Terms of Business
- These Terms of Business set out the conditions upon which we will provide legal services to you. If we act for you, we do so subject to these terms of business, whether, not, you sign them. We suggest that you keep a copy for your records.
Regulatory Information
- BRM Legal is a trading name of BRM Legal Limited (Company Reg. No. 06962971) which is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA Number 560900. We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (www.sra.org.uk) (“the SRA”). The SRA supervises the conduct of our services and monitors compliance with our duties to you as our client. The person at BRM Legal with overall responsibility for our services is Nisar Khan, who is a solicitor and Director of the Company.
- As well as complying with the SRA Code of Conduct we are members of the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) Client Charter, which promotes best practice in residential conveyancing.
Our Details
Firm Name: BRM Legal
Postal Address: 103 Colmore Row, Birmingham, B3 3AG
Company Reg. No. 06962971
Telephone: 0121 368 2885
SRA Practice Number: 560900
CQS Membership Number: 06791
Supervising Solicitor: Nisar Khan (SRA ID: 347777)
Compliance Officer for Legal Practice: Nisar Khan (SRA ID: 347777)
Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration: Nisar Khan (SRA ID: 347777)
Information that we need from you – Identification for Anti – Money Laundering and Other Purposes
- Solicitors must establish the identity of their client at the outset of a matter to avoid problems (such as conflicts of interest) in the future. We are also required to adhere to strict rules that are intended to prevent Solicitors from being involved in money laundering. To comply with these rules, we must obtain documentary proof of our client’s identity. Please therefore when required supply us sufficient information to verify your identity which should include, your passport, driving licence, utility bill and if you are a trading company Certificate of Incorporation and a copy of your latest set of published accounts. We will also need your national insurance number in most cases.
- We will need to take a copy of your passport and photo card driving licence to satisfy the requirements of identity verification. Where you do not have a passport or photo card driving licence, we are willing to accept 2 original utility bills in lieu of this. In some cases, other forms of identity can be provided to satisfy the regulations concerning verification of your identity.
Use of Third-Party Digital Systems for ID Verification and Case Management
- We do use third party digital systems for ID verification and case management which work through digital platforms to verify your identity and to support us in the work that we do for you.
- These digital platforms are trusted third parties who we work with. If such a third-party platform is used, you will be notified of their involvement in the matter by us.
- As we are a digitally advanced organisation and work in a paperless environment, we reserve the right to terminate our retainer with you at any time, if you are unable or unwilling to participate in and use the digital systems from which we operate. This applies in all instances, whether it be for ID verification, digital signatures or general case management.
Source of Funds
- Our regulator directs that we must assess the source of the funds being used by you in transactions that you conduct with us, such as to purchase property and we must obtain the relevant documentary evidence, wherever necessary to prove the source of funds.
- As a firm we work with third-party providers that we trust. We have partnered with them to make sure we keep you and your money safe, whilst also getting the information we need, as required by our regulator. The use of a digital platform is the safe and secure way of sending your financial information to us. This keeps your money and data safe whilst allowing us to obtain the necessary information we need about your funds. This is by far the quickest way for you to complete this process. This will save you considerable time and effort, as you won’t have to send us bank statements manually through the post.
Service Standards and Responsibilities
- Our responsibility to you is to conduct the work we do for you in a professional and competent way. We will:
- represent your interests and keep your business confidential.
- explain to you the legal work which may be required and the prospects of a successful outcome.
- keep you regularly informed of progress or, if there is none, when you are next likely to hear from us.
- try to avoid using technical legal language when writing to you – please do not hesitate to let us know if we fail in this aim.
- deal with your enquiries promptly – we may not be able to return your telephone calls or emails on the same day but will do so as soon as we can.
- Provide clear cost information
Your Responsibility to us is to ensure that:
- Treat us with dignity and respect
- You give us all the information we need as quickly as you can when we ask for it.
- To let us know of any information that comes to your knowledge that is in any way relevant to the work we are doing for you as soon as you receive it.
