Terms of Business

All engagements that we accept are subject to the following standard terms of business unless changes are expressly agreed in writing.

1  Professional obligations

1.1  We are a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and our conduct is subject to its Code of Ethics and Conduct which can be found at icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance. We will observe and act in accordance with the bye-laws and regulations of ICAEW. We accept instructions to act for you on this basis.

1.2  We confirm that we are statutory auditors eligible to conduct audits under the Companies Act 2006. When conducting audit work, we are required to comply with the Ethical and Auditing Standards issued by the FRC, which can be accessed online at https://www.frc.org.uk/auditors/audit-assurance-ethics. We are also required to comply with the Audit Regulations and Guidance which can be accessed at icaew.com/en/technical/audit-and-assurance/working-in-the-regulated-area-of-audit.

1.3  We confirm that we are accredited for the reserved legal activity of non-contentious probate. When conducting probate work, we are required to comply with ICAEW’s Probate Regulations which can be accessed at icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance/reserved-legal-services.

1.4  Where we become aware of errors made by HM Revenue & Customs you give us authority to correct them. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations.

2  The Provision of Service Regulations 2009

2.1  We are registered to carry on audit work in the UK and Ireland by ICAEW. Details of our audit registration can be viewed at www.auditregister.org.uk for the UK under reference number C006276362.

2.2  We are licensed by ICAEW to carry out the reserved legal activity of non-contentious probate in England and Wales. Details about our probate registration can be viewed at icaew.com/probate, under reference number C006276362.

3  Professional indemnity insurance

3.1  In accordance with our professional body rules we are required to hold professional indemnity insurance. Our professional indemnity insurers are RSA Insurance Group Plc based at 20 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 3AU. Further details about the insurer and coverage can be found at our offices.

3.2  If for any reason circumstances arise that may result in a claim to our professional indemnity insurers, you give us your permission to notify them.

4  Fees

4.1  Our fees are calculated on the basis of time spent on your affairs, the levels of skill and responsibility involved, the importance and value of the advice provided to you, and the level of risk. Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary, our fees do not include the costs of any disbursements of travel, accommodation and other expenses such as, but not limited to, third party, counsel or other professional fees. If these costs are incurred to fulfil our engagement, such necessary additional charges may be payable by you.

4.2  If it is necessary for us to carry out work that is outside the scope of the engagement currently in place with you, we will advise you of this in advance. Any additional work will result in additional fees being charged. We would therefore like to point out that it is in your interests to ensure that the information you provide us with is completed to the agreed stage. All fees are stated net and are subject to VAT.

4.3  If we give you an estimate of our fees for carrying out any specific work, then that estimate will not be contractually binding unless we have explicitly stated that will be the case. If it becomes apparent to us, due to unforeseen circumstances, that an estimate is inadequate, we reserve the right to notify you of a revised figure or range.

4.4  If we agree a fixed fee with you for providing a specific range of services this will be the subject of a separate agreement. This agreement will set out the services covered by it. It is not our practice to identify fixed fees for more than a year ahead as such fee quotes need to be reviewed in the light of events. If it becomes apparent to us, due to unforeseen circumstances, that a fee quote is inadequate, we reserve the right to notify you of a revised figure or range.

4.5  Where we have agreed that you will pay on an invoice rendered basis, invoices are payable in full (including disbursements) in accordance with the terms set out on the invoice. Any queries you have on our invoices must be notified to us within 21 days of receipt or we shall deem you to have accepted that payment is due.

4.6  Where we have agreed that you will pay us on a standing order basis, we will discuss with you separately the amount and frequency of payments. These standing orders will be applied to fees arising from work agreed in our letter of engagement for the current and ensuing years. Where a scheduled monthly payment is not made any fees invoiced to you that are outstanding at that time will immediately become due for payment in entirety. Once invoices have been issued such payments will be offset against these amounts with any differences becoming due and payable.

4.7  You may have an insurance policy or membership of a trade or professional body that entitles you to assistance with payment of our fees in some situations. A particular example would be assistance with an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs. Unless you arranged the insurance through us then you will need to advise us of any such cover you have. Please note that you remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are liable to be paid by your insurers.

