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Terms of Engagement

Version 2025/1

This document sets out the terms and conditions upon which COYNE Solicitors accepts your instructions to act. These terms may be varied or added to by correspondence. If for whatever reason you do not accept or understand these terms you should let us know immediately. These Terms of Engagement (or any subsequent variation) shall cover all work future undertaken on your behalf.

1. General

1.1 It is our professional duty to give your affairs proper care, skill and attention. In turn this will require us to devote time exclusively to your file. While doing that we will not be able to work on other files and vice versa.

1.2 Throughout the handling of your matter we will rely on you to supply in a timely manner all information needed to act on your behalf. It is your obligation to tell us promptly of any relevant change in or addition to such information. We will not be under any obligation to verify or check the accuracy of such information unless it is specifically agreed in writing that we should do so, and we rely on all information provided by you in good faith and on the maxim.

2. Legal costs

2.1 The basis of COYNE Solicitors' charges is as set out in the Section 150 NOTICE which we will send to you under separate cover for each matter you instruct us upon. We are required by law to supply you with this notice. This is not your final Bill of costs. It is not possible to know exactly what the final figures will be. The amount will be based on the Section 150 NOTICE. We will issue you with a final Bill of Cost when we know the exact amounts involved.

2.2 Estimates of costs are given for guidance only on the basis of information then known to us and are not to be regarded as quotations. You should note that it is often not possible to estimate costs accurately in advance of carrying out the work.

2.3 A bill of costs would usually be submitted at the time of substantive completion of the transaction, however if it is likely that the matter would proceed for some time an interim bill may be appropriate. Interim bills will usually be submitted on agreed basis during the course of such a matter.

2.4 You have the right to give us written notice to set a limit on the fees which we may incur on your behalf. If that limit is reached, we will then cease work, notify you and await your further instructions. You should understand that, particularly in relation to contentious work, it may not be possible to limit your liability in relation to the costs incurred by any other party in the matter.

2.5 We reserve the right to charge for abortive work. Abortive work is where you instruct us to provide legal services in relation to some matter and you then do not proceed with that matter. For instance if you decide not to proceed with a sale after we have issued contracts there will be a fee due for that work based on the time involved, minimum fee for a sale abandoned €450.00. Where a request is made to provide a copy of a file we will charge for the time and resources required to make a copy of the file. The minimum cost of copying a file will be €150.00.

2.6 If you are dissatisfied with any bill of costs which we issue to you, you are entitled to challenge same. Your rights in that regard are protected under Section 153 of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority Act (LSRA) as follows;

  1. You can contact us by telephone to discuss the matter with us informally.
  2. If you dispute our bill you are required, within 21 days of this bill being provided to you, to send us a statement in writing setting out the nature of the dispute.
  3. When we receive this statement, we shall take all appropriate and reasonable steps to attempt to resolve the dispute with you by informal means, which may include, with your consent, mediation.
  4. You may refer the dispute to mediation, we will supply you with details of the mediation procedure upon request.
  5. You may refer the dispute to the Legal Costs Adjudicator for adjudication. If the bill of costs is reduced by less than 15 per cent, you shall be responsible for paying the costs of adjudication.
  6. In the event our bill or any part of our bill remains unpaid by 30 days from date of bill of costs, we may make an application to have our bill adjudicated by the Legal Costs Adjudicator.

3. Payment on account

3.1 We may at any time require from you reasonable sums on account of anticipated costs and disbursements. We shall have the right to appropriate such sums to defray disbursements incurred on your behalf or to pay interim bills which are overdue. However, such sums are, in the normal way, to be held against payment of the final account to be rendered to you and you are expected to settle interim bills without resort to such sums.

3.2 Our bills are due and payable within 14 days of the date of the bill on delivery unless otherwise agreed. Interest shall be payable any sum unpaid 30 days after the due date (date of delivery of a bill or agreed due date) at the rate of 8% per annum.

4. Banking and transfer of funds

4.1 You may direct that movements of money on your behalf be carried out by EFT (online banking). You should be aware that the banking system does not necessarily produce instantaneous transfer of such monies. If we are sending money to you, we will obtain your IBAN details and we will verify the last 4 digits of your IBAN by phone with you.

