Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction

1.1 This website (“our Site”) promotes the business referred to on it. In these conditions, the business will be referred to as ‘we’ and/or ’our’.

1.2 Use of our Site is on the following terms (the “Terms of Use”). If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, please stop using our Site immediately. By accessing and using our Site you are indicating your acceptance to be bound by these Terms of Use. They are a legal agreement between you and us and can only be amended with our consent. They should be read in conjunction with any details provided on our Site about how our Site operates and the services which are available, including our Privacy & Cookie Policy and Trading Terms (if applicable).

1.3 We reserve the right to change these Terms of Use from time to time without prior notice by changing them on our Site.

2. Accessing our Site

2.1 We cannot guarantee that our Site will operate continuously or without interruptions or be error-free. You must not attempt to interfere with the proper working of our Site and, in particular, you must not attempt to circumvent security, tamper with, hack into, or otherwise disrupt our Site or any computer system, server, router or any other internet-connected device.

2.2 You are responsible for ensuring that your computer system meets all relevant technical specifications necessary to use our Site and is compatible with our Site. You also understand that we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that any content on our Site will be free from infection, viruses and/ or other code that has contaminating or destructive properties. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and virus checks (including anti-virus and other security checks) to satisfy your particular requirements for the safety and reliability of data input and output.

2.3 From time to time, we may restrict access to certain features or parts of our Site, or our entire Site, to users who have registered with us. If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms of Use.

2.4 We reserve the right, in our discretion, to withdraw, suspend or modify our Site or certain features or parts of our Site with or without notice to you, where we have reason to do so. There may also be times when our Site or certain features or parts of our Site become unavailable, whether on a scheduled or unscheduled basis. You agree that we will not be liable to you or to any third party for any withdrawal, modification, unavailability, suspension or discontinuance of our Site or any service available on or through our Site.

3. Using our Site

3.1 You must use our Site and the information available from our Site responsibly. No such information may be used for or in connection with any unlawful, immoral or anti-social purpose, or in a manner which is or may be damaging to our name or reputation.

3.2 You cannot use our Site:

1. for any unlawful purpose;
2. to send spam;
3. to harm, threaten, abuse or harass another person, or in a way that invades someone’s privacy or is (in our reasonable opinion) offensive or is unacceptable or damaging to us, our customers or suppliers;
4. to create, check, confirm, update or amend your own or someone else’s databases, records, directories, customer lists, mailing or prospecting lists;
5. to tamper with, update or change any part of our Site;
6. in a way that affects how it is run;
7. in a way that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionably large burden on us or our suppliers’ communications and technical systems as determined by us; or
8. using any automated means to monitor or copy our Site or its content, or to interfere with or attempt to interfere with how our Site works.

4. Intellectual property rights

4.1 All content on our Site including but not limited to text, software, photographs and graphics is protected by copyright. We, or our licensors, own copyright and/or database rights in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such content, as well as in the original content. Except as expressly set out in these Terms of Use, nothing in these Terms of Use shall give you any rights in respect of any intellectual property owned by us or our licensors. You shall not assert or attempt to obtain any such rights and you shall not use, copy, reproduce, modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, create derivative works from, or in any way exploit, our name, trade marks, logos or other proprietary marks, or any of the content of our Site, in whole or in part, except as provided in these Terms of Use.

5. If you provide content for our Site

5.1 If you provide any material to our Site (for example, by providing ratings and reviews, comments, articles or uploading any other content in any format (including video) (each “User Content”) you agree to grant us permission, irrevocably and free of charge, to use the User Content (including adapting it for operational or editorial reasons) in any media worldwide, for our own marketing, research and promotional activities and our internal business purposes which may include providing the User Content to selected third party partners, service providers, social media and networking sites.

5.2 You own your User Content at all times, and you continue to have the right to use it in any way you choose.

5.3 By providing any User Content to our Site you confirm that such User Content:

1. is your own original work or you are authorised to provide it to our Site and that you have the right to give us permission to use it for the purposes set out in these Terms of Use;
2. will not contain or promote anything illegal, harmful, misleading, abusive, defamatory (that is, it does not damage someone’s good reputation) or anything else that might cause widespread offence or bring us or our business partners into disrepute;
3. does not take away or affect any other person’s privacy rights, contract rights or any other rights;
4. does not contain any virus or other code that may damage, interfere with or otherwise adversely affect the operation of our Site;
5. will, if used to promote your own business or services, clearly and openly state your association with the particular business expressly; and
6. will not contain any form of mass-mailing or spam.

