LEGAL NOTICES

Westbury Solicitors Ltd is a limited liability company registered in England and Wales under company registration number 12221183

Its registered office address and principal place of business is 4 East Street, Nottingham NG1 3AY United Kingdom.

A full list of members of the firm is available at the registered office

Regulation of legal services

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the independent regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales.

Westbury Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 818229.

Any opinion or advice is given subject to our terms of business

Tax advice

Any work that we do for you may have tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We may not be qualified to advise you on any specific tax implications of a matter that you have instructed us to deal with, 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. If we instruct specialist tax counsel on your behalf or refer the issue to tax advisers, we reserve the right to charge you the fees incurred in doing so.

Complaints handling procedure

We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service or about the bill, please contact the caseworker handling your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues. If you still have queries or concerns, please contact the client care partner/director to whom any final issues can be reported.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint

and

No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or

No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

Contact details

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

If a complaint relates to an invoice we have delivered, a client may also be entitled to apply to the court for an assessment of the invoice under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If a client wishes our charges to be reviewed by the court, they must apply to the court within one month of the date the invoice was delivered to them. If the invoice has been paid, more than twelve months has elapsed or a judgment has been obtained in respect of the costs covered by the invoice, the court will not order the invoice to be assessed unless special circumstances apply. If the court makes an order in such circumstances, it may attach conditions to the order in respect of the costs of the assessment. Our entitlement to charge interest in respect of an unpaid invoice may not be affected by any complaint submitted to the Legal Ombudsman or by any application that is made to the court for assessment of the invoice.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through them and the Legal Ombudsman.

All law firms are obliged to attempt to resolve problems that clients may have with the service provided. It is therefore important that you immediately raise your concerns with us.

Complaints about a client’s rights under the General Data Protection Regulation must be submitted to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk.

Any disputes or legal issues arising from our Client Care and Terms of Business will be determined by the laws of England and Wales and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.

Information about our complaints handling procedure is available on request.

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concern with the Solicitors Regulation Authority https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

Further help

If you require further assistance, please contact the SRA Professional Ethics helpline.

Anti-money laundering procedures

In accordance with the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 law firms are obliged to obtain certain information to establish the correct identity and address of clients. In certain circumstances we may be under an obligation to submit a report to the authorities if we have reason to suspect offences concerned with money laundering may have been committed or might be committed.

By accepting our Client Care and Terms of Business you accept that we are entitled to require you to produce appropriate evidence of your identity and address, that we may submit reports to the relevant authorities concerning your business and that we shall not be liable in any circumstance for any losses which you might incur as a consequence of any such steps which we might properly take in pursuance of our statutory obligations under anti-money laundering legislation.

In carrying out our statutory obligations we may incur certain expenses to verify the identity of a client to the satisfaction of the authorities, for example company search fees.

Pooled funds

The anti-money laundering guidance which UK banks and other finance services firms must adhere to is issued by the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG).

The JMLSG does not require banks to routinely identify the beneficial owners of law firm’s pooled accounts as they do with most other accounts on the proviso that this information is available upon request.

In the event of our bank requesting information about the beneficial owners of our pooled client account you agree to us disclosing your details to them. If further information including verification documentation is required from you to identify the owners of funds held by us, you agree to provide it.

Professional indemnity insurance

Westbury Solicitors Ltd holds professional indemnity insurance in an amount of £3 million in accordance with statutory requirements.

Our professional indemnity insurance cover does not extend to damages or other monetary

awards, judgments or negotiated settlements or claims made or suits brought before any arbitrator, tribunal or court outside England and Wales.

Financial Conduct Authority

Where work involves investments, although we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to give advice, we are able to refer you to an authorised advisor. We can provide limited services in relation to investments, provided they are closely linked with our legal services as regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

We have no expertise in relation to the fitness for purpose or solvency of any bank. We assume that any bank licensed to operate by the appropriate statutory authority in the jurisdiction in which it operates will be able to honour its obligations. Accordingly, we will have no liability to you in the event of the bank at which the firm’s client account is held becoming insolvent or being unable to meet its obligations.

In such an event you may be eligible for limited compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). In the event of our client account holder’s collapse, you consent to us disclosing your details to the FSCS for the purposes of making a claim on your behalf.

Referral arrangements

We may pay a referral fee for work to be referred to us. In such a situation we will inform you in writing and will tell you what fee we have paid. The advice which we give to you will be independent and we will treat you the same as any other client. You are free to raise questions on all aspects of the transaction and any information which you disclose to us will be treated as confidential and not disclosed to the referrer or to any other third party without your consent. We will not act for the referrer in connection with the same transaction in any way and you are under no obligation to instruct us in connection with the transaction.