4.8  We reserve the right to charge late payment compensation fees and interest on late paid invoices at the rate of 8% above bank base rates under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Interest and late payment compensation fees will be calculated from when the invoices becomes overdue. We also reserve the right to suspend our services or to cease to act for you, having given written notice, if payment of any fees is unduly delayed. We intend to exercise these rights only if it is fair and reasonable to do so. We accept settlement of fees by certain credit cards.

4.9  In the case of directors you guarantee to pay personally any fees (including disbursements) for all services provided to the company that the company is unable to pay. This clause shall become effective in the event of a receiver or liquidator being appointed to the company or the company otherwise being wound up or dissolved.

4.10  If a client company, trust or other entity is unable or unwilling to settle our fees, we reserve the right to seek payment from the individual (or parent company) giving us instructions on behalf of the client, and we shall be entitled to enforce any sums due against the group company or individual nominated to act for you.

4.11  In the event that we cease to act for you then you agree to meet all reasonable costs of providing information to your new advisers. In particular you agree to meet these costs where we are required by law to provide information to a successor firm.

4.12  If you receive a request to make a change to any of our bank account details for payment, you must not reply to the email but must contact us immediately by some other means of communication.

5  Lien

5.1  Insofar as we are permitted to so by law or by professional guidelines, we reserve the right to exercise a lien over all funds, documents and records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.

6  Help us to give you the best service

6.1  If at any time you would like to discuss with us how our service to you could be improved, or if you are dissatisfied with the service you are receiving, please let us know by contacting either Altan Kemal or Akan Kemal on 020 7582 3000.

6.2  We undertake to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and do all we can to explain the position to you. If we do not answer your complaint to your satisfaction you may of course take up the matter with our professional body, ICAEW. For reserved legal services, you may take up the matter with the Legal Ombudsman.

6.3  In order for us to provide you with a high quality service on an ongoing basis it is essential that you provide us with relevant records and information when requested, reply to correspondence in a timely manner and otherwise follow the terms of the agreement between us set out in this Standard Terms of Business and associated Engagement letters. We therefore reserve the right to cancel the engagement between us with immediate effect in the event of:

• your insolvency, bankruptcy or other arrangement being reached with creditors;
• failure to pay our fees by the due dates;
• either party being in breach of their obligations where this is not corrected within 30 days of being asked to do so.

7  Commissions or other benefits

7.1  In some circumstances, commissions or other benefits may become payable to us in respect of transactions we arrange for you. If this happens we will notify you in writing of the amount and terms of payment and receipt of any such commissions or benefits. The fees that would be otherwise payable by you will not be abated by such amounts. You consent to such commission or other benefits being retained by us, without our being liable to account to you for any such amounts.

8  Client monies

8.1  Fees paid by you in advance for professional work to be performed and clearly identifiable as such shall not be regarded as clients’ monies.

8.2  No clients’ monies are held.

9  Retention of and access to records

9.1  You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your financial affairs. During the course of our work we may collect information from you and others relevant to your tax and financial affairs. We will return any original documents to you at your request and will also advise you if such records are required to be collected. Any costs incurred in the return of documents will be made aware to you before sending. Documents and records relevant to your tax affairs are required by law to be retained as follows:

Individuals, trustees and partnerships:

• with trading or rental income: five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year
• otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year.

Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, and other corporate entities:

• six years from the end of the accounting period.

9.2  While certain documents may legally belong to you, unless you tell us not to, we intend to destroy correspondence and other papers that we store which are more than seven years old, other than documents which we consider to be of continuing significance. If you require retention of any document you must notify us of that fact in writing or make arrangement to collect such records from us.