- You put us in funds in respect of any payments (disbursements) we need to make on your behalf in good time to ensure there is no delay in us being able to make such payments.
- To pay all bills promptly upon receipt to ensure that we can continue working for you without interruption and so that you do not incur interest charges.
- Ensure you attend punctually for all appointments – if you are late, we may not be able to spend as long with you as we need to if we have another commitment scheduled after your appointment.
- If you are unable to attend an appointment, or you know you are going to be late, you contact us in advance, giving us at least 24 hours’ notice if possible
- Look after documents we send you – if we must provide you with duplicates, we reserve the right to make a charge for so doing.
How we Calculate Our Charges and Fee’s
Our fees and charges will be advised to you as an initial fee quote at the start of your matter. This will generally be an estimate of the fees and expenses (disbursements) that you will need to pay, for us to work on your behalf. You must understand that at the outset of your matter we can only reasonably provide an estimate of the fees and expenses that will be incurred. We will, however, always treat you fairly when it comes to our fees and will only charge for work completed for you.
Our standard hourly fee rates are set out below:
For all matters our fees will be calculated based on time spent by members of our staff, these are set out below:
High Value or Complex Casework:
| Grade A | Solicitors with more than 8 years’ experience | £375 per hour |
| Grade B | Solicitors and Legal Executives with more than 4 years’ experience | £300 per hour |
| Grade C | Other Solicitors and Legal Executives and Fee Earners of equivalent experience | £225 per hour |
| Grade D | All other Fee Earners, including Trainees and Paralegals | £175 per hour |
Routine Casework:
| Grade A | Solicitors with more than 8 years’ experience | £275 per hour |
| Grade B | Solicitors and Legal Executives with more than 4 years’ experience | £225 per hour |
| Grade C | Other Solicitors and Legal Executives and Fee Earners of equivalent experience | £175 per hour |
| Grade D | All other Fee Earners, including Trainees and Paralegals | £150 per hour |
- Hourly rate charges will be made for all time spent on your matter, including telephone calls with you, meetings with you and with others, any time spent travelling, considering, preparing and working on papers and correspondence and file notes. This will include letters and email, sent and received on your matter.
- In all matters where we act for you, we will charge for work done on your matter, unless we set out in writing otherwise.
General Fee’s for Residential Conveyancing, an uncontested probate, motoring offence or Immigration matter
- You should note that if we are acting for you in a residential conveyancing matter, an uncontested probate, motoring offence or immigration matter you can expect that our charges will be in the region of £2500 plus VAT for us to act on the matter. For conveyancing matters our published fee schedule is set out below.
Fee Schedule for Conveyancing Matters
Property Price Band Our Legal fees
£80,000 £699 plus VAT
£80,001 – £100,000 £749 plus VAT
£100,001 – £125,000 £799 plus VAT
£125,001 – £150,000 £849 plus VAT
£150,001 – £175,000 £899 plus VAT
£175,001 – £200,000 £949 plus VAT
£200,001 – £225,000 £999 plus VAT
£225,001 – £250,000 £1049 plus VAT
£250,001 – £300,000 £1129 plus VAT
£300,001 – £350,000 £1199 plus VAT
£350,001 – £400,000 £1,299 plus VAT
£400,001 – £425,000 £1,349 plus VAT
£425,001 – £450,000 £1,399 plus VAT
£450,001 – £500,000 £1,499 plus VAT
£500,001 – £600,000 £1,549 plus VAT
£600,001 – £700,000 £1,599 plus VAT
£700,001 – £800,000 £1,699 plus VAT
£800,001 – £900,000 £1,749 plus VAT
£900,001 – £1,000,000 £1,799 plus VAT
£1,000,001 – £1,100,000 £1,849 plus VAT
£1,100,001 and above + £50 for every £100k
- These charges may increase depending on the nature and complexity of your matter in line with our hourly rates mentioned above. You should note that this typically happens should your matter become protracted or complex, or you require us to spend additional time attending on you during the matter.
- So that you are fully informed of any additional charges that might apply for conveyancing work we also set out below a list of typical charges that apply in a conveyancing matter.
