Information
For
Clients

These Standard Terms of Engagement (“Terms”) apply in respect of all work carried out by us for you, except to the extent that we otherwise agree with you in writing.

1. Services: The services we are to provide for you will be outlined in our Letter of Engagement.  This will be forwarded to you once your agreement is unconditional.  The names and status of the person or persons who will have the general carriage of or overall responsibility for the services we provide for you will be set out in our Letter of Engagement.
2. Fees: The fees we will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived at will be set out in our Letter of Engagement. If the Letter of Engagement specifies a fixed fee, we will charge this for the agreed scope of our services.  Work which falls outside that scope will be charged on an hourly rate.  We will advise you as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for us to provide services outside our agreed scope, and if requested, give you an estimate of the likely amount of the further costs. Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis, the hourly rate will be disclosed to you in our Letter of Engagement. 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.
3. Disbursements and expenses: In providing services we may incur disbursements or have to make payments to third parties on your behalf.  These will be included in our invoice to you when the expense is incurred.  We may require an advance payment for the disbursements or expenses which we will be incurring on your behalf.
4. GST: Is payable by you on our fees and charges.
5. Invoices: We will send our invoice(s) to you, in the interim if required, and on completion of the matter, or termination of our engagement.  We may also send to you an invoice when we incur a significant expense.
6. Payment: Payment for purchase/sale/refinance transactions are to be paid on day of settlement.  Invoice(s) are payable within 7 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have been made with us.  We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is more than 7 days overdue.  Interest will be calculated at the rate of 5% above our firm’s main trading bank’s 90-day bank bill buy rate as at the close of business on the date payment became due.  We will be entitled to pass on to you the costs of collection of any overdue amounts including but not limited to any court fees, service fees, commissions payable for collection and Conveyancing costs on a Conveyancer/Client basis.
7. Security: We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us, or to provide security for our fees and expenses.  You authorise us to debit against amounts pre-paid by you and to deduct from any funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.
8. Third Parties: Although you may expect to be reimbursed by a third party for our fees and expenses, and although our invoices may at your request or with your approval be directed to a third party, nevertheless you remain responsible for payment to us if the third party fails to pay us.
9. Confidentiality: We will hold in confidence all information concerning you or your affairs that we acquire during the course of acting for you. We will not disclose any of this information to any other person except: (a) to the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions, or to the extent required by law or by the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Conveyancers.
10. Termination: You may terminate your instructions at any time.  We may terminate our engagement in any of the circumstances set out in the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Conveyancers.  All fees due and expenses incurred must be paid up to the date of termination.
11. Retention of files and documents: You authorise us to (without further reference to you) to destroy all files and documents for this matter 7 years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format.
12. Conflicts of Interest: We have procedures in place to identify and respond to conflicts of interest.  If a conflict of interest arises we will advise you of this and follow the requirements and procedures set out in the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Conveyancers.
13. Duty of Care: Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person.  Before any other person may rely on our advice, we must expressly agree to this.
14. Trust Account: We maintain a trust account for all funds which we receive from clients (except monies received for payment of our invoices)
15. General: These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement, whether or not we send you another copy of them.  We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms.