To download a copy of our terms of business click here

Terms of Business

INDEX

Hours of business
Charges and expenses
Payment arrangements (including our bills and also sending money to you or on your behalf)
Keeping your money safe.
Other parties’ charges and expenses
Interest policy
Archive storage of the file of papers
Storage of title deeds and other important documents
Financial services and insurance contracts
Termination of instructions
Limited companies
Tax advice
Identity disclosure and confidentiality requirements – Money Laundering
Communications between you and us
Limitation of liability
Quality standards
Mutual solicitor and client responsibilities
Equality and diversity
Data protection
Applicable law
Value added tax
Professional indemnity insurance
Consumer Contract (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013
Terms and conditions of business

Our aim

We aim to offer our clients quality legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost. As a start, we hope it is helpful to you to set out in this statement the basis on which we will provide our professional services.

1. Our hours of business

The normal hours of opening at our offices are between 9.00am to 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm and 5.00 pm on weekdays. Messages can be left on the answer-phone outside those hours and appointments can be arranged at other times when this is essential.

2. Charges and expenses

The current hourly rates are set out in our accompanying letter.

The current hourly rates are set out in our accompanying letter. For non-fixed fee price work, our fees are based upon the amount of time we append working for you, plus in some cases (such as probate and trusts) a value enhancement charges in accordance with Law Society guidance based on the size of the assets involved.

You will be billed for the time we spend:

Advising you (in person, on the telephone or in writing – including emails)
Negotiating with others on your behalf (in meetings, by letter or on the telephone)
Considering, drafting and completing documents, deeds etc
Preparing for and attending at Court or Tribunal Hearings (this includes travelling and waiting time)
Instructing third parties to act on your behalf (e.g. Medical Experts, Barristers, Surveyors etc)
Legal and factual research

Solicitors have to pay out various other expenses on behalf of clients ranging from Land or Probate Registry fees, court fees, experts’ fees, and so on. We have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. VAT is payable on certain expenses. We refer to such payments generally as ‘disbursements’.

If you consider that our charges are higher than they ought to be having regard to our agreement then please discuss this in the first instance with the solicitor dealing with your matter. In the absence of agreement, you may be able to make a formal complaint under our Complaints Procedure or may apply for an assessment by the court under sections 70, 71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about the bill if a client has applied to the court for assessment. If all or part of the bill remains unpaid the firm may be entitled to charge interest.

3. Payment arrangements – including our bills and also sending money to you or on your behalf

Property transactions: We will normally send you our bill following the exchange of contracts and payment is required on a purchase prior to completion; and at completion on a sale. If sufficient funds are available on completion, and we have sent you a bill, we will deduct our charges and expenses from the funds. Please note the importance of ensuring we are in receipt of both cleared and adequate funds for the total amount required – if we do not have cleared and adequate funds, we cannot complete a transaction and there can be severe contractual penalties if a property transaction is not completed on time.

Administration of estates: We will normally submit an interim bill at regular stages during the administration, starting with the obtaining of a Grant of Representation. The final account will be prepared when the Estate Accounts are ready for approval.

Other cases or transactions: It is normal practice to ask clients to pay interim bills and sums of money from time to time on account of the charges and expenses which are expected in the following weeks or months. We find that this helps clients in budgeting for costs as well as keeping them informed of the legal expenses which are being incurred. If such requests are not met with prompt payment, delay in the progress of a case may result. In the unlikely event of any bill or request for payment not being met, this firm reserves the right to stop acting for you further.

Payment is due to us within 30 days of our sending you a bill. Interest will be charged on a daily basis at 2% over Barclays’ Bank’s base rate from time to time from the date of the bill in cases where payment is not made within 30 days of delivery by us of the bill. In the event of proceedings being issued to recover moneys due to us on an unpaid bill, the prevailing County Court rate will be charged.

The common law 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 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.

If we are conducting litigation for you, we have additional rights in any property recovered or preserved for you whether it is in our possession or not and in respect of all costs incurred, whether billed or unbilled. We also have a right to ask the court to make a charging order in our favour for any assessed costs.

