Our aim is to provide an efficient and high-quality legal service to all our esteemed clients in a friendly manner. However, when you feel dissatisfied or have concerns about the service we have provided, we expect you to inform us immediately so that we can rectify and address your concerns. We will do our best to deal with your complaint very quickly and it will not affect our relationship.

Starting your complaint

1. In the first instance, the complaint should be directed to the person who is handling your case at the Firm. This can be in writing or via telephone. That person should be able to deal with your complaint at that stage.

2. If you feel are dissatisfied with the response you received or not comfortable speaking with your case handler, you may make a formal complaint in writing or via email to our address at info@audulaw.co.uk or by post to Audu & Co. Solicitors, 176 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1 0SQ. Please provide detailed information about your complaint.

What happens next?

1. You will receive an acknowledge mail or letter from us within three working days of receiving your complaint.

2. We will pass your complaint to our client care director who will review your file and investigate your complaint together with your case handler.

3. During the investigation, our client care director may contact you to clarify the issue raised and resolve your concerns amicably.

4. If it is not possible to resolve your concerns by telephone, you will be invited to a meeting for discussion with the hope of resolving your complaint. This process should be concluded within fourteen days of receiving your complaint.

5. Within three days of the meeting, the client care director will send you a confirmation letter containing your concerns and the agreed solutions at the meeting.

6. If scheduling a meeting with you is not possible, the Senior Partner will provide you with a detailed written reply to your complaint within twenty-one days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

7. If you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again for a review and we will reply you within fourteen days for our final positions to your complaint.

What will I do if my complaint is not treated or resolved?

1. The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our attitude in handling your complaint. This could be for dishonesty on our part, losing your money or not treating you fairly. You can raise your concerns about our services with the Solicitors Regulation Authority or follow the link: http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

Address: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN (map of location) or DX 720293 BIRMINGHAM 47
Phone: 0370 606 2555, +44 (0)121 329 6800
Email: contactcentre@sra.org.uk

2. Also, you can send your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. They will carefully look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

However, the Legal Ombudsman will first check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us before accepting your complaint for investigation. If they are satisfied that you have taken those steps, they will accept your complaint:

• • Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint and
• • No more than six years from the date of act/omission, or
• • No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

For more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact:
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Address: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9W.
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm

We will do our best to address your concerns and achieve a satisfactory resolution.

Majority of our work are publicly funded because we have Legal Aid Contract in Family, and Crime cases.

Where Legal Aid is not available due to means requirements, we would charge a fee for our services such will attract VAT.

Our Charges are based on hourly rate between £250 to £350 per hour depending on the grade of the case handler.

Our fees do not include any out of pocket expenses which we have to make. They are chargeable and the invoices render on the client’s behave would be passed on to the client subject to prior approval of the client.

This is a general fee structure for all private work. A detailed charging information which include travel and waiting, telephone calls received or outgoing, letters written or received, would be provided at the initial stage of obtaining instruction.

Generally, once it is agreed, a client care letter setting out the information would be provided to the client to confirm terms of agreement.

Solicitors Regulation Authority Transparency rules.

We are under obligation to explain how we arrive at our charges and also from onset of how much those transactions are likely to cost.

Therefore, in order to do so, we take into account the following:

• A) Whether the property is freehold or leasehold
• B) Whether it is a sale or purchase
• C) Whether the client is in a related sale
• D) The circumstances of the matter
• E) The size of the estate
• F) The value of the property
• G) The speed at which we have to carry out the transaction
• H) Any other information which may be relevant to the transaction

Our fees are competitive with the average fees charged by practitioners nationwide.

Our fees normally vary between £1500 and £2000 for freehold property transactions where there are no complexities and factors which could prolong the transaction beyond reasonable time. When this does happen we may end up charging a higher rate for the work. This would be made clear to the client before we take on the case and also confirmed in our initial client care letter.

Our hourly rate for a partner is £350 an hour, the associate is £300 an hour, junior solicitor is £250 an hour and £175 per hour for a trainee.

In a leasehold transaction, the fee varies between £1500 - £2500 depending again on work involved. If the work is between 5/6 hours of our time then we end up charging the hourly rate as stated above.

This will be discussed with the client before we obtain instructions.

Our fees do not included local land charges which varies between £280 for full search and £319 for expedited search depending on the local authority. The fees increase every March.

Stamp duty is based on the value of the property. The registration fee paid the Land Registry, office copies entries, filing fee, registration of leaseholders interest, management pack, other disbursements made on behalf of the client are not included in our fees. They are separate and will paid by the client. Receipts will be provided for any of those items, and the cost will be confirmed at the time of instructions, and agreed by the client.

Where the information is not available, and subsequently brought to our attention, it will be passed onto the client and agreed. We will require payment on account of disbursements as well as half of our fees before we commence work. If for some reasons, the transaction is aborted a minimum of £1000 for our services where the time involved is more than 3 hours or hourly rate where the total time for the work carried out is less than 3 hours.

VAT

Our charges are subject to Vat currently 20% any of the disbursements made on behalf of the client attracts VAT, they will also be passed onto the client.

There are times when we may have to act for a foreign client, if this is the case, they will be liable for VAT as long as their property is based in the UK.

Timescales

We cannot guarantee how long it will take to complete a transaction but we will use our best endeavour to carry out the transactions expeditiously.

The speed at which those transactions are carried out depends on several factors which may include the following:

• A) The preparedness of the parties i.e. the client and the purchaser or seller
• B) Whether there is a chain involved in the sale or purchase
• C) Third party involvement and their ability to respond to queries and deal with them speedily
• D) Result of searches and ability to deal with any queries revealed by the result expeditiously
• E) Any other unforeseen information revealed during the search or enquiries before contract

Those are factors that need to be taken into account which may affect the progress of the transaction.

In most cases where we believe there are no factors likely to cause delay, we will be able to give an approximate time of completion.

Our Services

We carry out the sale and purchase of the property, up to and including registration of the purchase at the Land Registry. We will also discharge the mortgage and deal with all the pre-contract enquiries as well as the post completion issues.

The Stamp Duty will be paid at completion. The completion as well as the stamp duty funds should be in our accounts before exchange of contract if not we will require a mortgage offer and certificate of title.

At the initial stage, we will carry out money laundering checks and ensure that the client’s true identity is verified.

Where the property is a large estate, we may charge a percentage as a fee, such will vary between 0.75 and 2% of the value of the estate.

We only carry out conveyancing transactions as far as our role is concerned and will not be dealing with providing financial services, insurance or any other services regulated by the FSA. We are not authorise to do such and will not be providing those services.

Termination

You may terminate instructions by post or email. A telephone call will have to be followed up by a written termination which will then be effective upon receipt.

Once we have started work we will be entitled to charge for the work carried if you cancellation took place. Our charges will then be calculated based on the time spent.

We are required by law to disclose to the serious national crime agency any suspicion, fraud or money laundering.

As solicitors we are also officers of the court and must not lead or be a party to criminal activity or fraud.

We will terminate the retainer where such activity is discovered.