Typical Additional Extras that apply in a Conveyancing Matter
- We have provided an estimate of our conveyancing fees and the anticipated disbursements associated with your proposed transaction. Should additional services become necessary to fulfil your instructions the following is our price list of additional conveyancing services. All fees include VAT at the prevailing rate.
| Service Description | Fee (inc. VAT) |
| Acting in a matter where there is a Company involved | £384.00 |
| Additional Titles (per title) | £180.00 |
| Alteration of Register | £180.00 |
| Appointing an Additional Trustee | £120.00 |
| Arranging Indemnity Insurance | £90.00 |
| Auction Matter or Involvement | £360.00 |
| Building Safety Act | £1800.00 |
| Contract Race | £360.00 |
| Deed of Grant | £360.00 |
| Deed of Variation | £600.00 |
| Electronic Money Transfer | £48.00 |
| Help to Buy (ISA/Equity Loan) | £420.00 |
| Houses in Multiple Occupation | £1800.00 |
| Housing Association | £240.00 |
| ID & Document Verification | £30.00 |
| Key Undertaking | £240.00 |
| Lease Extension Work | £720.00 |
| Legal Aid Charge Redemption | £360.00 |
| Licence to Assign | £360.00 |
| Management Company / Enquiries | £360.00 |
| Merger of Titles | £360.00 |
| Power of Attorney / Court Order | £360.00 |
| Private Mortgage | £420.00 |
| Reconstitution of Title | £420.00 |
| Redemption of Second Charges (per charge) | £180.00 |
| Restriction (dealing with removal or registering) | £210.00 |
| Retention Administration | £210.00 |
| Separated Co-owner Correspondence | £240.00 |
| Shared Ownership | £600.00 |
| Simultaneous Exchange & Completion | £210.00 |
| Solar Panels | £300.00 |
| SDLT Staircasing Fee | £120.00 |
| Statutory Declaration / Statement of Truth | £240.00 |
| Stock Transfer | £120.00 |
| Third Party Lawyer (where appointed) | £300.00 |
| Transfer of Part | £600.00 |
| Undertakings (where given) | £120.00 |
| Unregistered Title | £420.00 |
| Upgrading Title | £120.00 |
| Voluntary Registration | £300.00 |
| Verification of Bank Details | £18.00 |
| Buy to Let (where property is let, or to be let) | £360.00 |
| Declaration of Trust | £240.00 |
| Deed of Covenant | £240.00 |
| Freehold Reversion Transfer | £300.00 |
| Handling Share of Freehold | £240.00 |
| Lifetime ISA | £90.00 |
| Lifetime Mortgage / Equity Release | £900.00 |
| New Build Fee | £900.00 |
| Occupier Waiver | £120.00 |
| Pre-auction Title Check | £600.00 |
| Right to Buy Fee | £480.00 |
| Second Legal Charge | £360.00 |
| Separate Representation | £600.00 |
| Shared Equity | £360.00 |
| Sharia Mortgage | £1800.00 |
| Specialised Lending Fee | £240.00 |
| Staircasing Fee | £480.00 |
| Third Party Gift | £240.00 |
Services that fall Outside the above List
- Whilst we have provided a list of additional services below, from time to time, additional services may be required which fall outside the list set out below.
- In such cases we will assess the scope and complexity of the matter and agree the additional fees that apply in that instance with you.
Charges for Making a Bank Transfer
- Where we act for you in a conveyancing matter you should note that some additional costs normally apply in addition to our normal conveyancing charges. Typically, these costs are £36 (Inc. VAT) for us to arrange a bank transfer of payment on your matter.
- We charge you a professional fee for this service which is based on a reasonable cost to you of us providing the service. This cost includes the actual cost to us from our bank, our fees for processing the payment (including using third party payment processing agents). You should note therefore that in every case you will pay an amount which is greater than the actual cost to us as we also charge for the time taken to work on the transfer payment. We will charge you for each bank transfer that we make for you.