We do not accept payments to us in cash in excess of £1,000. Monies due to you from us will be paid by cheque or bank transfer, but not in cash, and will not be made payable to a third party.

If money is due to you from the firm (e.g. the proceeds of a house sale) then we can send you a cheque (at your risk) or, if you prefer, a direct payment to your Bank or Building Society account. This avoids the risk of loss in the post. There is no additional fee for sending a cheque but if you want an electronic payment (CHAPS) direct to your account then we charge a fee of £40.00 plus VAT for each transfer made. CHAPS payment normally reaches your account on the same day it is sent.

Please note that some payments we make on your behalf have to be sent by the CHAPS system (e.g. the purchase price of a house or money to pay off a house loan) and each payment we make will incur the firm’s CHAPS fee.

If you wish us to send money abroad by a direct transfer, then:-

If it is to be sent in foreign currency, it will be sent at whatever the prevailing rate of exchange is on the date our Bank sends the funds abroad
Whatever currency the transfer is made in, we will charge a fee of £40.00 plus VAT. If the sending or receiving Banks have any charges for an international transfer, then these will be deducted from the monies sent before they are credited to the foreign account.

Credit/Debit card payments. We accept debit card payment of your legal fees and disbursements to a maximum of £3000.00 on any one matter. We also accept credit card payments up to a limit of £1200.00 on any one matter. We do not accept payment by American Express or Diners Club Cards.

Unless you have a pre-arranged agreement with us regarding the receipt of funds by us, when proposing to send funds to us, you will need to obtain our prior consent. This is so that we can control funds which come into our possession. We regret that if funds arrive at our bank in circumstances where this prior consent is not obtained, then we will not be able to receive them.

Additionally, we may not be able to immediately return such funds if we are suspicious of the circumstances. We may have to make a report to the authorities and wait for the consent to release the funds or continue with the matter. This is so that we can comply with our obligations under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2019 or any similar legal requirements. Please contact us immediately if you are considering sending in funds directly to our bank account to seek our authorisation.

4. Keeping your money safe

Solicitors are targeted by fraudsters because they hold money. There is an increasing danger of sophisticated online fraud, where emails containing financial information are intercepted and tampered with.

As part of our efforts to minimise the risk of fraud:

We will never email you to inform you of a change to our bank details. If you receive an email asking for funds to be sent to a different account, it is likely this is from another party who is attempting to commit fraud and you should contact the person dealing with your matter at Bone & Payne directly.

If in doubt, contact our offices to confirm bank details before transferring any funds

If this happens to you, then it is likely your email account has been compromised. Please immediately change your password and adopt two step verification to access your email account.

Bone & Payne LLP will not take responsibility if you transfer money to an incorrect account.

Please do not send us your bank details by email. In cases where there is money to be sent to you, such as on the completion of a sale or remortgage, we have a form for you to complete. This form will need to be either posted to us, or delivered by hand.

Whilst we appreciate these precautions may sometimes be inconvenient, we believe they are a necessary part of protecting your money from falling into the wrong hands.

5. Other parties’ charges and expenses

In some cases and transactions a client may be entitled to payment of costs by some other person. It is important that you understand that in such circumstances, the other person may not be required to pay all the charges and expenses which you incur with us. You have to pay our charges and expenses in the first place and any amounts which can be recovered will be a contribution towards them. If the other party is in receipt of legal aid no costs are likely to be recovered.

If you are successful and a court orders another party to pay some or all of your charges and expenses, interest can be claimed on them from the other party from the date of the court order. We will account to you for such interest to the extent that you have paid our charges or expenses on account, but we are entitled to the rest of that interest.

You will also be responsible for paying our charges and expenses of seeking to recover any costs that the court orders the other party to pay to you.

A client who is unsuccessful in a court case may be ordered to pay the other party’s legal charges and expenses. That money would be payable in addition to our charges and expenses. Arrangements can be made in some cases to take out insurance to cover liability for such legal expenses. Please discuss this with us if you are interested in this possibility.

6. Interest Policy

As part of carrying out your instructions to us, we may need to hold your money in our client account. In holding client money, we have an obligation to pay interest on that money at a fair reasonable rate and are required to put in place an interest policy. This policy sets out the guidelines for when interest will be paid and is summarised below.