5.4 If you do not want to grant us the permissions set out above, please do not provide any material to our Site.

5.5 We have no obligation to publish your User Content on our Site and we retain the right to remove any User Content at any time and for any reason.

5.6 We do not edit, pre-vet or review any User Content displayed on our Site. If you believe that any User Content does not comply with the requirements set out in this paragraph, please notify us immediately. We will then review the User Content and, where we deem it appropriate, remove it within a reasonable time.

6. Our liability

6.1 Although we hope our Site will be of interest to users, we accept no liability and offer no warranties or conditions in relation to our Site or its content, to the fullest extent such liability can be excluded by law.

6.2 There is no limit to what we and the people who provide our services will be liable for if someone dies or is injured because of our negligence or because we have committed fraud.

6.3 Under no circumstances will we, the owner or operator of our Site, or any other organisation involved in creating, producing, maintaining or distributing our Site be liable, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of a statutory duty, even if foreseeable, for any loss of:

1. profits, sales, business, or revenue;
2. business interruption;
3. anticipated savings;
4. business opportunity, goodwill or reputation;
5. use of, or corruption to information; or
6. information.

6.4 If we do not keep to these conditions, then we will only be liable for losses you have suffered as a direct result. We are not liable to you for any other losses whether such losses are because we have not kept to our obligations or contract, because of something we have done or not done in negligence, due to defamatory statements or liability for a product or otherwise as a result of:

1. use of, or inability to use, our Site;
2. use of or reliance on any content displayed on our Site; any mistake, fault, failure to do something, missing information, or virus on our Site or if it does not work properly because of incidents outside of our control such as (but not limited to) interruptions to communication and networks and circumstances beyond our control;
3. theft, destruction of information or someone getting access to our records, programs or services without our permission; or
4. goods, products, services or information received through or advertised on any website which we link to from our Site.

7. General

7.1 Where our Site contains links to other websites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those websites or resources.

7.2 Any formal legal notices should be sent to us using the details set out on our Site.

7.3 Failure by us to enforce a right does not result in waiver of such right. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms of Use.

7.4 If any part of these Terms of Use is found to be unenforceable as a matter of law, all other parts of these Terms of Use shall be unaffected3. and shall remain in force.

8. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

8.1 These conditions make up the whole agreement between you and us in how you use our Site. If a court decides that a condition is not valid, the rest of the conditions will still apply.

8.2 The laws of England and Wales apply to your use of our Site and these conditions. We control our Site from within the United Kingdom. However, you can get access to our Site from other places around the world. Although, these places may have different laws from the laws of England and Wales, by using our Site you agree that the laws of England and Wales will apply to everything relating to you using our Site and you agree to keep to these laws. We have the right to take you to court in the country you live in.

9. How to contact us

9.1 If you experience problems with our Site or would like to comment on it, please feel free to contact us by using the details set out on our Site.

Terms and Conditions of Business

1. Introduction

Mason & Co is the trading name of Charmax LLP, a Limited Liability Partnership registered in

England and Wales (Co. registration number OC378909) and is authorised and regulated by the

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) under reference number 592467 Our professional rules of

conduct can be accessed on https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/code-conductsolicitors/

andhttps://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/code-conduct-firms/. Our VAT

registration number is 732 9903 18. We use the word “Partner” to denote a member of the LLP, or a

person of the equivalent qualification and status employed by it.

These terms and conditions explain the basis upon which we carry out work for you. Our offices are

located at Charmax House 14 Old Market Place Altrincham WA14 4DF and our normal hours of

opening are 9.00 am to 5.00 pm weekdays. Appointments can be arranged outside those hours in

exceptional circumstances.

The name and status of the person responsible for the day-to-day conduct of your matter is indicated on

the attached letter together with the Partner with ultimate responsibility for your case. We will try to

avoid changing the people who handle your work, but if this cannot be avoided, we will inform you

promptly who will be handling your matter and why the change was necessary.

