TERMS OF BUSINESS
If you agree to our terms, and wish to proceed with the instruction, we will ask that you complete a Client Registration Form. This must be completed and signed for each new instruction. By signing the instruction form, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Business.

1. CANCELLATION
1.1. A cancellation fee may apply to any notarial visit outside of our offices. If you have arranged for a notarial visit at your premises, you must let us know at least one hour before the appointment time to cancel without paying a cancellation fee.
1.2. If the notary is already on his way to the appointment, or at the premises, you will be liable for a cancellation fee amounting to 75% of the agreed quote for our fees but will not include any agreed quote for disbursements.

2. COMPLAINTS
2.1. If you are dissatisfied about the service you have received, please contact the complaints handler, Hasib Heron at hasib@notary.co.uk. If we cannot resolve the matter, you may then complain to the Notaries Society of which we are members. The Notaries Society have a Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Faculty Office. The Faculty Office will refer the complaint to be considered by one, or several, independent notaries. This procedure is free to use and is designed to provide a quick resolution
2.2. To contact the Notaries Society, please write (but do not enclose any original documents) with full details of your complaint to Christopher Vaughan, Secretary of the Notaries Society, Old Church Chambers, 23 Sandhill Road, St James, Northampton NN5 5LH, or email to secretary@thenotariessociety.org.uk. If you have any difficulty making a complaint in writing, please do not hesitate to call The Faculty Office for assistance.
2.3. Finally, even if you have your complaint considered under the Complaints Procedure, you may at the end of that procedure, or after a period of eight weeks from the date you first notified us that you were dissatisfied, make your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, if you are not happy with the result
2.4. Please write to: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV1 9WJ or Telephone 03005550333 or email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. If you decide to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman you must refer your matter to the Legal Ombudsman within six months from the conclusion of the complaint process,

3. LEGALISATION
3.1. Some countries require a document to be legalised. This the process by which a state agency confirms that the notary’s seal and signature are authentic. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will attach an Apostille to the document to verify this.
3.2. Occasionally the document then has to go to the local Consulate of the country to where the document will be sent. The Consulate will then attach its own certificate or stamp to the document. Your lawyer should advise you of the need for legalisation. If not, you should enquire with them as to if it is necessary. We shall be able to obtain the relevant legalisation and shall discuss with you time scales and fees. However, you can deal with legalisation yourself if you wish.

4. LIABILITY
4.1. The person who instructs us will be treated as our client and liable for payment. If it is agreed that a third party will settle our fees and/or disbursements, the instructing client will remain liable in the event of non-payment by the third party.
4.2. We carry professional indemnity liability cover of £2 million pounds. We therefore limit the level of our liability to you to £2 million pounds, unless you are injured or die as a result of our negligence, in which case our liability is without limit.

5. PAYMENT
5.1. At the outset of the instruction, we will provide an estimate of costs based on the information presented to us: this will be done by email, telephone or orally. To provide an accurate quotation of costs, we ask that you provide us with as much detail as possible and copies of the documents in advance. Initial quotes may be varied at a later date; this typically occurs where there are more documents that need to be notarised than previously believed, the urgency of the matter changes, or an embassy revises its fees. We reserve the right to vary the quote as appropriate. Payment shall be in Pound Sterling only unless otherwise agreed by us.
5.2. VAT will be charged on our fees for services provided to clients within the European Union. Our VAT registration number is 946522901.
5.3. You are responsible for all payments which we make on your behalf. This may include legalisation fees paid to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and/or a Consulate, Companies House fees, translation fees, courier fees and special delivery postage charges. We shall not incur these expenses without first obtaining your consent to do so.
5.4. We reserve the right to demand payment up front, immediately on completion of the instruction or by invoice payable within seven working days, unless otherwise agreed in writing. Invoices will be issued by post and email. If payment is late, we reserve the right to charge interest on any amount overdue, the rate being fixed at 3% from the date the invoice falls due. Any query related to the invoice must be raised immediately on receipt of the invoice.
5.5. We do not issue refunds once the work has been commenced. If you request us to stop the work whilst the instruction is on-going you will be required to pay a cancellation fee amounting to 50% of the agreed quote for our fees, and the cost of any disbursements incurred by us. Once the work has been completed, you will be required to pay the full agreed price.
5.6 We may not complete work or release any notarised and/or legalised documents until payment has been made.

6. PRIVACY
6.1. We take privacy of your personal information and documents extremely seriously. We shall not disclose the information held by us to any third parties without your authorisation. We are registered as a data controller at the Information Commissioner’s Office: www.ico.gov.uk under registration number Z1943497.

7. RECORD KEEPING
7.1. We shall keep a record of every notarial act that we prepare. This will be stored securely on our internal server. We may also keep a record of your photographic identification securely on our server. You may request copies of the documents at any time.

