Terms and Conditions

This engagement letter, the schedule of services and our standard terms and conditions of business are governed by, and should be construed in accordance with the laws of the UK and Northern Ireland.

As with other professional services firms, we are required to identify our clients for the purposes of the UK anti-money laundering legislation. We may request from you, and retain, such information and documentation as we require for these purposes and/or make searches of appropriate databases.

We are committed to providing you with a high quality service that is both efficient and effective. However, should there be any cause for complaint in relation to any aspect of our service please contact Colin. We agree to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and do everything reasonable to put it right.

Communication between us is confidential, and we shall take all reasonable steps to keep confidential your information, except where we are required to disclose it by law, by regulatory bodies, by our insurers, or as part of an external peer review. Unless we are authorised by you to disclose information on your behalf, this undertaking will apply during and after this engagement.

We reserve the right, for the purpose of promotional activity, training, or for other business purpose, to mention that you are a client. As stated above we will not disclose any confidential information.

We will inform you if we become aware of any conflict of interest in our relationship with you or in our relationship with you and another client. If there is a conflict of interest that is capable of being addressed successfully, by the adoption of suitable safeguards to protect your interests, then we will adopt those safeguards. Where possible this will be done on the basis of your informed consent.

We confirm that we will comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 when processing personal data about you and your family. In order to carry out the services of this engagement and for related purposes such as updating and enhancing our client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, legal and regulatory compliance and crime prevention we may obtain, process, use and disclose personal data about you.

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

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 through emails, or electronic storage devices. However electronic communication is not totally secure, and we cannot be held responsible for damage or loss caused by viruses, nor 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. 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 communicate by paper mail, other than where electronic submission is mandatory.

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

We operate on a fixed fee basis, for the provision of specific services, or an indicative range of fees for a particular assignment. 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 and to seek your agreement thereto. Fees are payable prior monthly in advance by direct debit.

We will only assist with implementation of our advice if specifically instructed and agreed in writing.

We will retain all copyright in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement, except where the law specifically provides otherwise.

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.

If we become aware of a dispute between the parties who own or are in some way involved in the ownership and management of the business, 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 registered office/normal place of business for the attention of the directors/proprietors. If conflicting advice, information or instructions are received from different directors/principals in the business, we will refer the matter back to the board of directors/the partnership, and take no further action until the board/partnership has agreed the action to be taken.

Insofar as we are permitted to do so by law, or 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.

We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill. Our liability to you is limited to losses, damages, costs and expenses caused by our negligence or wilful default.

We will not be liable if such losses, penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities are due to the acts or omissions of any other person, or due to the provision to us of incomplete, misleading or false information, or if they are due to a failure to act on our advice, or a failure to provide us with relevant information.

We will not be liable to you for any delay or failure to perform our obligations under this engagement letter, if the delay or failure is caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control.

We will not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage, or expense incurred, or sustained if information material to the service we are providing, is withheld or concealed from us, or misrepresented to us. 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.

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.

You agree to indemnify us, 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.

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 under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of its terms.

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

Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 21 days notice in writing to the other party, except where 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 prior to termination.

In the event of termination of this 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 shall not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.

We will observe and act in accordance with the bye-laws, regulations and ethical guidelines of the Association of Certified Public Accountants, and will accept instructions to act for you on this basis. In particular you give us the authority to correct errors made by HMRC where we become aware of them. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations.

We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given orally is not intended to be relied upon, unless confirmed in writing. Therefore, if we provide oral advice (for example during the course of a meeting or a telephone conversation) and you wish to be able to rely on that advice, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed by us in writing.

You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your tax affairs. During the course of our work we may collect information from you and others relevant to your tax affairs. We will return any original documents to you. Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you, we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store, electronically or otherwise, which are more than 7 years old. You must tell us if you require the return or retention of any specific documents for a longer period.