O’Hara Solicitors cannot accept any responsibility (to the extent permitted by law) for any loss arising directly or indirectly from the use of, or any action taken in reliance on, any information appearing on this website or any other website to which it may be linked.


Privacy Policy

Your name, title, telephone number, email address, current address, postcode and property price are all requested in order to process your instruction.

Any feedback received is for the purpose of improving our site and enhancing the service delivered. O’Hara Solicitors will not trade, sell or rent any personal information sent to us to third parties.

We endeavour to use the highest level of security available to us in order to protect your personal information.


Changes & Expenses

In some cases we may be able to agree a fixed fee if so this will be set out in the schedule, otherwise the hourly rate is set out in the schedule and will be calculated by reference to the time spent in dealing with your matter including, but not limited to, time spent advising, attending you and others, dealing with papers, correspondence, telephone calls, travelling, time spent in court hearings and site inspections. The current hourly charge out rate is set out in the schedule. The rate will be reviewed annually on the 1st May each year. Routine letters and emails that we right and receive, and routine telephone calls that we make and receive will be charged in units of 6 minutes. We have included in the schedule an estimate of the costs involved either by time or by value, based on the information we currently have, this may need to be revised as the case goes on and we estimate more accurately the level of cost involved.

If a member of staff is required to travel on your matter (e.g. to court or for a site visit) we reserve the right to charge travelling expenses and parking, such travel expenses will be itemised on your account. We also reserve the right to charge for photocopying, the cost per single A4 copy black and white is 30p and 50p for colour copies. These charges are subject to VAT and will be set out in your invoice.

In most cases, in fixing our charges we take into account a number of factors which include the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action must be taken, the expertise or specialist knowledge that the case requires and, if appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter involved. On the basis of the information currently available, we expect those factors to be adequately covered by the charges set out in the schedule. However, if your instructions mean we have to work outside normal office hours or the matter becomes more complex than anticipated, we reserve the right to increase the level of those charges, you will be notified of any change in the charges.

If you have any queries about the level of our charges please contact your case manager straight away.

We will inform you if any unforeseen additional work becomes necessary.


Payment On Account of Fees and Expenses

It is our normal practice to ask clients to pay sums of money from time to time in advance on account of our charges and any expenses e.g. searches court fees etc. This helps to avoid delay in the progress of the case. We will offset any such payments against your bills, but it is important that you understand that our total charges and expenses may be greater than any advance payments.


Cheques

If you wish to use cheques or banker’s draft to make payments, pay deposits or for any other purpose, please be aware that in line with current banking procedures we will need to allow up to five working days to allow for full clearance by both your bank and our own bank. Therefore we will not be able to draw on those funds until the ten days have lapsed. We prefer payment by BACS, telegraphic transfer or chaps, where the funds can be used immediately as clearance is not required. Please note that in accordance with money laundering guidance we cannot accept cash payments in excess of £1000.00


Billing Arrangement

If appropriate, we will send you interim bills for charges and expenses at regular intervals while the job is in progress. In any event we will provide a cost’s update at least every 6 months. We will send a final bill on completion of the work. Whatever the outcome we will charge you for all the work done and expenses incurred.

If you have not already paid in advance, payment is due within 14 days of the date of any bill, if payment is late, we may charge you interest on any bill at the appropriate court rate (currently 8%) from the date on which payment of our account is due. Interest will be charged on a daily basis. If any amount (including VAT and disbursements) remains unpaid after six months from the date of the bill a fixed administration fee of 15% of the total amount outstanding will be added in respect of recovery costs.

We are sure that you will understand that in the event of prompt payment not being made we must reserve the right to decline to act any further and that the full amount of the value of work done up to the date will then be charged to you. If any bill is outstanding for more than fourteen days no further work will be carried out on this job until that bill has been paid in full. If the bill remains unpaid for more than two months, then we may not be able to carry out any more work for you, not only on this matter but on any other matter in which the LLP is acting for you until the bill and any other outstanding bill is paid in full.