Terms of business and Complaints procedure

Terms of business

About us

LOPEZ & MORENO ASSOCIATES LTD is a limited liability company registered in England and Wales with number 14623332 and with registered office at 45 Reliance Wharf, Hertford Road, London N1 5EW, England.

We are a firm of Notary Publics and Spanish lawyers ‘Abogados’ specialised in Spanish Law.

Pablo Lopez Robles is an English Notary Public regulated through The Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and a Spanish lawyer ‘Abogado' registered at the Law Society of Madrid under number 138786.

Alberto Moreno Copa is a Spanish lawyer ‘Abogado’ registered at the Law Society of Madrid under number 83002.

Our telephone number is +44 (0)20 7088 8415.

Our website is www.lopez-moreno.com. Our general enquiry email is info@lmlegal.co.uk. We are not VAT registered.

Our office premises are based at 131 Finsbury Pavement, London EC2A 1NT, UK.

We are happy to attend clients in person at our office, o for an agreed fee, attend clients’ offices and addresses anywhere in Greater London or, in special circumstances farther away.

Office hours

Our office hours are Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. In exceptional circumstances we may see you outside of normal office hours at an additional fee.

Fees

Please refer to information in our website and contact us for a quote.

Payment terms

Our fees must normally be paid prior to our releasing the completed documentation or within 7 days of issue for an ongoing instruction. If payment is delayed we reserve the right to charge interest at 8% per year. We will not be able to continue working on your matter until payment has been made in full.

We reserve the right not to perform any further work in relation to your Instruction until we have received full payment of any interim invoices sent to you. We cannot be held liable for any losses you may suffer as a result of our exercising this right.

For the payment of invoices and money on account of costs, we accept bank transfers or cash. However, please note we cannot accept cash payments in excess of £500 in any one 28 day period.

Data Protection and Privacy

The business of LOPEZ & MORENO ASSOCIATES LTD of 45 Reliance Wharf, Hertford Road, London N1 5EW, trading as LOPEZ & MORENO ASSOCIATES (Business”, “we”, “us”, “our”). The Business is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) under number ZB543443.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice (“Notice”), please contact us using the following email address: info@lmlegal.co.uk
The Business will process your and third parties’ personal data, as further explained below, in the course of providing you with notarial and associated services including access to our website and online features www.lopez-moreno.com (“Services”).
We will let you know by posting on our website or otherwise, if we make any changes to this Notice from time to time. Your continued use of the Services after notifying such changes will amount to your acknowledgement of the amended Notice.
PLEASE NOTE: You shall and you hereby agree to indemnify the Business and its affiliates and their officers, employees, agents and subcontractors (each an “Indemnified Party”) from and against any claims, losses, demands, actions, liabilities, fines, penalties, reasonable expenses, damages and settlement amounts (including reasonable legal fees and costs) incurred by any Indemnified Party arising out of or in connection with any breach by you of the warranties included in paragraph 9.

What is Personal Data?

“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, known as ‘data subject’, who can be identified directly or indirectly; it may include name, address, email address, phone number, IP address, location data, cookies and similar information. It may also include “special categories of personal data” such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a data subject, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
The Business may process personal data and special categories of personal data which you provide in connection with the Services about yourself and other data subjects, e.g. individuals whose details are included in any materials provided by you to the Business. The Business may obtain information about you and other data subjects from third party service providers, such as due diligence platforms. If you use our online Services, the Business may collect information about your devices including clickstream data.
The provision of certain personal data is mandatory in order for the Business to comply with mandatory client due diligence requirements and consequently to provide the Services. You warrant on a continuous basis that such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date. Failure to comply may result in documents being rejected by the relevant certification authorities, held invalid in the destination country or other difficulty to successfully completing the Services.
In relation to personal data of data subjects you warrant to the Business on a continuous basis that:

where applicable, you are authorised to share such personal data with the Business in connection with the Services and that wherever another data subject is referred to, you have obtained the explicit and demonstrable consent from all relevant data subjects to the inclusion and use of any personal data concerning them;
to the extent this is required in connection with the Services, such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date; and
either you provide your explicit consent and warrant that each data subject has provided explicit consent for the transfer of personal data to foreign organisations in connection with the Services as set out at paragraph 18, or that an alternative legal gateway for such transfer (such as transfer necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract concluded in the interest of the data subject) has been satisfied.

How do we use your personal data?