Payment to us for work done whether, or not your Matter Completes
- Unless we agree in writing otherwise, in conveyancing matters we do charge for work done irrespective of whether you are able to sell or purchase your property and irrespective of whether the matter proceeds to completion or is abortive. Where the matter is abortive, we will normally charge a legal fee (plus VAT and disbursements) dependent in all circumstances on how much time we have spent on your matter, or otherwise if we agree to charge a fixed amount to you. In respect of conveyancing matters you should note that we charge for each instruction that you give us.
- You should note that disbursements (expenses which we pay on your behalf) are charged in addition and typically for a residential conveyancing matter, an uncontested probate, motoring offence or immigration matter you should budget about £450 in addition for such disbursements where we act for you.
- You should also note that in some cases HM Land Registry fees, and HM Revenue and Customs stamp duty is payable in addition, and these will depend on the matter. In some cases, HM Revenue and Customs stamp duty can be a few thousand pounds.
Land Registry Property Alert Service
- We would like to draw your attention to the Land Registry Property Alert Service, which is an important, currently free service provided by HM Land Registry to help combat property fraud.
- This service allows property owners to sign up with HM Land Registry to receive email alerts when certain activity occurs on the property that you have registered with the service. It allows you to act if necessary.
- This is an important service as it provides you with notice of dealings with your property via HM Land Registry.
- To use the service for the first time you will need to create a new account.
- Further details of the HM Land Registry Property Alert Service can be found at https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk.
Litigation Matters – Recovery of Costs from an Opponent (some or all our fees and charges may not be recoverable)
- In some cases, you may be able to ask the Court for an Order to recover the costs and expenses that you have incurred in a matter from your opponent and at other times your opponent may agree to pay your costs and expenses.
- Please note that there is no automatic right to recover costs from an opponent and a Court Order for costs recovery is generally made at the discretion of the Court, or otherwise only with agreement of the opponent.
- You should note that Orders for costs and payments for costs from opponents are normally made on an assessed basis, and the basis for assessment that normally applies is the standard basis. This means that you can only recover costs and expenses for some of the work undertaken, and at a rate set by the Court.
- The recoverable rate for costs is linked to the assessment rates of our local County Court, and you should note that this recoverable rate is less than the rate that we charge you. This will mean that you will have to pay us the balance that is due from monies recovered from your opponent and the actual charges we make to you.
- You should note that even if you have agreed to pay us for our work at our higher rates that apply any recovery of costs will be limited to any reduced rate approved by the Court and is more than likely to be limited to the rate of assessment set for our local County Court.
- You should note therefore that the amount that you are responsible to pay us will be more than the amount that you can recover from you opponent due to limits on costs recovery, assessment of the recoverable costs and the limited assessment rates that apply for costs recovery.
- You should also note that there are additional costs and expenses that will be incurred in the recovery process. These are costs and expenses that are incurred by a costs lawyer who will need to prepare a bill of costs and then deal with and represent you in the costs assessment proceedings, known as detailed assessment of costs. There is normally a significant amount of time and expense involved in this process and you should note that this will affect your net recovery of costs because the costs of the detailed assessment will also have to be paid, which again are not entirely recoverable from your opponent.
Interest on client money
- You note that we have an obligation to account to you, where it is fair and reasonable to do so, for interest that we receive on any money that we hold for you. The rules which govern our conduct recognises that this should be considered in the light of the interest we receive and that it is reasonable to consider that this obligation is only engaged where we receive a sum more than £25.00 on the money that we hold for you.
- In the light of the above our policy on interest is that we do not pay interest on money that we hold for you. The reason for this is that we are unlikely to receive more than £25.00 on money that we hold for you.
- By instructing us you accept that this policy applies and that you accept that the terms of our retainer do not oblige us to pay, or account to you, for interest that we may receive on your money.
Referral fees and arrangements
- We may enter formal and informal referral arrangement with certain third parties, organisations or businesses that refer work to us. Where we do enter into such arrangements the fees that you are charged are not affected by any such arrangement that may exist and we will only charge you for the work that we do for you, based on a reasonable fee for that work, this is irrespective of whether the work was referred to us or not, or whether we pay a fee for that referred work or not.