9.3  Ownership of records is determined by case law. We have summarised below instances where documents, although retained by ourselves, will belong to yourself:

• Where work is of a tax compliance nature, the entire tax file will be deemed to belong to yourself unless we have provided copies of all tax matters to you, e.g., the preparation and submission of accounts, returns, computations and  VAT returns to HM Revenue and Customs, agreement of clients’ tax liabilities, including those following “in depth” investigations.
• Where a report is made on your behalf, to the authorities, for submission to the authorities, in connection with an accounts’ investigation where we will be acting as principals. The report and supporting schedules will belong to yourself.
• Where work is of a tax advisory nature, letters, reports or documents giving the advice belong to yourself.
• Tax files and other papers that are legally the property of yourself will be retained for 7 years or until your specific authority is obtained for their destruction.
• If you cease to be a client and if we still hold any books and papers that are your property, then at the expiry of seven years from your ceasing to be a client, if such books and records are not collected we will, under the terms of this letter of engagement, be at liberty to destroy any such books and papers upon the seventh anniversary of your ceasing to be a client.
• If at any time while you remain a client, we still hold any books and papers that are your property where the last entry therein was made no later than seven years earlier, if such books and records are not collected we will, under the terms of this letter of engagement, be at liberty to destroy any such books and papers upon the seventh anniversary of the last entry therein.

10  Conflicts of interest and independence

10.1  We reserve the right during our engagement with you to deliver services to other clients whose interests might compete with yours or are or may be adverse to yours. We confirm that we will notify you immediately should we become aware of any conflict of interest involving us and affecting you. We have safeguards that can be implemented to protect the interests of different clients if a conflict arises. Where conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests then we regret that we will be unable to provide further services.

10.2  If there is a conflict of interest that is capable of being addressed successfully by the adoption of suitable safeguards to protect your interests, we will adopt those safeguards. In resolving the conflict, we would be guided by ICAEW’s Code of Ethics, which can be viewed at icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance/ethics. During and after our engagement, you agree that we reserve the right to act for other clients whose interests are or may compete with or be adverse to yours, subject, of course, to our obligations of confidentiality and the safeguards set out in the paragraph on confidentiality above.

11  Confidentiality

11.1  Communication between us is confidential and we shall take all reasonable steps to keep your information confidential except where we are required to disclose it by law, by regulatory bodies, by our insurers or as part of an external peer review.

11.2  Unless we are authorised by you to disclose information on your behalf, we confirm that if you give us confidential information we will, at all times during and after this engagement, keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional pronouncements applicable to us or our engagement.

11.3  You agree that, if we act for other clients who are or who become your competitors, to comply with our duty of confidentiality it will be sufficient for us to take such steps as we think appropriate to preserve the confidentiality of information given to us by you, both during and after this engagement. These may include taking the same or similar steps as we take in respect of the confidentiality of our own information.

11.4  In addition, if we act for other clients whose interests are or may be adverse to yours, we will manage the conflict by implementing additional safeguards to preserve confidentiality. Safeguards may include measures such as separate teams, physical separation of teams, and separate arrangements for storage of, and access to, information.

11.5  You agree that the effective implementation of such steps or safeguards as described above will provide adequate measures to avoid any real risk of confidentiality being impaired.

11.6  We may, on occasions, subcontract work on your affairs to other tax or accounting professionals. The subcontractors will be bound by our client confidentiality terms.

11.7   We will inform you of the proposed use of a subcontractor before they commence work, except where your data will not be transferred out of our systems and the subcontractor is bound by confidentiality terms equivalent to an employee.

11.8  In the use of external or cloud based systems, in as much as is in our control, we will ensure confidentiality of your information is maintained.

11.9  This applies in addition to our obligations on data protection in section 17.

12  Quality control

12.1  As part of our ongoing commitment to providing a quality service, our files are periodically reviewed by an independent regulatory or quality control body. Our reviewers are highly experienced and professional people and are, of course, bound by the same requirements of confidentiality as our principals and staff.

12.2  When dealing with HMRC on your behalf we are required to be honest and to take reasonable care to ensure that your returns are correct. To enable us to do this, you are required to be honest with us and to provide us with all necessary information in a timely manner. For more information about ‘Your Charter’ for your dealings with HMRC, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-charter/the-hmrc-charter. To the best of our abilities, we will ensure that HMRC meet their side of the Charter in their dealings with you.

13  Applicable law

13.1  Our engagement letter and our standard terms and conditions of business are governed by, and construed in accordance with, English law. The Courts of England will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning this engagement letter and any matter arising from it. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.

13.2  If any provision in these terms of business or any associated engagement letter, or its application, are found to be invalid, illegal or otherwise unenforceable in any respect, the validity, legality or enforceability of any other provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired.

