A Notary Public certifies documents and transactions to render them effective in countries outside the United Kingdom. He/she is responsible to all those who legitimately rely on his certifications.
All our notaries are regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and our notarial work is separate and independent from our work as solicitors. We may also use other notaries on a consultancy basis.
A Notary’s first duty is to the transaction as a whole. Notarial acts require a high standard of care. They are relied upon by clients, third parties and foreign governments and officials worldwide.
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, a Notary’s responsibility is limited to the Notarial formalities and does not extend to advice on or drafting of documentation or on the matter under consideration.
We must be satisfied as to your identity, your legal capacity, your authority and your understanding and approval of the transaction; in certain instances we may insist on a translation; we aim to ensure that the document, in the manner of its execution, its form and substance will achieve its purpose in the recipient country; we must be satisfied that it is your voluntary act and that no fraud, violence or duress are involved and that formalities stipulated either under English or foreign law are observed. If we are not satisfied about any one of those things we may refuse to undertake the matter or issue a restricted certification.
We shall provide notarial services with due speed and efficiency in accordance with your instructions.
All instructions or request for services must be clearly set out in writing and addressed correctly to ourselves.
Our office hours are 09:00 to 17:30 on Monday to Friday. In appropriate cases we can arrange to see you outside the usual office hours, or away from the office. In such cases we would charge a reasonable fee for travelling time plus the cost of our travel.
Principal place of business:
33 Wigmore Street,Telephone: 0207 034 5204
Email:
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Our current scale of charges is available on request. Our charges are calculated by reference to the time normally taken to complete the relevant type of transaction based on our current hourly rate. They include the time incurred in making the appointment, travelling or waiting time, meetings with you and others, considering, preparing and working on papers and correspondence and the time required by our notaries to complete their notarial records. We reserve the right to vary these charges if the work is extremely urgent or needs to be done outside ordinary office hours. Where applicable or required, Value Added Tax will be charged in addition. In such cases we will advise you accordingly.
We reserve the right to charge you for any unusual expenses we incur including printing, exceptional photocopying, overseas postage, overseas telephone and fax costs.
You are responsible for all payments which we make on your behalf to third parties and we may ask for such payments to be made to us in advance. These may include fees payable to the Foreign Office, Foreign Embassies or agents in respect of documents whose recipient country/authority requires legalisation, Companies House search fees, translation fees, courier charges and other third-party costs which may be payable to check and authenticate information. Legalisation is the process by which either the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the London Embassy of the recipient country confirms the authenticity of the seal and signature of the English notary.
Normally our invoice is to be paid prior to our releasing the completed documentation. Should all or part of an invoice remain unpaid, we reserve the right to charge interest at the interest rate from time to time published by the Law Society.
At the end of the matter, a formal entry of the main details of your transaction together with copies of the notarised document and proof of identity will be kept. In particular, when our notaries are requested to certify documents such as public deeds, the above details will also be kept in their notarial protocols.
We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of our services to you and for related purposes including: updating and enhancing client records, analysis to help us manage our practice, statutory returns, legal and regulatory compliance.
Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality.
Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.
We may from time to time send you information which we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information please notify our office in writing.
Notable Services LLP is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.
Notaries are obliged under the Money Laundering Legislation to take measures to protect against fraud and forgery. To ensure that we comply with this you acknowledge and agree that:
Your failure to do so will entitle us to terminate our retainer and cease acting for you forthwith.
If, in the course of acting for you, we discover or suspect, or have reasonable grounds for knowing or suspecting that any person is engaged in money laundering we may, and in some cases will be required to, disclose this information to the to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Depending upon the particular circumstances of the case, we may not be able to tell you that such a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it.
Identification of individuals and proof of residential address is required. This is usually by way of a current passport, photo card driving licence or national identity card and a recent gas, electricity or other bill or bank statement. Exceptionally, other proof may be acceptable, and we will be happy to advise exactly what will be required in any particular case.
If you act on behalf of a company or organisation, we will need to establish that it exists and that the signatory has authority to represent it. We generally conduct our own checks on United Kingdom based entities. In some cases (particularly for companies or organisations established overseas) we may ask you to produce a certificate of incorporation, good standing certificate or other similar evidence.
