Terms of Business
It is important that you are fully informed about how your instructions will be handled by Aria Legal Ltd herein referred to as "the Company". This page sets out the Company's Letter of Engagement/Terms of Business. Please read this entire document carefully and keep in a safe place for your future reference.
Aria Legal Ltd is a member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters (hereinafter referred to as “IPW”) and it is mandatory that it operates in accordance with the IPW Code of Practice, copies of which are available free of charge either from the Company or from the IPW at the address on page 3 of this document.
Any instances of non compliance with the IPW Code of Practice should be addressed to the IPW. The purpose of this Letter of Engagement/Term of Business is to explain to you what your rights and obligations are and what rights and obligations the Company has. The terms of this agreement are governed by English laws and any dispute shall be resolved within the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Both the Company and the IPW are keen to ensure that the Company provides its services to the highest standards within the profession and in compliance with the Code of Practice. We would be grateful if you would spend a few moments completing an on line questionnaire at https://www.ipw.org.uk/public/review-a-member Alternatively a paper version of the questionnaire can be obtained from the Company or the IPW at either of the addresses overleaf.
1) Fees
The Company’s fees for writing Wills and for any additional products or services are enclosed.
2) Our obligations
a) The Company usually operates a two-visit system. This may be face to face or via a video call. The first appointment is to discuss your situation and your requirements and to obtain as much information as possible to enable us to draft your documents.. An Order Summary, detailing the basic information to be contained within your legal documents (such as names, addresses, relationships etc.) will be sent electronically to you for checking.
b) You will then receive your engrossed legal documents, a set of instructions on how to execute the legal documents received, a confirmation of receipt of your order. A second visit may be arranged to explain your documents to you so that you can be sure that they meet your requirements and to supervise the signing of them. Where documents are being drafted as updates to documents already drafted by the Company, you can elect not to have a second visit and you will receive a discount as described in the enclosed fee sheet.
c) The Company is obliged to give you best advice. In some cases this may require additional products or services, provided at extra cost either by the Company or another company recommended by us. You are under no obligation to take up any product or service, but the Company may require you to sign a disclaimer if you choose not to follow the advice provided by the Company.
d) The Company may require you to sign a disclaimer if you instruct us to draft any product or service in a way that is contrary to our advice.
e) Any advice that is given by the Company is based on its understanding of law, practices and procedures at the date of this agreement. The Company is not responsible for any consequences arising from any future changes in law, practices or procedures.
f) The Company has Professional Indemnity Insurance of £2 million to cover claims and losses worldwide (except in the United States and Canada) arising as a result of any negligent act by it. Should you have any queries regarding the insurance, please contact BEAM at Fifth Floor, Trinity Point, New Road, Halesowen B63 3HY.
g) The Company has Public Liability Insurance of £5 million to cover claims and losses or damages worldwide (except in the United States and Canada) arising from action by it. Should you have any queries regarding the insurance, please contact Simply Business, Hylo,105 Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8LZ.
h) The Company reserves the right to withdraw from any transaction if it is unable to complete any transaction in whole or in part but if it does so, it will write to you immediately and you will not be liable to pay any fees.
i) The costs of correcting any error or omission on the part of the Company shall be borne entirely by the Company.
j) The Company will provide advice free of charge in matters relating to this transaction for its lifetime.
k) What we do not provide :
Will(s)/Trust(s) or other legal documents if your circumstances change. The following are examples of changes in your circumstances / life events of either yourself / spouse/ civil partner / partner and / or your beneficiaries where we would recommend that you consider contacting us, such as:
• The death of either a Trustee or a Beneficiary.
• The imminent retirement of any Trustees.
• A significant change in state of health or the entrance into long term care of any Trustee.
• The birth or adoption of a child, grandchild or remoter issue of either Settlor.
• Any separation, divorce or marriage.
• Any future inheritances which are to be received by the Settlor, beneficiaries, or the Trusts.
• The financial performance of any investments in the Trust concerns you.
• The financial circumstances of the Trustees or any beneficiaries alters.
This list is not exhaustive but if you have any doubts on how a change of circumstances may affect your legal documents, please contact Aria Legal.
3) Your obligations
a) The validity, accuracy and suitability of any documents that we provide will partly depend upon the honesty, completeness and accuracy of your answers to our questions. The Company therefore requires you to be open and honest with the information that you provide to us. The Company is not responsible for any consequences arising from inaccurate or incomplete information provided by you.
b) To provide sufficient evidence of your identity to enable the Company to confirm your identity and/or comply with Money Laundering Regulations.
4) Timescales
a) Unless you agree in writing otherwise;
i) Your completed documents will be available for signing not more than 21 days from the date on which the Company has all the information that it requires to complete your documents unless sub clause ii) of this clause applies.
ii) If the Company prepares draft documents for your approval, your draft documents will be dispatched to you not more than 15 days from the date on which the Company has all the information that it requires to complete them and your completed documents will be available for signing either not more than 6 days after you have approved your draft documents or 14 days after your draft documents have been dispatched to you, whichever is soonest.
b) You can request that your documents are available earlier than the above timescales, but this may affect your right to cancel this agreement. Please see clause e) of page 7 of this agreement.
c) In the event that the Company is unable to meet the above timescales then you will be able to renegotiate this agreement or you can cancel it without any obligation to pay any fees.
d) If you are unable to provide all of the information that the Company requires to draft your documents within 28 days of this agreement then you will be liable to pay half of the total fees on the 28th day after this agreement. Any fees paid at this time will be deducted from your final invoice.