The Business will only process personal data, in accordance with applicable law, for the following purposes:

responding to your queries, requests and other communications;
providing the Services, including, where applicable, procuring acts from foreign organisations;
enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on behalf of the Business in order to provide the Services, including webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical, courier or other functions, as applicable;
allowing you to use features on our website, when you choose to do so;
sending you personalised marketing communications requested by you, as well as serving personalised advertising to your devices, based on your interests in accordance with our Cookie Statement below. You have the right to disable cookies as set out above
ensuring the security of the Business and preventing or detecting fraud;
administering our Business, including complaints resolution, troubleshooting of our website, data analysis, testing of new features, research, statistical and survey purposes;
developing and improving our Services;
complying with applicable law, including Notary Practice Rules, guidelines and regulations or in response to a lawful request from a court or regulatory body.

The legal basis for our processing of personal data for the purposes described above will typically include:

processing necessary to fulfil a contract that we have in place with you or other data subjects, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d);
your consent, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraph (e);
processing necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (f), (g) and (h), which is carried out on the basis of the legitimate interests of the Business to ensure that Services are properly provided, the security of the Business and its clients and the proper administration of the Business; and
processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraph (i).and
any other applicable legal grounds for processing from time to time.

What exactly are cookies?

In order to collect the information including personal data as described in this Notice, we may use cookies and similar technology on our website. A cookie is a small piece of information which is sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive, mobile phone or other device. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. This enables you to decide if you want to accept it or not. However, some of the Services offered through our website may not function properly if your cookies are disabled.
Cookies can be first party or third party cookies.

First party cookies – cookies that the website you are visiting places on your device.
Third party cookies – cookies placed on your device through the website but by third parties, such as, Google.

The cookies placed on our website

We use the following cookies on our website:

Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around our website and use its features. Without these cookies, Services you have asked for cannot be provided. They are deleted when you close the browser. These are first party cookies.
Performance cookies. These cookies collect information in an anonymous form about how visitors use our website. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the website when they are using it and the approximate regions that they are visiting from. These are first party cookies.
Functionality cookies. These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in, if applicable) and provide enhanced, more personal features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. These are first party cookies.
Targeting or advertising cookies. These cookies allow us and our advertisers to deliver information more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as to help measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. They remember that you have visited our website and may help us in compiling your profile. These are persistent cookies which will be kept on your device until their expiration or earlier manual deletion.
Social Media cookies. These cookies allow you to connect with social media networks such as LinkedIn and twitter. These are persistent cookies which will be kept on your device until their expiration or earlier manual deletion.

2. We may combine information from these types of cookies and technologies with information about you from other sources.

Cookie consent and opting out

We assume that you are happy for us to place cookies on your device. Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies. However, if you, or another user of your device, wish to withdraw your consent at any time, you have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your browser setting. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our website, our platforms and Services.
When you arrive on our website a pop-up message will appear asking for your consent to place advertising cookies on your device. In order to provide your consent, please click ‘I understand’. Once your consent has been provided, this message will not appear again when you revisit. If you, or another user of your device, wish to withdraw your consent at any time, you can do so by altering your browser settings otherwise we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies from our website. For more information please visit allaboutcookies.org and http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/.

Disclosure of personal data

There are circumstances where the Business may wish to disclose or is compelled to disclose your personal data to third parties. These scenarios include disclosure to:

our subsidiaries or associated offices;
our suppliers and service providers to facilitate the provision of the Services, including couriers, translators, IT consultants and legalisation and other handling agents, webhosting providers, identity verification partners (in order to verify your identity against public databases), consultants, for example, in order to protect the security or integrity of our business, including our databases and systems and for business continuity reasons;
public authorities to carry out acts which are necessary in connection with the Services, such as the Foreign Office;
foreign organisations to carry out acts which are necessary in connection with the Services, such as Embassies, Consulates and High Commissions;
professional organisations exercising certain public functions in relation to the notaries profession, such as Chambers of Commerce;
successor or partner legal entities, on a temporary or permanent basis, for the purposes of a joint venture, collaboration, financing, sale, merger, reorganisation, change of legal form, dissolution or similar event relating to a Business. In the case of a merger or sale, your personal data will be permanently transferred to a successor company;
public authorities where we are required by law to do so; and
any other third party where you have provided your consent.

International transfer of your personal data

We may transfer your personal data to a third party in countries outside the country in which it was originally collected for further processing in accordance with the purposes set out above. In particular, your personal data may be transferred to foreign organisations such as foreign Embassies located in the UK or abroad. Such organisations will process personal data in accordance with the laws to which they are subject and international treaties over which the Business has no control.
If the Business transfers personal data to private organisations abroad, such as subcontractors, it will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate technical, organisation, contractual or other lawful means. You may contact us for a copy of such safeguards in these circumstances.