We aim to account to you for interest at a reasonable rate of interest, but as the holding of your funds is incidental to the carrying out of your legal instructions, the rate is unlikely to be as high as the rates you may be able to obtain when depositing the money we hold on your behalf yourself. In most cases, we must ensure that money held on client account is immediately available and requires an instant access account or a notice account that allows us to make an immediate withdrawal at the sacrifice of interest. All of this is taken into consideration when we set our interest rate.

We align our interest rates on monies held on general client account to the rates paid on an instant access business client account by Barclays Bank PLC. This rate is likely to change from time to time.

Where your money is held on our general client account, any interest paid to you is paid without any deduction for income tax. As such it is your responsibility to inform HM Revenue and Customs of amounts of interest received from us, and the implications of this will depend upon your own financial circumstances. The exception to this is where we act in probate matters where we usually account to HMRC for the tax due during the administration period so it will not be your responsibility to declare to HMRC.

Interest will be calculated on cleared funds for interest purposes, based on the following table:

Value	Qualifying period in days
£1,000	56
£2,000	28
£10,000	14
£20,000 and above	7

Cleared funds

– cheques or bankers drafts this will be two days after the cheque or draft has been deposited with our bank.

– Debit or credit card payments this is usually one day after the transaction has been authorised. – Bank transfers or same day payments – the funds become cleared on the day of receipt.

Interest will not be paid if:

a. the total amount calculated is less than £30.

b. On any money held temporarily in a client suspense account for unidentified credits

c. On an advance from the Firm to fund a payment on behalf of the client in excess of funds held for the client

If sums of money are held intermittently during the course of acting, and the sum in lieu of interest calculated for any period is £30 or less, a sum in lieu of interest may still be paid if it is fair and reasonable in the circumstances to aggregate the sums in respect of the individual periods. If money is held for a continuous period, and for part of that period it is held in a separate Designated Client Account*, the sum in lieu of interest for the rest of the period when the money is held in the Firm client premium account may as a result be £30 or less. A sum in lieu of interest should, however, be paid if it is fair and reasonable in the circumstances to do so. Such interest will be calculated at the Barclays Client Account rate not that of the Designated Client Account. If sums are held in relation to separate matters for the same client the individual matters will be dealt with separately for the purpose of interest calculation, so that, if any of the sums calculated is £30 or less, no sum in lieu of interest will be paid. A client may fail to present a cheque to his or her bank. In such circumstances it is the client responsibility to ensure cheques are received and banked in a timely manner and no sum of interest will be paid. Fee Earners will usually account to the client at the conclusion of the client matter, but in some cases consider it appropriate to account to the client at intervals throughout. The de minimis of £30 will be reviewed if interest rates change. Interest will be calculated upon completion of the legal work and credited to the client ledger so it can be paid over to you within 14 days or upon receipt of your file closing letter. However, for Probate matters, the conclusion of the matter, and the date interest will be calculated up to, is deemed to be the date of the final bill.

We also reserve the right to charge negative interest if the Bank of England base rate were to fall below 0.01%. We would absorb any costs less than £30, however any charge above this would be re-charged onto you.

*The firm’s policy is that it does not open separate Designated Client Accounts unless special circumstances exist.

7. Archive storage of the file of papers

After completing the work on your behalf, we are entitled to keep all papers and documents whilst there is money owing to us for charges and expenses. Once our charges and expenses have been discharged, we will store your file, documents and data for a limited period of time. By agreeing to us carrying out the work on your behalf, you consent to the destruction of your file, documents and data after a minimum period of 6 years. Destruction will take place on a confidential basis. However, please note that we will not destroy any documents such as wills, deeds and other securities which we have agreed to hold in safe custody. In addition, if we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your legal matters, we will not normally charge for retrieval. However, we may make a charge for producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for reading correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions.