It is important that you maintain regular contact with us, including advising us of any change of address,

telephone number or e mail address. In particular, it is important that you provide us with all information

and documentation that we request. Please ensure that in all correspondence our reference is clearly

stated to avoid delay.

2. Instructions and Liability

As your solicitors, you authorise us to take any necessary steps to protect your interests (unless you

instruct us to the contrary). We are not responsible for any failure to advise or comment on any matter

which falls outside the scope of your instructions, or on matters of which you fail to inform us. Subject

to the covering letter, or unless otherwise agreed, our advice shall not include advice on:

• The laws of any jurisdiction other than England & Wales or

• Taxes or duties (other than Stamp Duty) or

• Financial investment

Our client account is held with Clydesdale Bank Plc trading as the Yorkshire Bank. In relation to any of

your money we may hold in our client account, it is unlikely that we will be held liable for losses

resulting from a banking failure. Your money is currently protected under the Financial Services

Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to a limit of £85,000 per individual and per institution, but not per

account. Therefore, if you hold other personal money in the same bank as our client account, the limit

remains £85,000 in total. Some deposit taking institutions have several brands, i.e. where they trade

under different names. Clients should check either with their bank, the FSA or a financial adviser for

more information. In the event of a banking failure, your acceptance of these terms and conditions will

constitute your consent to this firm disclosing your details to the FSCS for the purposes of making a

reimbursement claim on your behalf.

 

3. Property transactions disclaimer

It is not our responsibility to carry out a physical inspection of the property. We shall not advise

you on the valuation of the property nor the suitability of your mortgage nor any other financial

arrangements. We shall not advise on specific environmental risks. We will however need to

obtain on behalf of your lender at your expense an environmental search.

4. Fees and Disbursements (Expenses)

An overall estimate of our fees and expenses are set out in the accompanying letter. Unless an estimate

or an alternative arrangement has been agreed, our charges will be calculated by reference to the time

spent dealing with your matter which includes meetings, any time spent travelling, considering,

preparing and working on papers, correspondence, making and receiving telephone calls.

Our current hourly rates are:

Partners £250.00

Solicitors or Legal Executives (FILEX) £225.00

Trainee Solicitors, paralegals or equivalent £165.00

These rates are reviewed on the 1st May each year. We will inform you when this rate changes if your

matter has not been concluded by then. Each hour of work is divided into ten units of time. Routine

letters, telephone calls and e mails sent or received are charged as one unit. Other letters, calls and e

mails are charged on a time basis.

In addition to the time spent, a number of factors may be taken into account which may increase the

hourly rate, including the complexity, urgency, expertise or specialist knowledge required and, if

appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter involved. In complex or commercial property

transactions, leases, administration of estates and transactions involving a substantial financial

consideration or benefit to you, our charges may be calculated both by reference to the time spent and also

by reference to a value element expressed as a percentage (usually between 0.5%-1.5%) of the price of the

property, gross rent payable over the term of the lease, size of the estate or value of the benefit. The value

element reflects the importance of the transaction and the consequent responsibility falling on this firm.

You will be advised if this is to be applied in your matter.

Our fees include general postage and photocopying. However, we will charge as a disbursement any

specific charge incurred when a safe, guaranteed or quick means of delivery is required (for example

recorded, registered, guaranteed or special delivery post) and when we outsource bulk photocopying to

an external provider.

VAT at the current rate will be added to our charges together with disbursements as set out in the

accompanying estimate. Disbursements include payments by us on your behalf and we have no

obligation to effect these payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. After

deduction of any balance owing in respect of our fees and disbursements, you will normally receive any

surplus funds in the form of a cheque. Where you request or where we reasonably consider it expedient

to effect payment of any sums (including, but not limited to, redemption of mortgage loans) by way of

BACS or CHAPS (electronic bank transfers), we reserve the right to charge a handling fee of £30 +

VAT for each transfer to reflect the extra work involved in addition to any fee the Bank may charge us

for the transaction.

If, for any reason, the matter does not proceed, you will be charged for work done and expenses incurred

on the basis set out above and we reserve a lien (right to retain) your file of papers until our bill is paid

in full.