Invoices
- Our invoices are due when raised to you. Payment is accepted in UK pounds sterling only. If you do not settle our invoices in a timely manner, we reserve the right to levy interest on the total sum outstanding at the prevailing base rate of the Bank of England + 8%. Interest at this rate will be levied automatically on any outstanding invoices. We also reserve the right to place a lien over any documents or money we hold for you and to refuse to release the documents or money until such time as our invoice is paid in full.
Termination of our retainer
- You may end your instructions to us in writing at any time. In such event, we will keep hold of funds that may be due to you and all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for our fees and any outstanding disbursements.
Other matters
- These terms of business are governed by English Law, and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction if there is any disagreement or dispute between us over what the terms mean.
- Once we have completed our services, we will return all original documents to you and destroy your file. We may however at our discretion store your files for our records only. If we do decide to store your file and you or another third party require site of the papers then you agree to pay us the reasonable costs for the retrieval of your file, which shall be based on our normal hourly rate at the time of your request.
- We are pleased that you have selected BRM Legal as a provider of legal services. It is our intention to offer you high quality, responsive and cost-effective services. We hope that everything will proceed to your satisfaction. We always welcome comments and feedback from our clients on the services that they have received.
Complaints about our Service
- If you have any concerns or complaints regarding our services, we kindly ask that you first raise the matter with the person handling your case. They will make every effort to resolve the issue promptly and informally.
- Should the matter remain unresolved, you may escalate your complaint to the Director responsible for complaints. Full contact details for the Director will be provided upon request and are also outlined in our formal written complaints’ procedure.
- If escalation is necessary, we will conduct a thorough review of your complaint with the aim of reaching a fair resolution. We endeavour to respond within 8 weeks; however, if there are any delays, we will keep you informed and explain the reasons for the delay.
Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman
- If you remain dissatisfied after our internal complaint’s procedure has been completed, you may refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving our final written response to your complaint.
- Otherwise, a complaint can be referred to the Legal Ombudsman within one year of the date of the act or omission being complained about, or within one year of the date when you first became aware that there was a problem.
- Further information is available at www.legalombudsman.org.uk or you can contact them by phone on 0300 555 0333 or by email at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Complaints about our Charges
- If you wish to complain about any of our bills, please contact us in the first instance. We are obliged to inform you of the statutory procedure for objecting to solicitor’s bills and applying for an assessment of a bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974, which allows you to apply to the Court to have our charges reviewed.
- Further details of our complaint resolution procedures, professional indemnity insurance and the territorial coverage of that insurance together with our VAT number and the professional rules which govern our conduct as solicitors are available by emailing us at info@brmlegal.co.uk
Confidentiality and Data Protection
- Our regulator and other external firms may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice. These external firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files. We use the information you provide to us primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes, including updating our client records; statutory returns; legal and regulatory compliance, and by instructing us you consent to us disclosing the information you provide to us, to our regulators and any third parties that require us to disclose such information for lawful purposes.
- Our use of any information you provide to us 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 expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.
Express Consent to Process and Retain Your Personal Data – Global Service Centre Network
- By instructing us you agree to provide express consent for us to use, process and retain your personal data. You appreciate that as a global business we have a network of global service centres that have access to and share your personal data. Some of these global services centres are located outside the EU and United Kingdom and you understand that you are providing us express consent for us to use, process and retain your personal data across the whole of our global network.
- We may from time to time send you information which we think may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information, please notify us in writing by email to info@brmlegal.co.uk
Agreement to Terms of Business
- By proceeding with this matter, you agree to our terms of business and provide express consent for the use, processing and retention of my/our personal data across your network of global service centres.
Signature
- I agree to your terms of business.
- I provide express consent for the use, processing and retention of my personal data across your network of global service centres.
- I agree to our file being disclosed to your regulator and or service partners for quality monitoring and legal compliance purposes, and other lawful purposes.
- I agree to you contacting us to provide details of legal and professional updates and the services that you offer.