Terms of Engagement and Information for Clients

1. Our Service to you

We will:

• Act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with instructions received and arrangements made.
• Protect and promote your interests and act for you free of comprising influences or loyalties.
• Discuss with you your objectives and how they should best be achieved.
• Provide you with information about the work to be done, who will do it and the way the services will be provided.
• Charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable and let you know how and when you will be billed.
• Give you clear information and advice.
• Protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality.
• Treat you fairly, respectfully and without discrimination.
• Keep you informed about the work being done and advise you when it is completed.
• Let you know how to make a complaint and deal with any complaint promptly and fairly.

Those obligations are subject to other overriding duties, including duties to the courts and to the justice system. If you have any questions, please visit www.lawyers.org.nz.

2. Professional Indemnity Insurance

We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds the minimum standards specified by the Law Society. We will provide you with particulars of the minimum standards upon request.

3. Lawyers Fidelity Fund

The Law Society maintains the Lawyers Fidelity Fund for the purposes of providing clients of lawyers with protection against pecuniary loss arising from theft by lawyers. The maximum amount payable by the Fidelity Fund by way of compensation to an individual claimant is limited to $100,000.00. Except in certain circumstances specified in the Lawyers & Conveyancers Act 2006 the Fidelity Fund does not cover a client for any loss relating to money that a lawyer is instructed to invest on behalf of the client.

4. Our Fees

4.1
The fees we will charge you are calculated on the amount of time spent attending to your instructions by our staff and the other factors set out in paragraph 4.3, plus expenses incurred on your behalf in the course of that work. The rates at which principal and staff time is charged is available on request.

4.2
The fees we charge you will be fair and reasonable for the services provided.

4.3
In addition to a charge for the time spent, we are also entitled, in appropriate circumstances to charge additional fees based on a number of factors including:

• The skill, specialised knowledge and responsibility required to perform the services properly.
• The importance of the matter to you and the results achieved
• The urgency and circumstances in which the matter is undertaken and any time limitations imposed, including those imposed by you.
• The degree of risk assumed by us in undertaking the services including the amount or value of the property involved.
• The complexity of the matter and the difficulty or novelty of the questions involved.

4.4
We may deduct from any funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.

4.5
We may ask you to pay fees and/or expenses in advance, but in those instances your payment will be held in our trust account and only paid to us by deduction when an invoice is issued.

4.6
Interest will accrue on unpaid accounts at the rate of 1.5% per month as from the due date until payment. Other action to recover unpaid fees may also be taken and the cost of such recovery will be added to the account due by you.

4.7
Unless otherwise stated all fees and disbursements are plus GST.

4.8
If we provide you with a fee estimate for property transactions we will only charge a higher fee if the transaction has involved more time and attendances than would reasonably be anticipated. For most other legal work it is rarely possible to give fixed quotes.

4.9
We do not undertake work paid for by legal aid. If you are eligible for legal aid we can assist you to find a lawyer who is prepared to work on that basis.

5. Files and Documents

When your instructions have been completed we shall keep your file for a period of seven years from completion and then destroy it. You may uplift your file and documents provided that all fees and expenses have been paid. We may wish to photocopy your file before releasing the original to you. If so the photocopy charges will be payable by you.

6. Rights to Terminate your Retainer

You are entitled to terminate your instructions to us upon giving us reasonable notice. We may terminate your retainer if there is good cause, such as you not providing us with instructions in a sufficiently timely way, your inability or failure to pay our fee or expenses on the agreed basis, your adopting against our advice a course of action which we believe is imprudent, or if we find we are in a position of conflict of interest, or being asked to act in a manner that may be inconsistent with our fundamental obligations as lawyers. If we terminate the retainer we shall give you reasonable assistance if you require it to find another lawyer. Our fees for services reasonably and properly provided to you prior to the termination of retainer shall be paid by you prior to uplifting your records and we may retain copies of your documents and records.

7. If you have a Complaint

If you have a complaint about our services or charges, you should talk with us so that we can resolve the matter. You should communicate that complaint

• by letter
• by email to ldivers@propertylawyer.co.nz
• by telephoning us at (09) 533 9476

The Law Society also maintains a complaints service and you are able to make a complaint to that service. To do so you should contact the Law Society.

Street address: 26 Waring Taylor Street
Postal address: PO Box 5041, Lambton Quay, Wellington 6145 (DX SP 20202)
Telephone: (+64) (4) 472 7837
Fax: (+64) (4) 473 7909
General inquiries: inquiries@lawyers.org.nz

8. Persons responsible for your Work

The names and status of the person or persons who will have the general care of or overall responsibility for the services we provide are set out in our Letter of Engagement.

9. Limitations on extent of our Obligations or Liability

Any limitations on the extent of our obligations to you or any limitation or exclusion of liability are set out in our Letter of Engagement.