Terms of Business

Regulation

The profession as a notary is regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and not by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. We are, however, regulated by the Legal Ombudsman.         

Our role and the role of a notary in England

Unless we have prepared the documents, our role is limited to ensuring that they are signed in accordance with the requirements of the country in which they will be used. This will include establishing your identity and also that you have an understanding of the documents as well as their effect and that you wish to be bound by them. 

Legal Advice

Unless we have prepared the documents, no legal advice is given in connection with them, and you must rely upon other lawyers representing you. We are not qualified to advise on any law other than the law of England and Wales. 

Foreign languages

We are authorised to issue notarial acts in Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese. If your document is in another language, we need to satisfy ourselves as to its meaning and this does not prevent us from authenticating the execution or signature of a document in any language. 

Charges

We are VAT registered hence a 20% VAT charge is applied. 

We can usually give a quotation once we have seen the documents, and payment is due when the documents are signed. 

Other payments

In addition to our charges, payments may have to be made to the Foreign and Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), foreign consulates, Companies House and postal or courier companies.

Copies

Although we are not always required to do so, we consider it prudent to keep copies of most of the documents that we deal with. However, they are, of course, entirely confidential.

Liability/Redress Information 

Each Notary carries professional insurance with a limit of £1m, and this is the maximum liability that we have with you in respect to any claims for work that we carry out for you. 

Where we post documents we are not responsible for their loss, or other direct or indirect losses, that you may incur as a result of them going missing or becoming delayed or damaged whilst in transit. 

Data Protection

We are registered under the Data Protection Act.

Our regulator makes occasional inspections of a notary’s records and my inspect information that I hold without notice to you.

Use of Technology, Devices and Artificial Intelligence

To the extent that I use any automated decision-making technology, including artificial intelligence, in the course of my services, I do not rely upon the same without human intervention. Before using any new technology including artificial intelligence, I carry out an appropriate risk assessment to ensure that your rights are not adversely affected by the same.

Applicable law

The laws of England and Wales apply to both these Terms of Business and the services that I provide. 

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied about the service you have received from me, please contact me in the first instance. If we are unable to resolve the matter, you may then complain to The Notaries Society of which I am a member, as they have a Complaints Procedure. This procedure is free to use and is designed to provide a quick resolution to any dispute. 

In the event of such a referral, please write (but do not enclose any original documents) with full details of your complaint to: 

The Secretary of The Notaries Society, PO Box 1023, Ipswich, IP1 9XB 
Email: secretary@thenotariessociety.org.uk 

After your complaint has been considered under the Notaries Society Approved Complaints Procedure, and if you are not happy with the result, you may at the end of that procedure, or after a period of 8 weeks from the date you first notified me that you were dissatisfied, make your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6167 

Slough SL1 0EH 

Tel: +44 (0)300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk 

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 one year from the act/omission or within one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.