Terms of Engagement
TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT
Costs and Disbursements
You have already received an estimate of our fees together with any disbursements that may be payable on your transaction.
Over time the scope and nature of the transaction may change, the transaction may be complex or involve third parties. In this case some additional work may need to be carried out on your transaction that would incur an additional legal fee. We aim to be transparent with our fees and we therefore attach a list of our additional fees so that you are aware of our fixed charges that apply for each type of additional work. If any additional fees do apply to your transaction then we will aim to inform you as soon as the additional work has been identified.
Abortive Charges payable
If for any reason your particular transaction does not proceed to completion, a fee will be payable in relation to discontinued works carried out on your behalf. It is this Company’s policy to ensure that our fees in relation to discontinued work remain as low as possible and we would consider each individual case but it would be in the region of £125.00-£750.00 per transaction plus VAT and disbursements.
Acting on both sides
Licensed Conveyancers are authorised by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to act on both sides of a transaction, in circumstances only where there is no conflict of interest. Both parties should agree instructions in writing to the Conveyancer and confirm that they are aware of the other party’s existence. Please be advised that in some cased your Building Society’s consent will have to be obtained. This is strictly on the understanding that if for any reason a conflict of interest arises both parties should seek alternative Legal Advice.
Insurance Mediation
Insurance mediation work includes advising on and/or arranging an insurance policy.
In conveyancing a common example includes advising on and/or arranging defective title indemnity insurance. This type of activity is regulated, usually by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, Cain Associates LLP is not authorised to provide investment advice. We cannot advise you on the merits of your chosen mortgage or insurance products, and we cannot advise you if the terms of those products are reflective of those currently available on the market. You should only discuss these issues with a financial advisor.
We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However, we are included in the register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we can carry on Insurance Distribution Activities, which is broadly advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business is regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, and arrangements for the complaints or redress if something goes wrong are subject to the jurisdiction of the Legal Ombudsman (www.legal ombudsman.org.uk). The Register can be accessed via the Financial Conduct Authority website at https://register.fca.org.uk
In this context we are also required to provide you with certain further information about any proposed contract for insurance:-
-This practice does not have any holdings direct or indirect, representing more than 10% of the voting rights or of the capital in the insurance undertaking mentioned above. Also the insurance undertaking in question does not have any holding, direct or indirect, representing more than 10% of the voting rights or of the capital of this Practice. Also this Practice will not receive any pecuniary reward or other advantage from anyone in connection with the setting up of the proposed policy.
-We are not tied to any one indemnity insurance policy provider and do not recommend any particular indemnity insurance provider.
-Any suggested policy will be chosen from a limited number of insurance companies, a list of which will be provided upon request. Depending on the policy, we may advise you on the basis of obtaining a policy from a single insurance undertaking. We are not contractually obliged to conduct insurance mediation in this way.
-We are not tied to any one indemnity insurance policy provider and do not recommend any particular indemnity insurance provider.
Furthermore, if you make a valid claim against us for loss arising out of work for which we are legally responsible, and we are unable to meet our liability in full, you may be entitled to claim from the Compensation Fund administered by The CLC (from whom details can be obtained).
Client Care Commitment
We will tell you who will have the day to day responsibility of each matter and his or her position in the firm. That person will inform you of the progress and of any problems or delays. You should direct routine enquiries to that person.
We aim to satisfy all our clients. If there is any aspect of our service which you wish to discuss and upon which the person dealing with the matter has not been able to satisfy you, please raise your particular concerns with the supervising Partner.
The supervising Partner will look into your enquiry and respond to you promptly and if any problems arise which cannot be resolved between you and the supervising Partner of Cain Associates you may refer the matter to a Partner who has not been involved with your work.