8. Storage of title deeds and other important documents

We will retain in safe storage, free of charge, all original Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney/Enduring Powers of Attorney and unregistered title deeds. Due to limits on our storage capacity, we are no longer able to store pre-registration deeds where a property has been registered at the Land Registry. The pre-registration deeds are not of any great significance, as the property can be sold without the pre-registration deeds as the Land Registry retains copies of all relevant documentation. We therefore always encourage clients to retain pre-registration deeds themselves. If however you wish us to retain the pre-registration title deeds in storage then there will be a one off charge presently at £50 plus VAT payable at the time the pre-registration deeds are lodged with us.

9. Financial services and insurance contracts

Financial Services

If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, as we are not. However, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, we may be able to provide certain limited investment 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, which is the designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman is an independent body dealing with complaints against lawyers. If you are unhappy with any investment advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

Insurance Contracts

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 distribution 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, are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Conduct Authority website at www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register.

In recommending an insurance contract in the course of any transaction, we do not normally carry out a large scale analysis of the insurance market but will generally opt for an insurance contract with which we are familiar and which is suitable to the client’s needs. We are not, however, contractually obliged to conduct any insurance business with one or more insurance companies and we will, on request, provide you with the details of the insurance companies that we generally recommend in respect of particular insurance contracts.

The Law Society of England and Wales is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman is an independent body dealing with complaints against lawyers. If you are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

10. Termination of Instructions

You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incurring charges and expenses on your behalf, you must tell us this clearly in writing.

We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason – e.g. if you do not pay an interim bill; comply with the request for payment on account or there is a conflict of interest. We will give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.

If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up until that point. These will be calculated as set out in our letter to you confirming the terms and conditions relating to payment of our fees.

11. Limited companies

When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company, we may require a Director and/or controlling shareholder to sign a form of personal guarantee in respect of the charges and expenses of this firm. If such a request is refused, we will be entitled to stop acting and to require immediate payment of our charges on an hourly basis and expenses as set out earlier.

12. Tax advice

Any work that we do for you may involve tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We may not be qualified to advise you on the tax implications of a transaction that you instruct us to carry out, or the likelihood of them arising. If you have any concerns in this respect, please raise them with us immediately. If we can undertake the research necessary to resolve the issue, we will do so and advise you accordingly. If we cannot, we may be able to identify a source of assistance for you.

13. Identity, disclosure and confidentiality requirements – Money Laundering

The law requires solicitors to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients (and sometimes people related to them). This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their client can be used by criminals wanting to launder money.

To comply with the law, we need to get evidence of your identity as soon as possible. In some matters, we will also need evidence of the source of your funds. The letter accompanying these terms and conditions will explain our requirements in more detail.

We are entitled to refuse to act for you if you fail to supply appropriate proof of identity for yourself or for any principal whom you may represent. We may arrange to carry out an electronic verification of your identity if we consider that a saving of time and cost will be achieved by doing so. The cost of any such search will be charged to you. If the amount is in excess of £10 including VAT, we will seek your prior agreement.

Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of the client confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to a statutory exception: legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the National Crime Agency. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a disclosure. If, while we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make such a disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that it has been made, or of the reasons for it, because the law prohibits ‘tipping-off’. Where the law permits us, we will tell you about any potential money laundering problem and explain what action we may need to take.

Our firm may be subject to audit or quality checks by external firms or organisations. As part of our continuing commitment to provide a high quality level of service to all our clients, Bone & Payne LLP maintains accreditation with the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. The audit procedures laid down by this scheme may require examination of clients’ confidential files from time to time under strictly controlled circumstances and only duly appointed and qualified individuals. Acceptance of these terms and conditions by you is deemed to include consent to such disclosure which may be withdrawn by you in writing at any time

In order to comply with court and tribunal rules, all documentation relevant to any issues in litigation, however potentially damaging to your case, have to be preserved and may be required to be made available to the other side. This aspect of proceedings is known as ‘disclosure’. Subject to this, we will not reveal confidential information about your case except as provided by these terms of business and where, for example, your opponent is ordered to pay your costs, we have to meet obligations to reveal details of the case to them and to the court.

14. Communication between you and us

We will aim to communicate with you by such method as you may request. We may need to virus check discs or email. Unless you withdraw consent, we will communicate with others when appropriate by e-mail or fax but we cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence and documents sent by e-mail or fax.