14  Changes in the Law

14.1  We will not accept responsibility if you act on advice previously given by us without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid in the light of any change in the law or your circumstances.

14.2  We will accept no liability for losses arising from changes in the law or the interpretation thereof that occur after the date on which the advice is given.

15  Electronic and other communication

15.1  Unless you instruct us otherwise, we may, if appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties by email or other electronic means. The recipient is responsible for virus checking emails and any attachments.

15.2  With electronic communication, there is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties. We use virus-scanning software to reduce the risk of viruses and similar damaging items being transmitted in emails or by electronic storage devices. Nevertheless, electronic communication is not totally secure and we cannot be held responsible for damage or loss caused by viruses or for communications which are corrupted or altered after despatch. Nor can we accept any liability for problems or accidental errors relating to this means of communication, especially in relation to commercially sensitive material. It may therefore be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it. These are risks you must bear in return for greater efficiency and lower costs. If you do not wish to accept these risks, please let us know and we will endeavour communicate by paper mail, other than when electronic submission is mandatory.

15.3  Any communication by us with you sent through the postal system is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day the document was sent.

16  Provision of cloud-based services

16.1  Where the firm provides accounting software in the Cloud, this will be provided by a third party (the ‘Cloud Supplier’). The third party has signed a confidentiality agreement with the firm to ensure compliance with the relevant clauses in the firm’s standard terms of business i.e. our fees (2), Confidentiality (8), Internet Communication (12), Data Protection Act (13) and General Limitation of Liability(16).

16.2  The service provided by the Cloud Supplier will be a discrete web based hosted facility, and you agree that access will also be provided to the firm and the third party.

16.3  The firm cannot be held liable for any interruption of service provided by the Cloud Supplier. However, we will liaise with them to help ensure that normal service is resumed as soon as possible.

16.4  Once you upload any documentation/records to any Cloud Suppliers we use, the documents become our property. We will then delete those documents/records once we have completed the relevant related services or at such time that the company is dissolved or we no longer act for you. As such you will also store your own records elsewhere as we cannot be held responsible for holding your records for the appropriate amount of time under HMRC guidelines and any other applicable regulatory bodies.

16.5  You undertake to use the Cloud Suppliers for acceptable use, which includes:

• ensuring appropriate security measures are in place to prevent or detect any viruses, Trojans, keyloggers, malware or other malicious code;
• not to transmit any unlawful information or content;
• not to allow access to the service to any third party; and
• not to use the software to provide services to other parties.

16.6  If one of your staff who has access to the Cloud Suppliers leaves or is no longer authorised to access the Cloud Suppliers, you are responsible for asking the firm to remove their user ID and password if you do not have the administrative rights to do so. You must give us sufficient notice to be able to make the change on your behalf if you are not able to do this directly.

16.7  The firm reserves the right to modify these terms and conditions under which the portal is offered, and will provide you with due notice before implementation.

17  Data Protection

17.1  To enable us to discharge the services agreed under our engagement, and for other related purposes including updating and enhancing client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, crime prevention and legal and regulatory compliance, we may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data about you/your business/company/partnership/its officers and employees and shareholders. We confirm when processing data on your behalf that we will comply with the relevant provisions of applicable data protection legislation. You will also ensure that any disclosure of personal data to us complies with such legislation. If you supply us with any personal data or confidential information you shall ensure you have full informed consent to pass it to us and will fully indemnify and hold us harmless if you do not have such consent and that causes us loss. If you are supplying us with personal data on the basis of a power of attorney for anyone you must produce to us an original or certified copy of the power of attorney on demand.

