Terms of Business
​
The terms of business – and engagement letter given to at the start of the matter, state that terms on which The Affable Partnership Ltd accept instructions and charge for services. If there is any conflict between these terms and the engagement letter, the engagement letter will take precedence. Director, Laura Tutt, is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, whose members are independently regulated by CILEx Regulation.
RIGHT TO WITHDRAW INSTRUCTIONS
FEES AND EXPENSES
BILLING AND PAYMENT
PERSONAL LIABLILTY OF DIRECTIONS
ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF FUNDING
THIRD PARTIES
COMMISSIONS
PAPERS HELD BY THE BUSINESS
LIABILITY OF ME
CONFLICTS
ENDING OF INSTRUCTIONS
CONFIDENTIALITY
PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION
MONEY LAUNDERING
INSIDER LIST
FIANANCIAL SERVICES
INSURANCE MEDIATION ACTIVITES
RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES
APPLICABLE LAW
RIGHT TO WITHDRAW INSTRUCTIONS
You have the right to withdraw, without charge, any new matter on which you instruct The Affable Partnership Ltd, within seven working days of the date you first made the instruction. However, this right will cease if work starts with your consent within that time.
FEES AND EXPENSES
At the outset of a matter The Affable Partnership Ltd will agree with you the basis on which you will be charged, and the engagement letter will set out arrangements concerning fees and expenses.
Fees are calculated mainly by the time spent on a matter. A detailed record of this time is kept. Hourly rates are revised annually on the 1St April and revised at other times. You will be informed in advance of any changes to hourly rates.
BILLING AND PAYMENT
VAT will be added to bills.
Late payment of commercial contracts (Business to Business)
Unless otherwise agreed in writing you must pay all bills within 30 days from the date of the invoice. If after 60 days the bill remains unpaid in full, the bill will be subject to a charge controlled by the Late Payment Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 as amended. Currently the rate of interest that will be charged is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. This is currently 0.5%, resulting in a total interest rate of 8.5%. Where necessary The Affable Partnership Ltd reserve the right to also seek compensation payments for late payment under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2013.
Late payment of consumer debts (Business to non-commercial consumer)
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, you must pay all bills within 30 days from the date of the invoice, after which overdue accounts are subject to a charge which is capped for the year at the judgement debt rate, by the Judgement Debts (Rate of Interest) Order 1993. The judgement debt rate is currently 8%. If necessary, The Affable Partnership Ltd will commence proceedings in the County Court to recover the outstanding debt plus interest.
If you have made payments on dates and in amounts different from those The Affable Partnership Ltd agreed, and The Affable Partnership Ltd suffers exchange-rate losses of over 5 per cent of the sums due, then The Affable Partnership Ltd reserve the right to change additional amounts to cover costs incurred.
At The Affable Partnership Ltd discretion The Affable Partnership Ltd may accept payment by credit card. If this is done, this will be on the basis that there is a handling fee of 2% of the value of the invoice. However, if the invoice is more than 30 days old, the handling fee will be 3.75%.
PERSONAL LIABILITY OF DIRECTORS
Any director who has personally guaranteed a company debt will be held personally liable for repaying The Affable Partnership Ltd invoice submitted to a company.
Prior to the winding up of the Company, if the Official Receiver or liquidator considers that a director ought to have concluded that there was no reasonable prospect of avoiding liquidation and continue to trade (wrongful trading), the directors may be ordered by the Court to accept personal liability to contribute towards the company’s debts.
If, during liquidation, it appears that there was an intent to defraud creditors (fraudulent trading), the liquidator may again seek to have the directors made personally liable for company debts.
In addition, a director may also be held personally responsible for the company’s debts if involved in the management of a company with the same or a similar name to one which had gone into liquidation whilst insolvent within the previous five years.
As well as being judged to be personally liable under insolvency law, other laws such as conspiracy for creditors to render directors personally liable.
Furthermore, a director should not overlook any binding promises/personal commitments or contractual warranties, undertakings, guarantees or like, which have been made on a personal basis to others about the state of the business or as to the future company actions and repayment of debts by the company.
ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF FUNDING
You should consider whether you have an alternative way of paying The Affable Partnership Ltd costs where you are or might be involved in a dispute.
Another body could be responsible for your costs, it is also possible that you hold a legal expense insurance policy that covers legal costs.
This is important because if you do have such an alternative, it may affect the recovery of costs from your opponent. You should advise The Affable Partnership Ltd if you think you may have such an alternative. If another body does pay your costs then, with you consent, The Affable Partnership Ltd may have to tell that body about your dispute.
THIRD PARTIES
Please note that you are entitled to source this provision independently. However, if you chose the engagement of other professionals on your behalf (such as counsel, overseas lawyers, accountants, expert witnesses or costs draftsman), whether in the UK or abroad, The Affable Partnership Ltd will do so as your agent. The Affable Partnership Ltd cannot be responsible for any act or omission of such a professional unless otherwise agreed in writing.
COMMISSIONS
If applicable, please see details of the Referral fees document, which can be provided upon request.
PAPERS HELD BY THE AFFABLE PARTNERSHIP LTD
When a matter has been completed and all fees paid, The Affable Partnership Ltd will return to you, at your request, any documents you have provided in connection with that matter and any other papers to which you are entitled. The Affable Partnership Ltd cannot promise to retain files for a specific period of time but will generally keep them for a least six years and reserve the right to dispose of them after that time.