Retention of personal data

Your personal data will be retained for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed above or as required by the law. For example, the Notaries Practice Rules require that that notarial acts in the public form shall be preserved permanently. Records of acts not in public form shall be preserved for a minimum period of 12 years. Please contact us for further details of applicable retention periods. Personal data may for reasons of security and convenience be stored on remote data facilities but in an encrypted form.

Security of personal data

The Business will implement technical and organisational security measures in order to prevent unauthorised access to your personal data.
However, please be aware that the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Whilst we can do our best to keep our own systems secure, we do not have full control over all processes involved in, for example, your use of our website or sending confidential materials to us via email, and we cannot therefore guarantee the security of your information transmitted to us on the web.

Data subject rights

Data subjects have numerous rights in relation to their personal data. For further information about your data protection rights please visit the ICO website.

Right to make a subject access request (SAR). Data subjects may request in writing copies of their personal data. However, compliance with such requests is subject to certain limitations and exemptions and the rights of other data subjects. Each request should make clear that a SAR is being made. You may also be required to submit a proof of your identity and payment, where applicable.
Right to rectification. Data subjects may request that we rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Right to withdraw consent. Data subjects may at any time withdraw their consent to the processing of their personal data carried out by the Business on the basis of previous consent. Such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on previous consent.
Right to object to processing, including automated processing and profiling. The Business does not make automated decisions. The Business may use third party due diligence platforms which provide recommendations about data subjects by automated means. We will comply with any data subject’s objection to processing unless we have a compelling overriding legitimate ground for the processing, the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or we have another lawful reason to refuse such request. We will comply with each valid opt-out request in relation to marketing communications.
Right to erasure. Data subjects may request that we erase their personal data. We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so. For example, there may be an overriding legitimate ground for keeping the personal data, such as, our archiving obligations that we have to comply with.
Data subjects may request that we restrict our processing of their personal data in various circumstances. We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so, such as, a legal obligation to continue processing your personal data in a certain way.
Right to data portability. In certain circumstances, data subjects may request the controller to provide a copy of their personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and have it transferred to another provider of the same or similar services. To the extent such right applies to the Services, we will comply with such transfer request. Please note that a transfer to another provider does not imply erasure of the data subject’s personal data which may still be required for legitimate and lawful purposes.
Right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. We suggest that data subjects contact us about any questions or complaints in relation to how we process personal data. However, each data subject has the right to contact the relevant supervisory authority directly.

Money Laundering regulation

We are obliged under the Money Laundering Regulations to take measures to protect against fraud and forgery. To ensure that we comply with this you acknowledge and agree that:

We may make all such enquiries as we deem necessary or appropriate in order to comply with our duties, and
You will provide us with such documents and information as we may request.

Your failure to do so will entitle us to terminate our retainer and cease acting for you forthwith.

If, in the course of acting for you, we discover or suspect, or have reasonable grounds for knowing or suspecting that any person is engaged in money laundering we may, and in some cases will be required to, disclose this information to the to the National Crime Agency. Depending upon the particular circumstances of the case, we may not be able to tell you that such a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it.

Proof of identity / corporate authority

We will need you to produce by way of formal identification the original of:

Your current passport; and
Proof of address such as utility bills bank statements or credit card statement that should not be more than 3 months old, council tax bill or UK photo driving licence;

In some circumstances, we may require you to produce two forms of identification with a photograph of you, such as a driving licence or passport.

You must also bring any other means of identification that may be referred to in the papers sent to you as being required such as a foreign identity card. We may also ask to see further evidence of identity such as marriage certificates etc. and we will be happy to advise exactly what will be required in any particular case.

If you act on behalf of a company or organisation, we will need to establish that it exists and that the signatory has authority to represent it. We generally conduct our own checks on United Kingdom based entities. In some cases (particularly for companies or organisations established overseas) we may ask you to produce a certificate of incorporation, good standing certificate or other similar evidence.

If certification of the signatory’s authority to represent a company or organisation is required, we will need to review additional documentation, for example:

constitutional documents (e.g. the Articles)
a power of attorney
board resolutions
authorised signatory book (in the case of banks)
extract from a commercial register (generally for foreign companies)

Information for notarial work

1. Why a notary?

It is almost always the case that you have been asked to see a notary because you have a document that needs to be used abroad. Seeing a notary is never a mere rubber-stamping exercise. The international duty of a Notary involves a high standard of care. This is not only towards the client but also to anyone who may rely on the document and to Governments or officials of other countries. These people are entitled to assume that a Notary will ensure full compliance with the relevant requirements both here and abroad; and to rely on the Notary’s register and records. Great care is essential at every stage to minimise the risks of errors, omissions, alterations, fraud, forgery, money laundering, the use of false identity, and so on.