Recovering legal costs and disbursements

If a court orders another party to pay some or all your legal costs and disbursements it is important to appreciate that you must pay the legal costs and disbursements in the first place and any amounts, then recovered will be repaid to you.

The other person will not be liable to pay the VAT element of costs if you are able to recover the VAT yourself.

If the other party is in receipt of legal aid no costs are likely to be recovered.

It is possible to claim from the other party interest on these amounts from the date of the court order and we will account to you for such interest to the extent that you have paid our costs and disbursements.

You will be responsible for paying our costs and disbursements 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 costs and disbursements which would be in addition to our legal costs and disbursements. Arrangements can be made to take out insurance to cover liability for these circumstances. Please discuss this with us if you are interested in this possibility.

Distance selling – The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

If we have not met you in person, because for example instructions and signing of the contract documentation is taking place by telephone, mail, email or on-line – by way of a ‘distance’ contract – or we have taken instructions and a contract has been concluded away from our business premises, because for example we have met with you at home – by way of an ‘off-premises’ contract and the contract was entered into on or after 14 June 2014, you have the right to cancel this contract within 14 calendar days of entering into the contract without giving any reason. The cancellation period will expire after 14 calendar days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

To exercise your right to cancel you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement, for example a letter sent by post, fax, or email. You may use the model cancellation form on our website, but this is not obligatory. We will acknowledge receipt of such a cancellation on a durable medium, for example by email, without delay. To meet the cancellation deadline, you must send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.

Should you require the work to be commenced within the 14-calendar day cancellation period you must provide your agreement to that in writing, by email, post, or fax to enable us to do so. By signing and returning one copy of this document, you are confirming that we can begin work immediately. Where you have provided your consent for work to commence within the 14-calendar day cancellation period and you later exercise your right to cancel, you will be liable for any costs, VAT and disbursements incurred up to the point of cancellation. Unless you make an express request for us to commence work within the 14-day period we will not be able to undertake any work during that period.

PRIVACY POLICY

Data protection and General Data Protection Regulation privacy notice

Westbury Solicitors Ltd is a data controller under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018We use the information that you provide to us primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:(a) Updating and enhancing client records.(b) Analysis to help us manage our practice.(c) Statutory returns; and(d) Legal and regulatory compliance. Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation, and our duty of confidentiality. The Data Protection Act 2018 requires us to advise you that your particulars are held on our database and from time to time we may use these details to send you information which we think might be of interest. If you do not wish to receive that information, please notify our office in writing. We do not make such information available to any other provider of products or services. If you are an individual, you have the right under the Data Protection Act 2018 to obtain information from us, including a description of the data that we hold about you. Should you have any queries concerning this right please contact our data protection officer.

Handling your personal data

We confirm the following:

  • The fee earner handling your matter, their secretary and any legal assistant within the firm may handle your data.
  • Your personal data will remain confidential.
  • Your personal data will be used to carry out an identification check as is usual in this type of transaction, to contact you for the duration of the matter and to ensure that funds are sent or received to facilitate the transaction.
  • The processing of your personal data is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the firm or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of an individual which require protection of personal data, where the individual about whom data is held is a child.
  • It may be necessary to provide third parties with your data to effect the transaction, namely other law firms, search providers, government departments including HM Revenue & Customs, the Land Registry and IT service suppliers.

Fair and transparent processing

We confirm the following:

  • Your personal data will not be retained for any longer than is necessary to fulfil the firm’s statutory obligations.

  • Upon signing the client care documentation provided to you at the outset of the matter you will be confirming that the contract which exists between us gives us the right to process your data in relevant and applicable ways.

  • You have the right to request from the firm access to and rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing concerning your personal data.

  • You have the right to object to processing.

  • You have the right to data portability.

  • You have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office in relation to any concerns you may have about the processing of your personal data.

Confidentiality and disclosure

We must observe a general duty of confidentiality.

Subject to data protection legislation and our duty of confidentiality we may share your personal data with:

  • Third parties and other persons who help us provide our products and services.

  • Companies and other persons providing services to us.

  • Our legal and other professional advisors, including our auditors in the conduct of audit or quality checks on our practice.

  • Fraud prevention agencies, reference agencies and debt collection agencies during your service management.

  • Government bodies and agencies in the UK and overseas.

  • Courts to comply with legal requirements and for the administration of justice.

  • To other parties connected with your matters; and

  • Anyone else with your consent or as required by law.