17.2  Applicable data protection legislation places express obligations on you as a data controller where we as a data processor undertake the processing of personal data on your behalf. An example would be where we operate a payroll service for you. We therefore confirm that we will at all times use our reasonable endeavours to comply with the requirements of applicable data protection legislation when processing data on your behalf. In particular we confirm that we have adequate security measures in place and that we will aim to comply with any obligations equivalent to those placed on you as a data controller. You will also comply with applicable data protection legislation, including but not restricted to, ensuring that you have all appropriate consents and notices or another legal basis in place to enable the lawful transfer of personal data to us. You will fully indemnify and hold us harmless if you do not have a lawful basis and that causes us loss

17.3  We will notify you within 10 working days if an individual asks for copies of their personal data, makes a complaint about the processing of personal data or serves a notice from a relevant data protection authority. You and we will consult and cooperate with each other when responding to any such request, complaint or notice. If an individual whose data you have supplied to us or which we are processing on your behalf asks us to remove or cease processing that data we shall be entitled to do so where required to by law.

17.4  We may export personal data you supply to us outside the EU/EEA/UK for the purposes of storage and data processing. We will ensure all such data export is compliant with relevant data protection legislation. You consent to such data export. Where cloud based services are to be used you may be subject to our cloud services terms and conditions.

17.5  We will answer your reasonable enquiries to enable you to monitor compliance with this clause.

17.6  Our privacy policy, which can be found on our website, here, explains how we process personal data in respect of the various services that we provide.

17.7  In this clause [17], the following definitions shall apply:

‘client personal data’ means any personal data provided to us by you, or on your behalf, for the purpose of providing our services to you, pursuant to our engagement letter with you;

‘data protection legislation’ means all applicable privacy and data protection legislation and regulations including PECR, the UK GDPR and any other applicable national laws, regulations and secondary legislation in the UK relating to the processing of personal data and the privacy of electronic communications, as amended, replaced or updated from time to time;

‘controller’, ‘data subject’, ‘personal data’, and ‘process’ shall have the meanings given to them in the data protection legislation;

‘UK GDPR’ means the Data Protection Act 2018 as amended by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020; and

‘PECR’ means the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (SI 2426/2003) as amended by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.

Data Controller

17.8  We shall each be considered an independent data controller in relation to the client personal data. Each of us will comply with all requirements and obligations applicable to us under the data protection legislation in respect of the client personal data.

17.9  You shall only disclose client personal data to us where:

• you have provided the necessary information to the relevant data subjects regarding its use (and you may use or refer to our privacy policy for this purpose); and
• you have a lawful basis upon which to do so, which, in the absence of any other lawful basis, shall be with the relevant data subject’s consent; and
• you have complied with the necessary requirements under the data protection legislation to enable you to do so.

17.10  Should you require any further details regarding our treatment of personal data, please contact our data protection manager Mr Altan Kemal.

17.11  We shall only process the client personal data:

• in order to provide our services to you and perform any other obligations in accordance with our engagement with you; and
• in order to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations; and
• where it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests and those interests are not overridden by the data subjects’ own privacy rights. Our privacy policy contains further details as to how we may process client personal data.

17.12  We shall maintain commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures, including administrative, physical and technical safeguards, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing of the client personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, the client personal data.

17.13  In respect of the client personal data, provided that we are legally permitted to do so, we shall promptly notify you in the event that:

• we receive a request, complaint or any adverse correspondence from or on behalf of a relevant data subject, to exercise their data subject rights under the data protection legislation or in respect of our processing of their personal data;
• we are served with an information, enforcement or assessment notice (or any similar notices), or receive any other material communication in respect of our processing of the client personal data from a supervisory authority as defined in the data protection legislation (for example in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Officer); or
• we reasonably believe that there has been any incident which resulted in the accidental or unauthorised access to, or destruction, loss, unauthorised disclosure or alteration of, the client personal data.

17.14  Upon the reasonable request of the other, we shall each co-operate with the other and take such reasonable commercial steps or provide such information as is necessary to enable each of us to comply with the data protection legislation in respect of the services provided to you in accordance with our engagement letter with you in relation to those services.

18  Limitation of Third Party Rights

18.1  The advice and information we provide to you as part of our service is for your sole use, and not for any third party to whom you may communicate it, unless we have expressly agreed in the engagement letter that a specified third party may rely on our work. We accept no responsibility to third parties, including any group company to whom the engagement letter is not addressed, for any advice, information or material produced as part of our work for you which you make available to them. A party to this agreement is the only person who has the right to enforce any of its terms, and no rights or benefits are conferred on any third party under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

19  The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2017

19.1  In common with all accountancy and legal practices, the firm is required by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer for Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLR 2017) to:

• Maintain identification procedures for clients, beneficial owners of clients, and persons purporting to act on behalf of clients;
• Maintain records of identification evidence and the work undertaken for the client; and
• Report, in accordance with the relevant legislation and regulations.

