Cristina Leone Notary Public (incorporating the former Notarial Practice of Peter C Fletcher)
Terms of Business
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 Office (FCO), 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.
Applicable law
The laws of England and Wales apply to both these Terms of Business and the services that I provide.
Complaints:
The Faculty Office
Our notarial practice is regulated by The Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury:
The Faculty Office
1, The Sanctuary
Westminster
London
SW1P 3JT
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7222 5381
Email: faculty.office@1thesanctuary.com
Website www.facultyoffice.org.uk
The Notaries Society
If you are dissatisfied about the service you have received, please do not hesitate to contact Cristina Leone. If we are unable to resolve the matter, you may then complain to The Notaries Society of which Cristina Leone is a member, who have a Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Faculty Office. This procedure is free to use and is designed to provide a quick resolution to any dispute.
In that case, 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
If you have any difficulty making a complaint in writing, please do not hesitate to call The Notaries Society for assistance.
The Legal Ombudsman
Finally, even if you have your complaint considered under the Complaints Procedure, you may at the end of that procedure or after a period of eight weeks from the date you first notified me that you were dissatisfied, make your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, if you are not happy with the result:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
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 a cause for complaint.