4.2 We will supply you with details of our IBAN to allow you send money to us by EFT. Those details will be supplied to you on our headed notepaper either in pdf format or a hard copy. You must use your file reference in your bank transfer otherwise we will not be able to identify your money coming into our client account. We will not vary or change our bank details without full notice to you and you must not assume we have changed bank details unless we discuss with you in person and send you confirmation by hard copy letter with a wet signature. Cybercrime is a real risk in all transactions. If you lodge funds to a wrong account, you do so at your sole risk and we will not be responsible. Always phone our office to verify the last 4 digits of our IBAN before transferring.

4.3 We cannot be held responsible for delays or errors within the banking systems. Bank charges over and above normal transaction fees, such as SDMT incurred in relation to EFT will be charged to you.

4.4 We strive to have money transferred to clients within ten days from the completion of work on any file.

5. Money laundering

5.1 Anti-Money laundering regulations require us to obtain in appropriate cases formal evidence of identity and, on occasion, to make disclosure to third parties without notice to you. COYNE Solicitors comply with The Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2018.

6. Confidentiality

6.1 Your instructions are confidential and will not be disclosed by COYNE Solicitors save on your instructions, as required by law or as hereinafter set out. You are our client and we will only take instructions from you and only represent your interests. We owe you a formal duty of confidentiality which we will scrupulously observe.

7. Data Protection Act

7.1 In order to act for individuals, it may be necessary for us to record on our files and also on our computer system certain personal details such as dates of birth, addresses and telephone numbers etc. In addition, other non-essential information may also be held by us when acting for either individuals or companies.

8. File storage

8.1 Your file (physical and soft copy) will be stored for a reasonable period (which will not be less than six years) free of charge. However, a charge may be made for retrieving the file from storage at your request and for supplying copies of any documents.

9. Title deeds storage

9.1 If you are not relying on the third-party funding to purchase your property (bank or finance company) your title deeds will be available to you upon completion of registration of your title into your name. We will store your deeds in our DEEDS STORAGE partner company at an annual fee of €39.99. That service will also provide you with a soft copy and hard copy of your core title deeds. If you do not wish to avail of DEEDS STORAGE, we will return your deeds to you either by personal collection within 21 days of notification or by Registered Post to your address. We will not store your title deeds in our office unless you enter them into our DEEDS STORAGE. We do not accept any responsibility for any deeds sent to you by Registered Post once they leave these offices.

10. Cessation

10.1 COYNE Solicitors have the right to cease work and terminate their retainer by giving you written notice at your last known address in the event, among other things, that:

  1. Any bill remains unpaid for more than 14 days after delivery;
  2. You fail without reasonable cause to give us instructions for a period of 30 days; or
  3. If in the opinion of COYNE Solicitors a conflict of interest arises.
  4. You fail to provide the necessary documents to prove your identity as required by money laundering legislation.
  5. The high level of trust required for the professional relationship of Solicitor/Client has broken down and this assessment shall be solely within the judgment and discretion of COYNE Solicitors.

11. Client account

11.1 All money retained on behalf of our clients is held in the Client Account in trust. In the event there is any interest due on client monies, the client hereby waives their right to such interest, if any.

12. Client care

12.1 It is the policy of COYNE Solicitors to investigate complaints and expressions of dissatisfaction fully and promptly. If you have a complaint relating to the work being carried out for you, you should raise this in the first instance with the fee earner dealing with the matter who will endeavour to resolve the matter. If you are dissatisfied with his or her response, you should then make a formal complaint to Andrea Clarke, Principal Solicitor, in writing, giving full details of the nature of your complaint and he will deal with it in accordance with our complaints procedure. If a satisfactory resolution of the dispute is not reached you may seek an independent Mediator (appointed by the President of the Law Society if agreement on Mediator is not reached). If mediation does not resolve the dispute, you may then refer the matter to the Legal Services Regulatory Authority in Dublin (contact details supplied on request).

13. Limit of liability

All transactions dealt with by this firm have a limit of liability under Section 44 Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 to €1.5 million for each individual transaction.

14. Non resident vendor

Under the provisions of Sections 1034, 1035 and 1043 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997, a non-resident person may be assessed and charged to income tax and capital gains tax in the name of any representative of any kind including a solicitor in the State. Solicitors must withhold proceeds of sale until confirmation is received from the Revenue Commissioners that all tax affairs are in order since the 24th October 2022.

You hereby provide irrevocable authority to Coyne Solicitors to make the application to the Revenue Commissioners for clearance. This process will incur extra fees.

You can request your accountant or chartered tax advisor to do so on your behalf in the alternative. Please advise if you wish to proceed by that means. Please attend to immediately at it takes some time.