We have a statutory obligation under the above legislation to report to the National Crime Agency (NCA) any reasonable knowledge or suspicion of money laundering. Any such report must be made in the strictest confidence. In fulfilment of our legal obligations, neither the firm’s principals nor staff may enter into any correspondence or discussions with you regarding such matters.

19.2  The offence of money laundering includes concealing, converting, using or possessing the benefits of any activity that constitutes a criminal offence in the UK. It also includes involvement in any arrangement that facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of such a benefit.

19.3  This definition is very wide and would include such crimes as deliberate tax evasion, deliberate failure to inform the tax authorities of known underpayments or excessive repayments, fraudulent claiming of benefits or grants, or obtaining a contract through bribery. Clearly these examples are by no means exhaustive.

19.4  If we are not able to obtain satisfactory evidence of your identity and where applicable that of the beneficial owners, we will not be able to proceed with the engagement.

19.5  We may use electronic checks as part of our identification procedures. We confirm that these electronic checks are not specifically credit checks.

19.6  If you undertake business that requires you to be supervised by an appropriate supervisory authority to follow anti-money laundering regulations, including if you accept or make high value cash payments of €10,000 or more (or equivalent in any currency) in exchange for goods, you should inform us.

19.7  Any personal data received from you to comply with our obligations under the MLR 2017 will be processed only for the purposes of preventing money laundering or terrorist financing.  No other use will be made of this personal data unless use of the data is permitted by or under enactment other than the MLR 2017, or we have obtained the consent of the data subject to the proposed use of the data.

20  General limitation of liability

20.1  We will provide services as outlined in this letter with reasonable care and skill. However, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be responsible for any losses, penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities where you or others supply incorrect or incomplete information, or fail to supply any appropriate information or where you fail to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from us or the tax authorities. Further, we will not be liable to you for any delay or failure to perform our obligations if the delay or failure is caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control. Subject to clause 20.5 below, our liability to you shall be limited as set out in our engagement or other client letter.

20.2  You will not hold us, the owners of this firm and any staff employed by the firm, responsible, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any loss suffered by you arising from any misrepresentation (intentional or unintentional) supplied to us orally or in writing in connection with this agreement. This applies equally to fraudulent acts, misrepresentation or wilful default on the part of any party to the transaction and their directors, officers, employees, agents or advisers. However, this exclusion shall not apply where such misrepresentation, withholding or concealment is or should (in carrying out the procedures which we have agreed to perform with reasonable care and skill) have been evident to us without further enquiry.

20.3  You have agreed that you will not bring any claim in connection with services we provide to you against any of the principals or employees personally.

20.4  Our work is not, unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement, to be made available to third parties without our written permission and we will accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them. You agree to indemnify us and our agents in respect of any claim (including any claim for negligence) arising out of any unauthorised disclosure by you or by any person for whom you are responsible of our advice and opinions, whether in writing or otherwise. This indemnity will extend to the cost of defending any such claim, including payment at our usual rates for the time that we spend in defending it and our legal fees on an indemnity basis.

20.5  Nothing in this agreement shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence nor for fraudulent misrepresentation or other fraud which may not as a matter of applicable law be excluded or limited.

21  Timing of our services

21.1  If you provide us with all information and explanations on a timely basis in accordance with our requirements, we will plan to undertake the work within a reasonable period of time to meet any regulatory deadlines. However, failure to complete our services before any such regulatory deadline would not, of itself, mean that we are liable for any penalty or additional costs arising.

22  Intellectual property rights and use of our name

22.1  We will retain all intellectual property rights in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement except where the law specifically states otherwise. You may only use such rights to the extent we agreed when engaged to provide services to you and may not resell or sublicense such rights without our further prior consent.

22.2  You are not permitted to use our name in any statement or document that you may issue unless our prior written consent has been obtained. The only exception to this restriction would be statements or documents that, in accordance with applicable law, are to be made public.