We offer appointments during business hours and occasionally outside of business hours in exceptional circumstances. We are also prepared to make home visits or visit corporate clients at their place of business. If the notarial appointments take place outside of our office we will make an additional charge to cover travelling time and expenses.

2. Signatures:

The Notary should normally witness your signature. Please do not sign the document in advance of your appointment with me.

3. Papers to be sent to me in advance:

It will save time, expense and mistakes if you can let me have the following originals or photocopies as long as possible before the appointment:

The documents to be notarised;
Any letter or other form of instruction which you have received about what has to be done with the documents;
Your evidence of identification.

4. Identification:

The day of the signature meeting, we will need you to produce by way of formal identification the original of (in preferred order):

Your current passport; and
A utility bill, which should not be more than 3 months old or council tax bill;

In some circumstances, we may require you to produce two forms of identification with a photograph of you, such as a driving licence or passport.

5. Proof of names:

In a case where the name on the document is different from the name you are currently using, or there has been a variation in the form of spelling of the name over the years, please provide me with as appropriate Certificates of Birth, Marriage, Divorce Decree or Change of Name Deed showing all the different names that you use. If there has been a change of name, then we will need to see a copy of the Deed Poll or Statutory Declaration, which dealt with it.

6. Advice on the document:

If you bring a document to me for notarisation as a Notary, we will advise you as to the formalities required for completing it. However, we will not be attempting to advise you about the transaction itself.

7. Written Translations:

It is essential that you understand what you are signing.

If the document is in a foreign language, which you do not understand sufficiently, we may have to insist that a translation be obtained. If we arrange for a translation, a further fee will be payable and we will provide you with details of this.

If you arrange for a professional translation, the translator should add his/her name, address, relevant qualification, and a certificate stating: “Document X is a true and complete translation of document Y, to which this translation is attached.”

8. Oral Interpreter:

If you and we cannot understand each other because of a language difficulty, we may have to make arrangements for a competent interpreter to be available at our interview and this may involve a further fee.

9. Companies:

If a document is to be signed by you on behalf of a company there are further requirements on which we may have to insist.

In each case:

Evidence of identity of the authorised signatory (as listed above).
A Letter of Authority, Minute, Resolution or Power of Attorney, authorising you to sign the document.

Additionally, companies: Certificate of Incorporation and of any Change of Name, a copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, details of directors and secretaries. In all instances, we will be carrying out various company searches, which may have an effect on the level of fees charged.

10. Notarial charges and expenses:

Details of our charges are set out in these terms of business.

Charges: If the matter is simple, we will charge a fixed fee provided to you in advanced with a breakdown of disbursements such as legalisation fees, postage, courier fees, travelling expenses, translating costs, and so on.

For more complicated or time-consuming matters, the fee will be based on our hourly rate of £295 [no VAT]. The time charged includes: the initial instruction, providing you with advice, drafting documents, attending meetings, phone calls, e-mails, legalisation, entering/ maintaining information in the Notarial Register and Protocol.

We are currently not registered for VAT, we will notify you if the situation changes.

11. Typical Stages of a notarial transaction:

Each notarial matter is different and the requirements will vary according to whether the client is a private individual or a company. Some of the typical key stages are likely to include:

Receiving and reviewing the documents to be notarised together with any instructions you may have received.
Liaising with your legal advisors or other bodies to obtain the necessary documentation to deal with the document (e.g. information from Companies House or foreign registries, powers of attorney etc.)
Checking the identity, capacity and authority of the person who is to sign the document.
If a document is to be certified, checking with the issuing authorities that the document is genuine.
Meeting with the signatory to verify their identity and to ascertain that they understand what they are signing and that they are doing so of their own free will and ensuring that the document is executed correctly.
Drafting and affixing or endorsing a notarial certificate to the document.
Arranging for the legalisation of the document as appropriate.
Arranging for the storage of copies of all notarised documents in accordance with the requirements of the Notarial Practice Rules 2019.

