and 2018 (“the Acts”). Data may be shared between people within the firm to enable us to manage risk and to ensure a quality service. By accepting these terms and conditions of business you agree to our obtaining, using and processing your personal data to enable us to discharge the service which we have agreed to provide to you and for other related purposes including updating client records, quality assurance audits, management purposes, service providers (such as notaries, estate agents and other solicitors but not only) and for legal, regulatory and compliance purposes, including crime prevention where I have a duty to do so. You have a right under the Acts to obtain your information from us, including a description of the data that we hold on you. To comply with the Acts, I may not send data or allow to be held outside the EU without your permission. You can withdraw your consent to share your data with third parties with effect from the date of the withdrawal of the consent, except when we hold and share date for legal compliance. Where you, or your business, are based outside the EU and instruct us to communicate with you or third parties there, such consent will be deem as given. In any other case, if appropriate we will seek permission. Should you have any queries about Data Protection, please contact our Data Controller, Laura Garcia Navarrete.
Complaints – I am committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all clients. If something goes wrong I need you to tell me about it. This will help me to maintain and provide good standards. You can get in touch with Laura Garcia email laura@lgnlaw.co.uk, or in writing, Laura Garcia Curtis House, 34 Third Avenue, Hove BN3 2PD. We will try to resolve any problems quickly and we operate an internal complaint handling system to help us to resolve the problem between ourselves. If we have been unable to resolve your complaint, you have a right to complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, and independent complaints body established under the Legal Services Act 2007, that lead with legal services complaints. You have six months from the date of our final letter in which to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. Their contact details are:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Telephone 0300 555 0333
email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website:www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Note: I am not bound to act on a conditional fee basis until both you and we have signed this agreement.
Signed by the client: ……………………………………
Signed on behalf of the solicitors: ………………………………
Agreement date:
Unless contrary to the above or to our letter of engagement the terms normally implied into a retainer between solicitor and client will apply.