Please call 01242 235202, or email us so that we can discuss what needs to be done and give you a quotation for the cost.

We offer appointments during business hours and can meet outside of business hours in exceptional circumstances. We are also prepared to make home visits or visit corporate clients at their place of business.

For more information about our up-to-date fees and terms, please see below:

1. 1. Our service and duties to you. We provide the service of English Notaries Public carrying out permitted notarial work, including if appropriate arranging with agents to legalise documents and send them to their final destination. We use our reasonable skill to verify documents and information. Our overriding responsibility is to the integrity and truth of the notarial act we perform. Our duty to you is limited to being satisfied that you understand the content of the document you are signing, that you are entitled to sign it, and you intend to be bound by it.
   2. Legal advice. We cannot provide legal advice about the effect of any document, because we are not foreign lawyers qualified to do so, and are not sufficiently familiar with other languages. We strongly advise you to have any document prepared by lawyers qualified in the law of the country where it is to be used, and to take advice from them. We will do our best to make sure the document is able to achieve its purpose, but we are not responsible to you if it does not.
   3. Your responsibilities. You are responsible for making sure that you understand what you are signing, that you are willing to do so, and for satisfying us of this. We suggest that you read the document carefully before our meeting. We may ask you to obtain a translation of the document if it is not in English. You must also satisfy us as to your identity, so we will need to see your current passport and/or photo driving licence, a recent utility bill or bank statement, and any other document we may request. If you are signing on behalf of a company or other organisation, you will need to satisfy us that the company has the power to make the document and that you are authorised to sign it. To assist this we may need to search the Register of Companies, and if so the cost of this will be charged to you.
   4. Liability. So far as we are allowed by law to do so, but no further, our liability to you is limited to the amount we charge you for our services. In no case will our liability to you exceed £1,000,000. We have indemnity insurance to cover this, and can provide details upon request. The law governing our contract with you is that of England and Wales, the courts of which shall decide any dispute, irrespective of your nationality or where the document is to be used.
   5. Our fees. We base our fees on a rate of £275 per hour with a minimum fee of £100. We charge for all time spent in relation to the matter, including preliminary advice, meeting you, dealing with the document, drafting notarial certificates, preparing our records, and any emails, letters, phone calls, etc. We also charge VAT on our notarial fees. The current rate of VAT is 20 per cent which is added to our fees. We can often agree with you a fixed fee. Occasionally unforeseen or unusual issues arise during the course of the matter which may result in a revision of a fee estimate, for example if further documents need to be notarised, or if translations or legalisations are needed. We will tell you of any changes in a fee estimate as soon as possible.Unless we agree otherwise, our fees are payable when we meet for you to execute the document, and we may keep the document until full payment is made.We normally accept payments by cash, cheque, BACS or card. In the rare case that we are unable to complete the notarial transaction, you are still liable to pay for the work we have done. If you are a business and wish to pay by BACS after submission of an invoice, we are happy to consider this, but it is likely to increase our charge.
   6. Records. We store at our discretion electronic or paper copies of all notarial acts for as long as required by notarial rules and in accordance with Data Protection laws. This will include information personal to you which we need for identification or other purposes. We may share your information with our associated firm Davis Gregory Limited, Solicitors. Your information may be used for marketing purposes, unless you ask us not to do so.
   7. Apostilles and legalisation. Many countries require notarised documents to be legalised with an apostille and/or validated by an embassy: you should check with your lawyer whether this is necessary. We can arrange this as your agents, using a consular agent CDN Consular Services to deal with it. You will be responsible for meeting CDN’s fees (and any other expenses incurred on your behalf), and we can give you an estimate of these. We are unable to accept liability to you or others for direct or indirect loss caused by any deficiencies, delays or mislaid documents by agents, embassies, postal or courier services or others.
   8. Acceptance of your instructions. We may refuse instructions or case to act without giving an explanation if we consider it appropriate to do so. This may be because we believe that your instructions are not compatible with our professional obligations, or for any other reason. Our policy is to deal with documents for use abroad only as notaries, whether or not they could be verified by others, e.g. solicitors.
   9. Service information. Each notarial matter is different, and the requirements vary accordingly. Some of the key stages are likely to include:
      a. receiving and checking the document(s) to be notarised and any specific instructions about it;
      b. liaising with third parties e.g. your lawyers, Companies House, etc. as necessary;
      c. checking your identity, capacity and authority to sign the document, and that you understand what you are signing and do so willingly;
      d. if a document is to be certified, checking with the issuing authority that it is genuine;
      e. preparing a notarial certificate and attaching or endorsing it on the document;
      f. arranging for legalisation of the document as appropriate;
      g. noting what has been done and storing copies of all notarised documents as required by the Notarial Practice Rules 2019.

   10. Complaints and Regulatory Information

       1. Our notarial practice is regulated through the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury:

       The Faculty Office
       1 The Sanctuary
       Westminster
       London SW1P 3JT

       Telephone: 020 7222 5381
       Email: faculty.office@1thesanctuary.com
       Website: www.facultyoffice.org.uk

       2. If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received please do not hesitate to contact us.

       3. If we are unable to resolve the matter you may then complain to the Notaries Society of which we are members, 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.

       4. 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 call the Notaries Society/the Faculty Office for assistance.

       5. 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 eight weeks from the date you first notified us that you were dissatisfied, make your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, if you are not happy with the result.

       Legal Ombudsman
       PO Box 6806
       Wolverhampton
       WV1 9WJ

       enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
       0300 555 0333
       www.legalombudsman.org.uk

       6. 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 a cause for complaint.

   Updated April 2023

   Click here for a PDF version of our Notarial Terms of Business - HSNP - Terms of Business April 2023