5) Payment
Payment of the Company’s fees is by debit or credit card, bank transfer or cheque and will be required as follow:
1. 25% of the fees on the initial instruction of your documents
2. 75% of the fees on the signing of your documents
6) Complaints
a) If you are not happy with any aspect of service provided by the Company, you should first of all contact our Estate Planning Consultant whose details are on their business card.
b) If you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of service provided by the Company, you must, in the first instance write to Angela Rancon, Head of Legal, at Aria Legal's address below . They will acknowledge your letter within 5 days of receipt and then investigate the circumstances of your complaint and write to you with the results of their investigation within 56 days of receipt of the complaint. If we do not find in your favour we will provide you with information about the IPWADR service – see next item.
c) If you are not happy with the results of the investigation by the Company, you can contact the Institute of Professional Willwriters who operate an Alternative Dispute Resolution process called IPWADR that will consider your complaint. Please note that you MUST raise your complaint with the Company before you can access the IPWADR. The contact details for IPWADR are
IPWADR, Trinity Point, New Road, Halesowen, B63 3HY
www.ipw.org.uk/professional/making-a-complaint
d) These complaints procedures do not prevent you from seeking other means of redress.
7) Use of personal information
The legal basis on which any personal information that the Company collects from you, or that you provide to it, will be processed is as follows. This information may be collected during meetings, [by completing a contact form on the Company website,] in correspondence or in telephone conversations.
a) Personal information may be processed by the Company for a number of legitimate purposes, including:
• To carry out its obligations under this agreement.
• To provide you with information, products and/or services which the Company believes may be of interest to you, provided that you have given your consent.
• For accounting purposes and statistical analysis.
b) The Company will maintain client files for a period of 6 years after your death, or for a period of 6 years after you have notified us in writing that your document(s) have been revoked, whichever event occurs first.
c) The Company may disclose your personal information to its partner firms and/or sub-contractors who it relies on to be able to provide its services to you, but in doing so it will ensure that they apply the same or greater controls in terms of data protection as the Company does.
d) The Company may also disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:
• If the Company or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal information held by us about our customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• To prevent fraud or if required to do so by law.
e) Other than as provided in sections (a) to (d) above, the Company will not disclose any personal information to anyone outside of the Company without your specific permission.
f) Whenever the Company processes personal information as described in sections (a) to (d) above it will ensure that it always keeps the Personal Data rights of you and anyone whose personal information that you provide in high regard and will take account of these rights. You have the right to object to this processing and if you wish to do so, please contact the Company at the address below. Please bear in mind that if you object, it may affect the ability of the Company to carry out its obligations under this agreement and/or to provide products or services to you.
g) All personal information will be held by the Company under appropriate security and within the UK.
h) You have a right to request a copy of the personal information provided by you that the Company processes. If you would like a copy of some or all of this personal information, please contact the Company at the address below.
i) The Company wants to make sure that personal information that it processes is accurate and up to date and you may ask it to correct or remove information that you think is inaccurate.
j) If you wish to raise a complaint on how your personal information has been handled, please contact us and we will investigate further. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal information in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Their contact details are given below.
Aria Legal Ltd
Wellpark Enterprise Centre,
120 Sydney Street,
Glasgow, G31 1JF
www.aria-legal.co.uk
info@aria-legal.co.uk
Tel 0800 612 5331
Institute of Professional Willwriters
Trinity Point
New Road
Halesowen
B63 3HY
www.ipw.org.uk
compliance@ipw.org.uk
Tel 0345 2572570
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk
Tel 0303 123 1113
Notice of the right to cancel
a) You have a right to cancel this agreement with Aria Legal Ltd within 14 days of the date of this agreement by writing to the Company at the postal address or the email address above and you will not be required to make any payment.
b) You can cancel this agreement with Aria Legal Ltd later than 14 days after the date of this agreement by writing to the Company at the postal address or the email address above. Unless the cancellation is due to a delay on the part of the Company that is beyond the timescale referred to in section 4a, you will be liable to pay half of the full fee.
c) You can use the cancellation form below but you do not have to. Where notice of cancellation is posted, it is recommended that it is sent by Recorded Delivery, however cancellation will be deemed to be served as soon as it is posted or sent to the Company.
d) The Company will acknowledge receipt of notice of cancellation in writing within 14 days.
e) You can request in writing that the Company can start work on your documentation on a date before the expiry of 14 days of the date that you first give us information to enable us to complete work for you. Should you subsequently cancel the contract within 14 days of the date that you first give the Company information to enable it to complete work for you, you may have to pay for any work that was carried out on your behalf before you cancelled in accordance with the reasonable requirements of this agreement.
If you wish to cancel this contract, you MUST DO SO IN WRITING and deliver it personally or send (which may be by electronic mail) it to the company.