8. REGULATION
8.1 Our notarial practice is regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury who may be contacted at The Faculty Office, 1 The Sanctuary, Westminster, London SW1P 3JT by email: faculty.office@1thesanctuary.com or by telephone: 020 7222 5381or via www.facultyoffice.org.uk

9. RELEVANT LAW
9.1 The law which governs our contract with you is English Law and it is agreed that any dispute relating to our services shall be resolved by the English courts. If any of the provisions in our Terms of Business may be declared void or invalid by the English courts, this shall not invalidate the Terms of Business in its entirety, and all other provisions not deemed void or invalid shall remain in effect.

10. RESPONSIBILITIES
10.1 It is not our responsibility to give you legal advice concerning the document you need notarised. You are advised to seek first the advice of your own independent legal or other competent professional adviser who practises in, or is skilled in the law of the jurisdiction to which the document will be sent.
10.2 If the notary prepares any documents, the notary will rely on the information provided by you. The client is responsible for all errors and omissions in that information;
10.3 The notary will act as a witness only; the notary is not a party to any transaction; the notary accepts no responsibility, legal or otherwise, for any delays, losses, omissions, costs, claims or damages arising out of the notarisation of any of the documents;
10.4 You verify that all documents and the facts contained in them are authentic and true and are not made as part of or as a plan for any illegal act against the laws of any country worldwide.
10.5 We must be satisfied as to your identity, your legal capacity, your authority to sign and your understanding and approval. We may insist on a translation. We shall try to ensure that the document, in its execution, form and substance will achieve its purpose. We must be satisfied that it is your voluntary act, that no fraud, violence or duress are involved and that other requisite formalities either under English or foreign law are observed.
If we are not satisfied about any one of those things, we will refuse to undertake the matter.
10.6 If you require us to forward or email any documents after completion of the work then this will be at your own risk;
We are obliged to provide the following compliance information. Kindly read the following and confirm your acceptance by signing the Client Registration Form provided to you.

DATA PROTECTION: PRIVACY AND CONSENT NOTICE
The purpose of this notice is to explain how we collect, process and retain personal data when providing notarial services and to gain your consent to do so. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with the registration number Z1943497. Further information may be requested from the Data controller – Hasib Heron – by telephone: 020 7630 1777 or email: hasib@notary.co.uk or by post to 6 Lower Grosvenor Place, London SW1W 0EN.

HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL DATA
We collect information and data: –
I. directly from you at the point of your initial enquiry or instructions. You will be asked to complete a Client Registration Form;
II. directly from the documents that you provide us for notarisation or from third parties with a relevant and legitimate interest in the transaction;
III. as a result of any additional due diligence enquiries necessary to complete the notarisation process;

HOW WE USE PERSONAL DATA

Your personal data is used solely for the purpose of providing notarial services. It is processed in accordance with the 8 Principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and for the following purposes: –
• responding to your queries, requests and other communications;
• providing notarial services, including the translation and legalisation of documents;
• enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on our behalf in the provision of notarial services including, but not limited to, webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical and courier services;
• in the resolution of any complaints.

WHO WE SHARE PERSONAL DATA WITH
Your personal data may need to be shared with third parties if either:
(a) further processing is required. This may include:
i. translation services;
ii. legalisation services at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) or at the Embassy or Consulate of the foreign jurisdiction where the document is to have effect.
(b) we have a statutory duty to disclose it for legal and regulatory reasons.
Where personal data is shared with third parties, we ensure that such third parties comply with all current data protection legislation. Where such third parties are located outside of England and Wales (including foreign Embassies or Consulates located in the UK or abroad) such organisations will process personal data in accordance with their own domestic laws to which they are subject and international treaties over which we have no control.

HOW LONG WE KEEP PERSONAL DATA
Our regulator, the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, requires us to keep basic data for each of our notarial clients. This data will be collated on a Master Client Protocol and be kept in perpetuity. The data we must keep includes the following:
(i) the date of the act, (ii) the name of person at whose request the act was performed, (iii) the person or persons, if any, intervening in the act and, (iv) in the case of a person who intervened in a representative capacity, the name of his principal, (v) the method of identification of the party or parties intervening in the notarial act, and (vi) in the case of a party intervening in a representative capacity, any evidence produced to the notary of that party’s entitlement so to intervene, (vii) the nature of the act and (viii) the fee charged.
Additionally, we will keep the Client Registration Form and any additional due diligence notes for a period of eight years.
A copy of the notarial act is scanned into our computer system and kept permanently. Upon retirement or closure of the notarial practice, records are transferred to a successor practice or as directed by our Regulator.

DATA SECURITY
We have in place a range of physical and electronic security safeguards to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification. Note that from time to time data is transferred across the Internet and we do not always have control over the processes involved.

DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS:
Your data is processed in accordance with Principle 6 of the GDPR namely that personal data is processed in accordance with the individuals’ rights. We therefore will not use personal data for direct marketing and no decisions shall be made by automated means. More information may be found at www.ico.org.uk.