The Affable Partnership Ltd will comply if for any reason (whether during or after a case) The Affable Partnership Ltd are compelled to disclose documents or to give information orally or in writing about a matter or your affairs, under a court order, notice or demand served by a body or person with the authority to make us do so. You must pay The Affable Partnership Ltd the costs of such compliance at the hourly rate. If any documents or information are subject to legal professional privilege (and thus confidential), The Affable Partnership Ltd will let you know and tell you that you have the opportunity to waive privilege. If you decide not to waive privilege and this is challenged, you must pay the costs incurred by The Affable Partnership Ltd in preserving privilege for you.
Unless you tell us otherwise, if a third party had prepared documents for you on our instructions, and you own the copyright in or have a licence to use these documents, The Affable Partnership Ltd may store the documents on the database in any format for future reference by us.
LIABLITY OF THE AFFABLE PARTNERSHIP LTD
The instructions you give to The Affable Partnership Ltd create a contract for our provision of services to you. The Affable Partnership Ltd have a duty to work for you with reasonable care and skill. The Affable Partnership Ltd’s advice and services are for your benefit only and may not be used or relied on by anyone else.
The Affable Partnership Ltd has Professional Indemnity Insurance, the insurers details will be provided upon request.
Accordingly, any claim you wish to make can only be made against The Affable Partnership Ltd.
You also agree that in the services provided to you, including in particular those described in any engagement letter sent to you at the start of a matter, The Affable Partnership Ltd’s total liability at law to you for losses will not exceed any amount stated in the engagement letter. Also excluded is any consequential or indirect loss whether or not it might have been foreseeable at the start of the matter.
If The Affable Partnership Ltd are acting for more than one person, the limit of liability will have to be allocated among you. If the engagement letter does not expressly set out each person’s share, that allocation will be a matter entirely for you. If for whatever reason you do not agree on an allocation, then you agree not to dispute the limit of liability on the grounds that no such allocation was agreed.
The Affable Partnership Ltd’s liability to you will also be limited to that proportion of the loss or damage (including interest and costs) that you have suffered and that a court has ordered against us after taking account of how far any other person responsible or liable to you for the loss or damage occurred.
The limitations and exclusions on liability in this section will not apply to any liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence or foe any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
CONFLICTS
Under legal and professional rules The Affable Partnership Ltd may have to stop acting for you if there is a conflict between your interests and those of another client, or between The Affable Partnership Ltd interests and your interests, The Affable Partnership Ltd cannot be prevented or restricted by reason of The Affable Partnership Ltd’s relationship with you from advising other clients, including clients whose interests might now or in the future be contrary to your own.
ENDING OF INTSRUCTIONS
Once instructed, The Affable Partnership Ltd will normally continue to act for you in the matter until its conclusion. If circumstances arise where it is appropriate for you or The Affable Partnership Ltd to end the instruction, you will be responsible for our fees and expenses up to the date your instruction ends. You will also be responsible for any fees and expenses arising from our ceasing to act for you of the transfer of the work to another adviser of your choice. The Affable Partnership Ltd may keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to The Affable Partnership Ltd for fees or expenses.
CONFIDENTIALITY
The Affable Partnership Ltd keep information passed to them as confidential and will not disclose it to third parties except as authorised by you or required by law. In certain circumstances the law requires The Affable Partnership Ltd to disclose information relating to you. If on your authority The Affable Partnership Ltd are working with other professional advisers, they will assume that they may disclose any relevant aspect of your affairs to them. Sometimes The Affable Partnership Ltd employ other companies to undertake routine administrative work on files, such as photocopying. The Affable Partnership Ltd will always seek a confidentiality agreement with any providers of such service. If you do not wish The Affable Partnership Ltd to do this with your file, please tell The Affable Partnership Ltd as soon as possible.
Where you provide The Affable Partnership Ltd with fax or computer network addresses for sending material to, The Affable Partnership Ltd will assume, unless you tell them otherwise, that your arrangements are sufficiently secure and confidential to protect your interests.
The Internet is not secure and there are risks if you send sensitive information in this manner or you ask The Affable Partnership Ltd to do so. Data The Affable Partnership Ltd send by email is not routinely encrypted, so please tell The Affable Partnership Ltd if you do not want them to use email as a form of communication with you or if you require data to be encrypted.
The Affable Partnership Ltd will use their best endeavours to protect the integrity of our computer system by screening for viruses on email sent or received. The Affable Partnership Ltd expect you to do the same for your computer systems.
PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION
The Affable Partnership Ltd promise to respect the data they hold on you. The Affable Partnership Ltd will keep your details on their database for administration and accounting purposes, so that they can make credit searches and send you relevant information on our services and on events that may interest you. Your details will be processed and kept securely in accordance with the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). The Affable Partnership Ltd will not disclose the data to third parties except for the purposes mentioned above. If you have any questions or concerns about use of data. Please let The Affable Partnership Ltd know.
MONEY LAUNDERING
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Regulations made under the Act, which aim to prevent money laundering, require The Affable Partnership Ltd to obtain proof of identity from clients for whom The Affable Partnership Ltd act in connection with relevant financial business. Accordingly, The Affable Partnership Ltd may ask you to give them the necessary details. In certain circumstances, The Affable Partnership Ltd must by law report to the National Crime Agency any evidence or suspicion of money laundering. The law prohibits them from notifying you that a report has been made.
RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES
For the purpose of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, The Affable Partnership Ltd agree that no term of this agreement with you is enforceable by a third party.