12. Notarial Records and Data Protection:

When we carry out our work for you, we are required to make an entry in a formal register, which is kept by us as a permanent record. We will retain a copy of the notarised documentation or in some circumstances the original, with that record. Our practice is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Personal data received from clients is held securely and not capable of being accessed externally. Data collected as part of notarial records is used solely for the purposes of meeting our professional legal responsibilities as Notaries Public. For full details of our privacy notice please see our website: www.lopez-moreno.com

Record keeping and storage of documents

We have a legitimate interest in retaining copies of your identification documents, your file and a copy of the notarial act produced. This will assist us in providing you with a proper service or in dealing with a complaint. It is also a requirement under the Notarial Practice Rules 2019.

Termination of retainer

Your right to cancel: You may terminate your instruction in writing at any time, and we shall invoice you for the work done up to that time at the hourly rate stated. We shall not release your file to you or any third party until any final bill has been paid in full and you have completed all necessary documents in order to release us from any obligations to you, the court or a third party.

Upon the termination of your Instruction for any reason you will promptly pay in full all outstanding fees and expenses as incurred up to and including the date of termination together with all fees and expenses as incurred through any continuing obligation to you, the court or any third party.

Termination by us: We reserve the right to terminate our engagement by you if we have good reasons to do so, for example if you do not pay a bill or comply with our request for a payment on account or if you fail to give us the cooperation which we are reasonably entitled to expect.

Right to cancel in the event of off-premises retainers

If you have agreed to an off-premises retainer, you have a right to cancel this Agreement for a period of fourteen (14) days commencing on the date on which this Agreement is concluded or the date on which you receive this Agreement (whichever is later) (the “Cancellation Period”). Should you wish to cancel this Agreement within the Cancellation Period, you should send notice in writing or electronically to the addresses found in contact us section of our website. If you want us to do work urgently, you can ask us in writing to start working immediately. This request means you must pay for services incurred such as instructions and correspondence even if the contract is later cancelled. The payment amount will be calculated for the services provided before cancellation on the basis of the total agreed price. You will lose your right to cancel the service contract if the service has been fully performed at your request and you have acknowledged that you would lose your right to cancel once the contract had been completed.

Ceasing acting for you

Under the UK’s sanctions regime we are required to carry out checks and risk assessments when undertaking work.

If at any time you or any other party directly or indirectly involved in your instruction become a designated person under the UK sanctions regime or we are not satisfied with the information or evidence provided regarding the relevant details of the parties, purpose of the work or source of funds, we retain our right to cease acting for you terminating our retainer, we will inform you accordingly if we do so, even if we carried out some or most of the work or if the transaction is time sensitive.

You agree that a long as we have a ‘good reason’ to terminate our retainer (Buxton v Mills-Owens [2010] EWCA Civ 122) you will not be entitled to make any claims against us or receive any compensation from us as a result of any damages you may suffer due to us terminating our retainer.

Liability

Our notarial practice maintains professional indemnity insurance at a level of £1,000,000.00 per claim. It is a condition of our acting for you as Notary Publics that the limit of our total liability in the event of a claim made against us shall be £1,000,000.00.

Complaints procedure

We aim to provide all clients with an efficient and high standard of service. However, in the unlikely event that you should wish to complain, then you should follow the complaints procedure set out below.

As stated above, our notarial practice is regulated through the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury:

The Faculty Office
1, The Sanctuary
Westminster
London SW1 3JT
Telephone: 020 7222 538
Email: faculty.office@1thesanctuary.com
Website: www.facultyoffice.org.uk

If you are dissatisfied about the notarial service you have received, please do not hesitate to contact us in the first instance. You shall contact the Notary Pablo Lopez Robles and we will do all we can to resolve the issue.

If we are unable to resolve the matter you may then complain to the Notaries Society of which Pablo Lopez Robles 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

P O Box 1023

Ipswich IP1 9XB

Email secretary@thenotariessociety.org.uk

If you have any difficulty in making a complaint in writing, please do not hesitate to contact the Notaries Society/the Faculty Office for assistance.

Finally, even if you have your complaint considered under the Notaries Society Approved Complaints Procedure, you may at the end of that procedure, or after a period of 8 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

P O Box 6806

Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ

Tel : 0300 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 cause for complaint.

Law and jurisdiction

The terms of our appointment (including these Terms of Business) are governed by and construed in accordance with English law. You and we hereby irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in respect of any claim, dispute or difference of whatever nature concerning our appointment and arising from it.

Get in Touch

LOPEZ & MORENO

ASSOCIATES

131 Finsbury Pavement

London EC2A 1NT

info@lmlegal.co.uk

Tel. UK 020 7088 8415

Tel. Intl. +44 20 7088 8415