Where we act for two or more clients jointly it is on the clear understanding that we are authorised to act on instructions from either, both or any of them.

15. Limitation of Liability

Our liability to you for a breach of your instructions shall be limited to £3 million, unless we expressly state a higher amount in the letter accompanying these terms of business. 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 can only limit our liability to the extent the law allows. In particular, we cannot limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence. Our liability is that of the firm i.e. Bone & Payne LLP and no Member or employee of the firm has personal liability to you.

Please ask if you would like us to explain any of the terms above.

16. Quality standards

The firm has been awarded the Lexcel quality standard of the Law Society. As a result of this we are subject to periodic checks by outside assessors. This could mean that your file is selected for checking, in which case we would need your consent for inspection to occur. All inspections are, of course, conducted in confidence. If you prefer to withhold consent, work on your file will not be affected in any way. Since very few of our clients do object to this we will assume that we do have your consent unless you notify us to the contrary. We will also assume, unless you indicate otherwise, that consent on this occasion will extend to all future matters which we conduct on your behalf. Please contact the person dealing with your matter if you wish us to explain this further or if you would like your file to be marked as not to be inspected.

17. Mutual solicitor and client responsibilities

Both ourselves as your Solicitors and you as our client have responsibilities to each other in the conduct of your matter.

Our general responsibilities to you are that we will:-

Review your matter regularly
Communicate in plain language by telephone or in writing as your matter progresses
Advise you of any changes in the law that relate to your matter
Advise you of risks of which we are aware or consider to be reasonably foreseeable that may affect the outcome of your matter.

Your responsibilities to us as your Solicitors are:-

To provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions
Provide us with all documentation required to complete the matter in a timely manner

18. Equality and diversity.

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

19. Data Protection Act & the General Data Protection Regulation 2018

As solicitors, we have a duty of confidentiality to you under the SRA Code of Conduct for Firms 2019. We, of course, take that duty very seriously and it is part of our professional culture to protect your personal data. In some circumstances we will have a legal obligation to share your personal data with public agencies and authorities.

We are also registered under the Data Protection Act with the Information Commissioner.

We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes.

Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Further information on how we process your personal data and our lawful bases, for doing so under the GDPR, can be found in our Privacy Notice, on our website at www.boneandpayne.co.uk. If you do not have access to the internet, then please inform the fee earner with conduct of your matter and they will send you a paper copy of the Privacy Notice.

Although the law changed on 25^th May 2018, it did not alter the way we process your information. If you refuse to provide certain information or object to us sharing it with others, then we may not be able to progress your matter or indeed continue to act for you.

Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to external third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisors and auditors. Some of those third parties such as barristers and doctors will be subject to their own professional codes of conduct with regard to confidentiality. We have entered into appropriate confidentiality/privacy agreements with relevant third parties.

You have the right to access the personal data that we hold about you. You also have other rights such as the right to object to us sending you information. You can exercise these rights by simply writing to Jamie Herbert, our Data Protection Officer who has overall responsibility for Data Protection. If you have difficulty in putting your request in writing, then please contact us in some other way and we will do all that we reasonably can to accommodate you and enable you to exercise your rights. We may ask you for proof of identity when you make a data subject access request.

Processing of Criminal Convictions Data or Special Category Personal Data

In some circumstances, in order for us to be able to provide advice and to support you in your matter, we may rely on Schedule 1, Part 3, 33, Legal Claims, of the Data Protection Act 2018 to process Criminal Convictions Data or Special Category Personal Data.

This is because the processing is;

Necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, any legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings)
Is necessary for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, or
Is necessary for the purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights

Further information on your rights can be found in our Privacy Notice.

We may from time to time send you information which we think may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information, please let us know. We attach a “Right to Object” form for your use.

You expressly consent to us keeping your data for a minimum period of 6 years or longer if required.

20. Applicable law.

Any dispute or legal issue arising from our terms of business will be determined by the Law of England & Wales and considered exclusively by the English & Welsh Courts.

21. Value Added Tax

Bone & Payne LLP is registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) and the firm’s VAT registration number is 159090649.