If certification of the signatory’s authority to represent a company or organisation is required, we will need to review additional documentation, for example:-
We reserve the right to suspend the provision of our services where our invoices are deemed by us materially overdue and we shall not consider ourselves liable for any losses, cost or penalties arising from the suspension of our services.
No liability for loss to clients not covered by the limits of our Professional Indemnity Insurance can be accepted.
The amount of any liability is to be reduced so far as may be appropriate to take account of the degree of responsibility of any other professional or other advisers whom the client has consulted in relation to the matter as if the firm had successfully claimed contribution from them under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 taking no regard for any limitation agreed between the client and such advisor, and they had the resources to meet the same, provided that the firm shall not be obliged to make or pursue any such claim for contribution.
No liability whatsoever will be accepted on the part of the firm, its partners, agents or staff in relation to any loss, damage or liability whatsoever caused directly or indirectly to any party other than the client for whom the firm has agreed to act in connection with the relevant matter. No third party shall have any right to enforce any contract by the firm to provide advice or services or to rely upon any advice given or opinion expressed by or on behalf of the firm. The application of any legislation conferring on third parties contractual or other rights, including the Contract (Rights of Third Parties Act 1999) shall be excluded insofar as permitted by law.
In any event, no liability whatsoever will be accepted on the part of the firm, its principal, agents or staff where such liability either arises from any instructions or information given by the client or by any third party being incomplete, inaccurate or incorrect; or where such liability is for any indirect, economic or consequential loss or damage, costs, expenses or other claims for consequential compensation whatsoever or howsoever caused which arise out of or in connection with the services provided by the firm or for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of data, depletion of goodwill or loss occurring in the normal course of business or otherwise.
All searches of the Register of Companies carried out by the firm are made using the Registrar of Companies' on line service. To the extent that the Registrar does not accept responsibility for any inaccuracies or omissions arising from use of the on line service, the firm accepts no responsibility or liability arising from reliance upon the results of such searches, if they should subsequently be found to be inaccurate or incomplete.
These limitations will apply notwithstanding any express or implied term of business or any collateral agreement or warranty, whether express or implied.
Electronic Communication (e-mail) can be used between our firm and its clients and others but please note that because of the nature of e-mail, we can not guarantee its confidentiality. If you use e-mail to contact us or if you inform us of your e-mail address we will assume that you accept this risk and you impliedly allow us to communicate to you by e-mail unless you expressly instruct us not to do so.
We aim to provide all clients with an efficient and high standard of service. However, in the unlikely event that you should wish to complain, then you should follow the complaints procedure set out below.
As stated above, our notaries are regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury:
The Faculty OfficeTelephone: 020 7222 5381
Email:
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Website: www.facultyoffice.org.uk
If you are dissatisfied about the service you have received, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do all we can to resolve the issue.
When you contact us in relation to a complaint you wish to make, we will let you know if a specific notary is also a member of the Notaries’ Society.
If we are unable to resolve the matter, then in the case where a notary of our firm is also a member of the Notaries’ Society, you may complain to the Notaries’ Society who have a Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Faculty Office. This procedure is free to use and is designed to provide a quick resolution to any dispute.
In that case please write (but do not enclose any original documents) with full details of your complaint to:
The Secretary of The Notaries SocietyEmail:
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Telephone: 01604 758908
In the case where a notary of our firm is not also a member of the Notaries Society, then, if we are unable to resolve the matter, you may then complain to the Faculty Office. In that case, please write (but do not enclose any original documents) with full details of your complaint to the Faculty Office whose contact details are set out above. This procedure is free to use.
If you have any difficulty in making a complaint in writing, please do not hesitate to call us/ the Notaries Society/the Faculty Office for assistance.
Finally, even if you have your complaint considered under any of the above Complaints Procedures, 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:
Legal OmbudsmanTelephone: 0300 555 0333
Email:
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Website: www.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.
The terms of our appointment (including these Terms of Business) are governed by and construed in accordance with English law. You and we hereby irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in respect of any claim, dispute or difference of whatever nature concerning our appointment and arising from it.
Signature: …………………………………………………………………
For and on behalf of: ………………………………………………………
Date: ……………………………………………………………………….