Complaints
If after following the review process you remain dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaint, you may contact directly the Legal Ombudsman to ask them to consider the complaint further. The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are:-
Unless it agrees there are good reasons not to do so, the Legal Ombudsman will expect you to allow us to consider and respond to your complaint in accordance with the procedure set out above in the first instance. You can refer your complaint up to six months after you have received our final written response to your complaint. You can also use the Ombudsman service if we have not resolved your complaint within eight weeks of us receiving it. Ordinarily, the complainant must refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman no later than: – one year from the act/omission or one year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint. The Ombudsman deals with service-related complaints; any conduct related complaints will be referred to the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are:-
Telephone no: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
website http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/contact-us/,
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Our Regulator, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers details are:-
Tel: 020 3859 0904
Email: clc@clc-uk.org
website https://www.clc-uk.org/
Council for Licensed Conveyancers
WeWork
131 Finsbury Pavement
London
EC2A 1NT
Points to Note
Unless we have written to you accepting responsibility to advise on the taxation liabilities of any transaction, we have no such liability or responsibility. If necessary you should obtain specialist tax advice as soon as possible in your transaction as we may only be liable to offer advice on simple matters and not on unusual or complex arrangements.
Data Protection Act – this requires us to advise you that we hold your details on our date and that we may use this from time to time to send you information which we think will be of interest.
Money Laundering Regulations – under these regulations we may need to ask you to provide detail of your identity address and it is a condition of accepting the instructions that you will do so.
Since the implementation of these rules we have an obligation to report certain matters to the relevant authorities. If we do so in your case and you have acted in good faith we will not be liable to you for any loss you suffer as a result of that.
Proof of Identity – We must by law obtain satisfactory evidence of your identity and address. Please help us to do so by giving us the information and documentation we ask for. We are unable to proceed with your transaction and will not be able to exchange Contracts until this has been provided.
Confidentiality – As lawyers, we are under a general professional and legal obligation to keep your affairs private. However, we are required, by current legislation, to make a report to The National Crime Agency (NCA) where we know or suspect that a transaction involves Money Laundering or Terrorist Financing. By instructing us to act on your behalf in accordance with these terms of engagement you give us irrevocable authority to make a disclosure to NCA if we consider it appropriate.
You agree that this authority overrides any confidentiality or entitlement to legal professional privilege. We shall be unable to tell you if we have made a report.
We do not offer or hold ourselves out as offering investment business advice. If you require such advice we will put you in contact with an independent financial advisor.
Unless the right of enforcement is expressly granted it is not intended that a third party should have the right to enforce the right of this provision of this agreement under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act of 1999.
We may refuse to accept payments of sums in cash.
If we act on instructions from NCA or other reputable authority not to complete or progress the transaction we will not be liable to you for any loss which occurs as a result of that instruction.
Confidentiality – any information given to us that might reasonably be expected to be kept in
a confidential manner or that you inform us is confidential, will be treated as such. Any
information or materials given to us will be kept under conditions of normal office security.
The occurrence of vendor fraud and bogus law firms are unfortunately on the increase, and whilst Cain Associates has taken precautionary steps to verify the identity of the vendor’s solicitors and raised enquiries with the vendor’s solicitor to establish the identity of the vendor, we are not in a position to guarantee that the vendor is the legal owner of the property. If you have any concerns or are aware of any factors which may be a cause for concern, please do let us know. Cain Associates will not have any liability where there is an ID fraud and loss resulting from it by any party represented by another solicitor.
Limitation of Liability – we will maintain professional indemnity insurance for an amount
for no less than £2m. In the event that there is a claim of any sort against us by you, our
liability to you will in any case be limited to this amount, or a higher sum not exceeding the
upper limit of our indemnity insurance for the time being. This is agreed as being a
reasonable restriction on our liability unless you have agreed a different arrangement with
us.
If you make a valid claim against us for a loss arising out of work for which we are legally responsible, and we are unable to meet our liability in full, you may be entitled to claim from the Compensation Fund administered by the Council For Licensed Conveyancers (from whom
details can be obtained).
Cain Associates are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However, we are included in the register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we can carry on Insurance Mediation Activities, which is broadly 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 Council for Licensed Conveyancers. The register can be accessed via the Financial Conduct Authority website at “www.FCA.gov.uk/register”.
Files and Strong Room Storage – When we conclude your matter, your file (or a copy) will be retained for a period of 6 years for sales and 15 years for all to other matters unless we agree a longer period with you. We may dispose of the file after that time. We presently make no charge for storing your file but we may charge you for the time we spend if you request its withdrawal from storage.
If you are unsure or uncertain of any of the procedures throughout the transaction please do not hesitate to contact the fee earner involved, who will deal with any queries you have immediately