Circumstances where it may be necessary for our firm to disclose information about you other than in the normal conduct of your matter include:

  • In an emergency or to otherwise protect your vital interests.

  • To protect the security or integrity of our business operations.

External firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.

We use cloud storage for client files. Our cloud software provider is LEAP. LEAP’s cloud infrastructure is provided and maintained by industry leading cloud platform provider Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services demonstrates a commitment to information security at every level of the organisation and complies with internationally recognised standards, the EU Data Protection Directive, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Monitoring communications

We will monitor and maintain on file, be it paper, electronic or both, records of our calls, letters, emails, text messages, social media messages and other communications in relation to your dealings with us. We will do this for regulatory compliance, self-regulatory practices, crime prevention and detection, to protect the security of our communications systems and procedures, for quality control and staff training and in preparation for circumstances where a record of what has been said becomes necessary.

Storage of documents

After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for costs and disbursements.

The retention of files varies according to the type of matter completed. For example, in the case of conveyancing files we will generally retain a purchase file for 12 years and a sale file for 6 years. Of course, if we know that a property where we have acted on the purchase has been sold within 12 years of the date of when it was purchased then we will destroy the purchase file 6 years after the date of the sale of the property. If you require your files to be retained longer you must instruct us accordingly.

On the completion of the retention period the file is destroyed.

Time limits imposed by documents such as rent review dates, dates for service of a break notice under a lease et cetera. are your responsibility to diarise. The firm does not take responsibility for diarising dates which occur after a transaction is concluded for you. In certain circumstances, and only by express agreement with you, the firm will diarise dates.

We shall not be responsible for advising you of any future changes in the law which may impact upon you.

If we take papers out of storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act for you, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may charge you for time spent producing

stored papers and reading and related work to comply with your instructions.

We will not destroy documents deposited into safe custody.

WEBSITE TERMS OF USE

This website is provided by Westbury Solicitors Ltd.

We may amend these terms of use at any time by publishing new terms on the website. By accessing this website, you agree that:

no amendment is made to downloaded pages from this website or disclose the content to third parties without Westbury Solicitors Ltd’s prior written consent and that contents will be for your own private use or use within your own organisation.

not to use this website or its content in contravention of any regulation or legislation;

not to copy, print amend, circulate, reproduce, or distribute the content for the purpose of commercial exploitation, other than in compliance with our Copyright Notice.

Intellectual property rights:

Apart from copyright belonging to third parties, all trademarks, logos, and branding contained on this website belongs to Westbury Solicitors Ltd.

You may download or print copies of the contents of this website for the sole purpose of viewing and for your own personal use.

Any other reproduction for the purpose of commercial exploitation without the written permission of Westbury Solicitors Ltd is prohibited

Limitations and exclusions:

Westbury Solicitors Ltd does not accept responsibility for any loss which may arise from reliance on information or materials published on this website. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure that this website is free of viruses however liability for loss or damage because of your use of this website is excluded to the extent permitted by law.

Whilst we have taken reasonable care to ensure that the contents of this website are accurate and complete, we are not liable to you or any third parties accessing and using the contents of this website and information provided is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice.

Electronic links:

This website may contain electronic links to other websites and any links to other websites are solely for your convenience. Such links and any information, products or services provided in the contents of linked websites do not imply endorsement by Westbury Solicitors Ltd.

Westbury Solicitors ltd has no relationship with the owners or control over rights in the linked website. Use of the linked websites is entirely at your own risk

Governing law:

Any dispute or claims relating to the terms and conditions of this website shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with English law and the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction in the event of any dispute arising because of content posted on the firm’s website.

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is created at the request of the website a user is viewing. The website requests the web browser create a small text file with a small amount of information, which it can access whilst you are viewing the website. Cookies are small data files stored on your computer. When you access our website, the internet will store a session cookie on your computer for the duration of your visit to enable us to monitor overall website traffic.; however, we do not use cookies to monitor your particular use of our website. The information is usually to provide some functionality to enhance the users experience on the site. Cookies can be useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device, preferences and generally help to improve your online experience. You can find more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu

When you visit our website, our server will automatically record your IP address and the time and duration of your visit.

Our Website includes links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our Website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

How to Access your Information

Under the GDPR 2016, you are entitled to receive a copy of the personal information which we hold about you if you apply to us in writing at Westbury Solicitors Ltd, 4 East Street, Nottingham NG1 3AY. We will be happy to comply with your request, although to safeguard your privacy we will only supply you with the information to which you are entitled, once you have supplied to us such information as would reasonably be required by us to satisfy ourselves as to your identity, or contact us. We charge a statutory fee under the GDPR 2016 to cover our expenses.