Buyers are personally responsible for completing and submitting a Stamp Duty Land Transaction Return

to the Inland Revenue and for paying the tax due within one month of completion or be subject to an

automatic penalty of £100, which increases to £200 with further delay. In most cases, a mortgage lender

 

will be involved and we have a duty to them (and to you) to ensure that their mortgage (and your purchase)

is properly registered. A failure to comply with the stamp duty formalities would prevent us from

achieving this. In the circumstances, when appointing this firm to act for you, you also appoint us as your

agent for the purposes of compliance. Our fees for this service are included in the estimate supplied.

5. Arrangements for payment of our charges and expenses

Property transactions: A statement will normally be rendered shortly before or following exchange of

contracts. Payment is required on or before completion. Where sufficient funds are available upon

completion, amounts due to us will be deducted from these funds unless otherwise agreed.

Administration of estates: It is our normal practice to deliver our bill at the end of the administration.

However, if it transpires that it will take some time to complete the administration, interim bills may be

rendered at least quarterly, and the final bill will be presented when the estate accounts are delivered for

approval.

Other cases or transactions: It is normal practice to ask you to pay sums from time to time on account of

fees and disbursements which are anticipated in the near future. It is helpful if you could meet such requests

within 7 days to avoid any delay in the progress of your case. In transactions or cases likely to continue

for more than a few months, interim accounts covering the work already carried out will normally be

rendered at least quarterly or as otherwise agreed. This procedure enables you to budget for costs as the

matter progresses. In the event of any account or request for payment on account not being paid, we reserve

the right to decline to act further in the case. The full amount of work done up to that date will be billed

and will be a debt due from you.

Payment of invoices (whether final or interim) is due within 7 days of its receipt. We reserve the right

to charge interest at the rate for the time being payable on judgement debts (currently 8%) if the bill or

any part remains unpaid after this date.

6. Our fees – Concerns/Assessment

If you have any concerns about our bill, please advise us and we shall follow our complaints procedure

as set out in section 13 which details our client care commitments to you. There may also be a right to

object to the bill by contacting the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the Court for an

assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors’ Act 1974. Please note that if all or part of the

bill remains unpaid we reserve the right to charge interest as set out in section 5 above.

7. Litigation

Whatever happens at the end of litigation, you will always be responsible for paying our accounts which

may include the cost of assessment by the Court. When a case has been concluded, the Court assess

payment of the successful parties costs of the proceedings in such a way that generally results in the

unsuccessful party having to pay only a proportion of those costs. It is only in exceptional cases that the

Court will order that the successful party has a right to full reimbursement of the costs of the

proceedings. If the other party is legally aided, you may not recover any of your charges and expenses

even if you win the case. Even if you are not reimbursed for the full or any costs of the litigation from

the successful party or if for whatever reason that party does not comply with an order to reimburse

you, you will nevertheless have to pay the full amount of our charges and expenses.

During the course of Court proceedings, we will provide the best indication we can as to the proportion

of your costs which you may recover from the other party should you be successful. This is however a

matter which is at the discretion of the Judge hearing the case and if you have pursued issues which

have not succeeded (even though you are successful overall) or the Court believes that you have acted

unreasonably, the Court has the power to reduce significantly the proportion of your costs to be paid by

the unsuccessful party.

If you are unsuccessful, the Court may order you to pay the successful parties legal charges and

 

expenses. That money will be payable in addition to our charges and expenses.

You should be aware in matrimonial cases it is unusual for the Court to order one person to pay the

other party’s costs and extremely unusual in cases concerning children. We will advise you whether an

Order for costs can be made in your matter at the appropriate stage.

8. Interest payments

All monies held by us on your behalf, whether on account of fees or disbursements or otherwise will,

until used, be placed in our general client account. You will (unless such interest is £30 or less) be

entitled to interest as if all monies had been on separate designated deposit accounts at Yorkshire Bank.

Where you obtain borrowing from a lender, we may ask the lender to send the loan cheque (or electronic

transfer via the CHAPS system) to us at least one working day prior to the completion date to ensure

that cleared funds are available in time. Please note that the lender may charge interest from the date

funds are released and may make a charge for using BACS or CHAPS.