23  Draft/interim work

23.1  In the course of our providing services to you we may provide advice or reports or other work products in draft or interim form, or orally. However final written work products will always prevail over any draft or interim or oral statements. Where you request it, we will provide up with written confirmation of matters stated orally.

24  Advice

24.1  Advice we give you orally should not be relied upon unless we confirm it in writing. We endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. However, if you particularly wish to rely upon oral advice we give you during a telephone conversation or a meeting, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed in writing.

24.2  Unless specifically instructed and agreed in advance we will not assist with the implementation of our advice.

25  Interpretation

25.1  If any provision of our engagement letter or terms of business is held to be void, that provision will be deemed not to form part of this contract. In the event of any conflict between these terms of business and the engagement letter or appendices, the relevant provision in the engagement letter or schedules will take precedence.

26  Internal disputes within a client

26.1  If we become aware of a dispute between the parties who own the business or who are in some way involved in its ownership and management, it should be noted that our client is the business and we would not provide information or services to one party without the express knowledge and permission of all parties. Unless otherwise agreed by all parties, we will continue to supply information to the normal place of business for the attention of the directors/proprietors. If conflicting advice, information or instructions are received from different director/principals in the business, we will refer the matter back to the board of directors/partnership and take no further action until the board/ partnership has agreed the action to be taken. In certain cases we reserve the right to cease acting for the business/client entirely.

27  Investment services

27.1  We are regulated for a range of Investment Business Activities by ICAEW. If, during the provision of professional services to you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, as we are not. However, as we are licensed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, we may be able to provide certain investment services where these are complementary to or arise out of the professional services we are providing to you. 

Client money

27.2  Please note that we are not authorised to hold client money in connection with our designated investment business.

27.3  If you have any questions regarding investment business or require any further information please contact us.

28  Probate services

28.1  In the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to seek a grant from ICAEW’s Compensation Scheme. Generally, applications for a grant must be made to ICAEW within 12 months of the time you become aware, or reasonably ought to have been aware of the loss. Further information about the scheme and the circumstances in which grants may be made is available on ICAEW’s website: www.icaew.com/probate .

28.2  If you would like to talk to us about how we can improve our service to you, or if you are unhappy with the service you are receiving, please let us know by contacting either Altan Kemal or Akan Kemal on 020 7582 3000 We will consider carefully any complaint that you may make about our probate services as soon as we receive it and will do all we can to resolve the issue. We will acknowledge your complaint within five business days of its receipt and endeavour to deal with it within 8 weeks. Any complaint should be submitted to us by letter.

28.3  If we do not deal with it within this timescale or you are unhappy with our response we give you, you may of course take the matter up with our professional body the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Legal Ombudsman. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman should be made within six years of the act or omission or within three years of you becoming aware of the issue, and in either case within six months of our written response to your complaint to us. The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are:

Letter: The Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ,

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Telephone: 0300 555 0333.

29  Period of engagement and termination

29.1  Unless otherwise agreed in our engagement letter, our work will begin when we receive implicit or explicit acceptance of that letter. Except as stated in that letter, we will not be responsible for periods before that date.

29.2  We may terminate our agreement by giving not less than 21 days’ notice in writing to the other party except if you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us [or HMRC] with misleading information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. Termination will be without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued to either of us before termination.

29.3  We reserve the right to terminate the engagement between us with immediate effect in the event of: your insolvency, bankruptcy or other arrangement being reached with creditors; an independence issue or change in the law which means we can no longer act; failure to pay our fees by the due dates; or either party being in breach of their obligations if this is not corrected within 30 days of being asked to do so.

29.4  In the event of termination of our contract, we will endeavour to agree with you the arrangements for the completion of work in progress at that time, unless we are required for legal or regulatory reasons to cease work immediately. In that event, we will not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.

30  Disengagement

30.1  This agreement may be terminated for any other reason if 60 days’ notice is given by either party.

30.2  Should we resign or be requested to resign a disengagement letter will be issued to ensure that our respective responsibilities are clear.

30.3  Should we have no contact with you for a period of 18 months or more we may issue a disengagement letter and hence cease to act for you.