22. Professional Indemnity Insurance

We have professional Indemnity Insurance arranged with Sompo International Insurance. Contact details and territorial coverage under the policy are available from our Practice Administrator at 55 Madoc Street, Llandudno, LL30 2TW.

23. Consumer Contract (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

When we accept instructions from you to advise you or act for you in respect of a particular matter then we effectively enter into a contract with yourself to provide those services and that contract is subject to various rights that you have under the above regulations.

The regulations refer to three types of contracts depending as to where we agree to act for you in respect of a particular matter

On Premises Contract

This is likely to be the most frequent circumstance in which you instruct us to act i.e. in person at any of our three offices, when we meet you face to face. We will provide you with information in respect of the matter including the likely costs and then if we agree to accept your instructions then the contract between us has been entered into on our premises and is therefore an On Premises Contract. Provided we have given you sufficient information for you to make an informed decision e.g. an indication of the likely overall costs and disbursements then no right to cancel that contract normally arise and you will be liable for the costs and disbursements incurred in fulfilling your request and instructions.

Off Premises Contract

If however we meet you in person but away from our offices e.g. at your home or in hospital or in a care home or in a police station, magistrates court etc. then if we agree to accept your instructions, you will have the right to cancel the contract i.e. an Off Premises Contract as set out below.

Distance Contract

If we have not met you in person and only communicated with you by either phone, email, letter or fax to accept your instructions i.e. a Distance Contract then similar rights of cancellation arise.

Rights of Cancellation in respect of an Off Premises Contract and a Distance Contract.

You have the right to cancel either of the above contracts within 14 days without giving any reason. This is sometimes called a “cooling off period” and gives you the opportunity to change your mind.

The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the date of the conclusion of the contract between us. This is the date we accept your offer to act for you. This will be the date shown on the Notice of Cancellation letter which we will give to you. The subsequent Client Care letter together with this Terms of Business set out together the main characteristics and scope of the legal service we are providing to you. They will tell you what we will and will not do and explain your responsibilities. This information should enable you to make informed decisions about your matter. If you are unclear about any information we provide then please do not hesitate to contact us for clarification/further information.

If you decide to exercise the right to cancel, you must notify the relevant Bone and Payne office, which will be stated on the Notice of Cancellation letter that we provide you with, of your decision to cancel the contract by a clear statement such as a letter, fax or email.

Alternatively you can use the attached model cancellation form but it is not obligatory.

To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.

Effects of Cancellation

If you cancel the contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you. We will make the repayment using the same method of payment that you used to pay us (save for any supplementary charges if you choose a more expensive method of repayment than the cheapest method of repayment available to us, which is a cheque sent in the post)

We will make the reimbursement without undue delay and not later than 14 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel this contract.

Legal Aid/Legal Help clients should note that reapplying for Legal Aid or Legal Help for the same issue might be difficult if you exercise your right to cancel the contract between us.

Requests by you for us to start work during the 14 day cancellation period.

We will not carry out any work within the cooling off period unless you expressly instruct us to do so, in writing.

If you requested us to begin the performance of services during the cancellation period e.g. because you wanted the work done or advice given urgently you will be liable to pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been performed by us until you have communicated to us your notice of cancellation of this contract, in comparison with the full service which would have been carried our under our contract with you had you not cancelled.

Terms and conditions of business

Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of then current hourly rates, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.

Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business, it may not be possible for us to start work on your behalf until one copy of them has been signed and returned to us for us to keep on our file. If this will apply to your matter, this will be made clear in our accompanying letter.

Cancellation Form

To Bone and Payne LLP of

55 Madoc Street, Llandudno, Conwy LL30 2TW, Fax 01492 874531

13 Wynnstay Road, Colwyn Bay, Conwy LL29 9NB, Fax 01492 514198

trading as Guest Pritchard & Co 333 Abergele Road, Old Colwyn, Conwy LL29 514198, Fax 01492 514198

Email: enquiries@boneandpayne.co.uk

Delete as applicable

I/We ……………………………………………………………. of …………………………

…………………………………………. hereby give you notice that I/we cancel my/our contract for the provision of the following service.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Name…………………………………………………..

Address…………………………………………………

Signature………………………………………………

Date……………………………………………………