9. Termination of Instructions

You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time. We are entitled to keep your papers

while money is owing to us. We may terminate instructions only with good reason and on giving

reasonable notice. If you or we decide that instructions are to be terminated, then our charges and

expenses will become due. We reserve the right to stop acting if

• You do not pay our costs or money on account

• We cannot continue to act without being in breach or our professional obligations

• We are unable to obtain clear instructions from you

• For any reason there is a breakdown in the solicitor/client relationship

If, applicable please also see the enclosures relating to the notice regarding your statutory right to cancel

and the cancellation form which relates to off-premises agreements with non-business clients.

10. Money Laundering Regulations

We are required to carry out money laundering checks on all new clients and sometimes on existing

clients. Our acceptance of your instructions will be subject to you providing to us all necessary

information to enable us to comply with our statutory obligations. We are required by regulations in

certain circumstances to enquire into the source of funds or monies which may pass through our client

account. We will not accept responsibility for any loss that may arise as a result of our compliance with

those regulations and in certain circumstances we reserve the right to terminate our retainer. Please

refer to the Money Laundering Leaflet attached for further details.

11. Confidentiality and Conflicts

Solicitors are under a duty to keep the affairs of clients confidential. This obligation, however, is subject

to a statutory exception: Recent 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 money laundering disclosure.

If, while we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make a money laundering disclosure, we may

not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it because the law

prohibits “tipping-off”. Where the law permits us to do so, we will tell you about any potential money

laundering problem and explain what action we may need to take.

In addition, where we act for your lender, we are under an obligation to advise them of any relevant

information. In accepting these terms and conditions, you authorise us to disclose to the other parties in

the transaction and, if applicable to all other parties in the chain of transactions, their agents and advisers

all information which we have in relation to your involvement including any related sale or mortgage

 

and other financial arrangements and wishes as to dates for exchange and completion. You may

withdraw this authority at any time but, if you do so, you should appreciate that we will inform the other

party or parties and their agents or advisers that this authority has been withdrawn which may prejudice

the matter.

We sometimes outsource bulk photocopying of documents. There are potential risks in relation to

preserving client confidentiality when the documents leave our offices. We use well established and

reputable suppliers and will always aim to obtain a confidentiality agreement with any third party. We

therefore believe the risks to be minimal.

We monitor the professional standards of our work and it may be necessary therefore for external firms

or organisations to conduct audit or quality checks on a small number of our files. This is to ensure that

we maintain the quality of work that we provide. These external firms or organisations are required to

maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.

You must inform us as soon as possible if you object to either external suppliers copying your documents

or your file being audited.

Conflict between your interests and the interests of other clients of the firm may arise during the course

of a matter. If this situation occurs, we will discuss the position with you and determine the appropriate

course of action. In order to protect your or their interests we may have to cease acting, in which case

we will use our reasonable endeavours to find another firm of solicitors to continue acting for you.

12. Storage of papers and documents

After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is

money owing to us for our fees and expenses. Following payment of all sums due to us, we will return

to you all your papers and documents save for those that are required to be sent to a 3rd party, such as a

mortgage lender. We will store the residual file or an electronic copy thereof for at least 6 years, and

on the understanding that we have your authority to destroy your file 6 years after sending you our

final bill. You agree that we may store your file either in a physical or electronic form, but we will not

destroy documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody.

We provide a safe custody service for wills and other securities without charge for such storage unless

prior notice in writing is given to you of a charge to be made from a future date. Due to recent changes

in the law, deeds are no longer necessary in order to prove ownership of registered land. However, we

do provide a free safe custody service for deeds on such properties if required. If we have to retrieve

stored papers, we reserve the right to make a charge based on the time spent in photocopying or reading

papers, writing letters or other work necessary to comply with your instructions. We would not expect

our charges to exceed £50 + VAT.

13. Client Care

We are confident that we will provide a high quality service in all respects. However, if you have any

queries or concerns with any aspect of the service we have provided or in relation to our invoices,

please raise them with Maurice Mason, our client care partner. It is important that you raise any issues

you may have with us immediately. We value you as a client and would not wish to think you have

any reason to be unhappy with us. If concerns cannot be resolved satisfactorily, you can refer the

matter to the Legal Ombudsman who can be contacted at PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1

9WJ.

However you should note that the Legal Ombudsman has time limits for accepting complaints and you

will normally need to bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months from the end of

our complaints process. For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300

555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

14. Copyright and Other Intellectual Property

 

We retain the copyright and all other rights in all documents provided to you. You are granted a nonexclusive

licence to use such documents for the purpose for which they are provided but not otherwise.

15. Data Protection

We have made a notification to the Information Commissioner under current UK data protection

legislation. You have rights under that legislation in relation to personal data held about you We will

hold and process personal data about you, both in relation to taking your instructions, opening files

relating to your matter, rendering bills and collecting sums due, and in the course of advising you on

and managing your matter. This information may include sensitive personal data obtained both from

you and/or from third parties.

In connection with any matter we deal with on your behalf, we obtain personal data including

sensitive personal data from you and from any professional and other third parties whom we, in our

professional judgment deem appropriate, and, likewise, we may disclose such information to such

third parties. Where the matter relates to a claim, those third parties may include but are not limited to

insurance companies, the police, medical practitioners and expert and other witnesses.

By instructing us to act, you are giving your explicit consent to the processing of your personal data in

the ways set out above.

For more information about our personal privacy policy, please refer to the privacy policy on our web

site.

16. Financial services and insurance mediation

We are not authorised under The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to provide financial advice

but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because

we are regulated by the SRA. We can provide these investment services as an incidental part of the

professional services we have been engaged to provide.

If you have any problem with the service we have provided for you, please let us know. We will try

and resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaints handling system to enable us to

resolve the problem between ourselves. If for any reason we are unable to do so, then we are regulated

by the SRA and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through them and the Legal

Ombudsman.

The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and

Markets Act 2000. The SRA is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society. The Legal

Ombudsman is the independent complaints handling body.

The Firm is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However, it is included on the

register maintained by the FCA 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 SRA as explained

above. The register can be accessed via the FCA website at www.fca.gov.uk/register.

17. Professional indemnity insurance

In accordance with the SRA’s Minimum Terms of Insurance we maintain a level of insurance at least

sufficient to cover our potential liability to you in accordance with these Terms. No warranty is given

or to be implied that we will maintain insurance above the minimum level required by the SRA. Our

insurers are International General Insurance Company (UK) Limited whose registered office is located

at 15-18 Lime Street London EC3M 7AN.

18. Communication via the Internet (www)

 

Where appropriate, it is our practice to utilise extranet and email links to send documents. Although this

is an extremely effective means of communication, we are unable to guarantee the security and

confidentiality of material sent over the internet. Please let us know if you do not want us to

communicate with you via the www. We check all communications with antivirus software, but again

cannot guarantee that documents will be free from corruption. We recommend that you also use your

own antivirus software.

19. Waiver

Our failure to enforce any one or more of these terms and conditions at any time or for any period shall

not be a waiver of them or our right at any time to enforce all applicable terms and conditions.

20. Invalidity

The invalidity or unenforceability of any of the provisions of these terms and conditions of business

shall not affect the rest of them which shall continue to bind both you and us.

21. Exclusion of Third Party Rights

Nothing in these terms and conditions of business or in any other agreement or arrangement between us

will confer any rights or other benefits on any third parties whether by statute or otherwise.

22. Entire Agreement

These terms and conditions and our accompanying letter set out all the terms agreed between us in

relation to the work we are to undertake for you. All other terms, conditions and representations are

hereby excluded, and you may not rely or have relied on them. The terms and conditions may only be

varied by agreement in writing signed by a Partner on our behalf. In the event of any conflict between

these terms and conditions and our accompanying letter, the latter shall prevail.

23. Jurisdiction

The High Court of England & Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear any dispute which may

arise between us. To this end, you and we irrevocably agree to submit to such jurisdiction. Judgment in

any suit, action or proceeding brought in the High Court of England and Wales shall be conclusive and

binding and may be enforced in the Courts of any other jurisdiction.

24. Amendment

We may by one month’s written notice to you modify these terms from time to time to reflect our current

practice and/or changes to professional and other regulatory requirements which we are obliged to meet.

25. Acceptance of these Terms & Conditions

Your continued instructions in this matter will amount to your acceptance of these terms and conditions.

However, we would ask you to sign one copy (retaining the other for your reference purposes) and

return this to us together with all other documents we have asked you to return to us. This is an important

document and you should keep it in a safe place.