County Enforcement limited
Unit 43, Sir Thomas Longley Road, Rochester Kent, ME2 4DP
County Enforcement Limited
Edmund House, 12-22 Newhall Street, Birmingham, B3 3AS
County Enforcement Limited
The Clubhouse, Holborn Circus, 20 St Andrew Street, London, EC4A 3AG
Company registration: 08492808
VAT registration: 214 3183 43
County is a trading name of County Enforcement Limited
© County Enforcement Limited. Site by Minty Cloud
In submitting an instruction or a warrant of enforcement you and/or the client agree to be bound by the terms and conditions in this schedule and any additional reasonable term or request stipulated to you by the Company in accordance with relevant and applicable law.
If this instruction comes from a solicitor on behalf of a client, unless specified separately in writing, we will be deemed to have the client’s authority to prepare and sign documents on their behalf including, but not limited to, Enforcement Notices, Witness Statements etc.
All instructions are to be delivered electronically. No instruction will be accepted by post or verbally unless specifically agreed by a Director.
If any provision of these terms and conditions is held to be invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity of the remainder of the condition(s) shall not be affected.
By instructing the Company, the Client agrees to provide the Company, with accurate information and documentation. The Client warrants that the details given are correct and accepts any responsibility for information given which proves to be incorrect.
The Client warrants that no other or third party action is being carried out that will prevent or hinder the Company, from carrying out their duties.
We will take reasonable steps to explain the associated services we will carry out for you. However, the Company does not warrant or guarantee a successful outcome and does not provide legal advice as to the prospects of success in relation to its services.
We will act for you from time to time only and on specifically agreed services only. Our service will be limited to specific items and issues you need help with only. We will keep you up to date periodically with the progress of the case and deal with your queries promptly.
We will keep your information confidential and processed in accordance with relevant privacy laws and legislation.
You also authorise us to obtain such information about your personal and financial affairs as is necessary to verify the credit risks in the provision of services to you or your client.
The Company is obliged to maintain confidentiality with respect to information obtained whilst tendering for or fulfilling a contract.
The Company will not enter into any commitment that would involve assuming the powers of the civil police.
The customer is obliged to identify and consult with the Company on any specific health and safety requirements that apply, or are likely to apply, during the period of the contract.
Our responsibility is only to you as our client. We shall not be under a duty to, nor have any responsibility towards, any other person in connection with the work we have agreed to undertake (unless that person is also a client in relation to the work), even if your intention is to benefit such a person. Except to the extent that our associates, employees and consultants can benefit, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 does not apply to this agreement
The normal hours of office opening are between 9.00am and 5.00pm weekdays only. Operational hours can extend beyond this and messages can be left with our outsourced tele handling call service who will forward calls accordingly.
Our charges will be calculated in accordance with our pricing schedule by reference to the specific work and limited scope of that work agreed with you wherever possible in advance and where required time spent by managers, enforcement agents, legal executives and other staff in respect of any work which they do on your behalf (this will include, for example, meetings with you and others, reading and working on papers, correspondence, preparation of any detailed costs calculations and time spent travelling away from the office when this is necessary and telephone calls).
Where notified our fees will be charged at an hourly rate calculated by reference to the time spent on your assigned case. Letters, emails, faxes, telephone calls, de minimis copying costs and office and admin charges will be covered by an additional charged in advance.
The current hourly rates are set as per our pricing schedule and will be quoted in advance where required and or applicable at the sole discretion of the directors of the Company. We will add VAT to these at the rate that applies when the work is done. Otherwise our charges will be reviewed regularly, and details of charges will be available on request.
We will render our bills on completion of the matter or if completion does not take place within seven days of our starting work, then at the end of that seven days and thereafter Either weekly, two weekly or monthly based on hourly rates. Our payment terms provide for settlement within 14 days.
Unless we have specifically agreed otherwise in writing, we will not be bound to pay any other charges, expenses or disbursements (other than small amounts) unless we have received funds from you.
We expect bills to be paid by you directly rather than deducted from monies held on account. However we may use monies on account to pay bills in which case we may require you to replenish the funds from time to time to maintain them at a sufficient level to cover sums we expect to incur in the next stage or stages of the matter. We will report how these funds have been used and account to you for any remaining balance after all our bills have been paid. Should we cease to act for you for any reason, any unbilled work will be invoiced without delay and any balance remaining after deduction of our fees, other charges, expenses, disbursements and vat will be returned to you.
If you have insurance which covers legal expenses please let us know so that we can consider whether we will accept instructions funded by that insurance. If so you will need to inform your insurers before any work is undertaken, and confirm their agreement to our involvement. Please remember that whatever the expected source of funding, the primary liability for payment remains with you as our client.
Where additional work is called for on our part which was not contemplated within the original work covered by the fixed fee we reserve the right to revise our charge and if a further additional fixed fee is not agreed we will charge you at the appropriate hourly rates or fixed fees as per our pricing schedule.
In addition to the time spent, we may take into account and make an additional charge for or increase the hourly rate for a number of factors including any need to carry out work outside our normal office hours, the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action has to be taken, any particular specialist expertise which the case may demand (advanced cases with substantial variable factors, in the administration or insolvencies and in matters involving a substantial financial value or benefit or loss to the client, a charge reflecting the price of said benefit or loss, the size and involvement of the assigned case or the value of the financial benefit will be considered in addition to the hourly rate).
Where the Company have to pay out various other expenses (“disbursements”) on behalf of clients to include but not limited to court fees, stationary fees, external services and provision of materials or associated costs, financial or banking fees, we have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with the cleared funds for that purpose in advance of payment. VAT is payable on certain expenses.
Where relevant we will provide you with an initial estimate of fees and expenses and give you a periodic update of them.
If, for any reason, a matter does not proceed to completion, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and or quoted inclusive of expenses incurred in associated fixed fees (rounded up) plus associated administration charges charged at the sole discretion of the Company.
In all cases we are required properly to identify our clients and ascertain their; usual residence, or other correspondence addresses; credit limit (by credit check) or another information deemed relevant. We may ask you, and by accepting our terms of business you consent, to us using electronic and other means to verify your identity and address. There will be a fee for this which at present is £16.00 plus VAT per individual or company, or where necessary company director.
Vat on Enforcement fees:
Where the creditor is VAT registered we are required to charge the VAT on enforcement fees directly to the creditor, which can then be reclaimed in the usual manner. If the creditor is not VAT registered then the VAT or an amount equivalent to VAT on enforcement fees may be recoverable from the debtor.
Periodic dates such as Christmas Eve and New Years Eve and other such dates are historically very difficult to provide cover, therefore are treated as Bank Holidays and as such attract a premium rate for services.
In the event of any increase in the cost of labour, wages, materials or other overhead expenses of any kind (including any increase due to a change in government legislation) concerned with the carrying out of the Company’s duties under this agreement on giving no less than one month, or sufficient in respects of the situation, written notice to the customer, the Company shall thereupon be entitled to make a fair increase in the charges due under this agreement.
The Client shall be entitled upon receipt of the Company’s notice of increase, give notice to the company, terminating this contract at the expiry of the notice but without prejudice to any rights of either party already accrued hereunder at the time of such termination. Any notice, shall be sufficiently served and posted to the customer of the Company at their respective last known address or left at such addresses and shall be deemed to have been duly received two days after such service.
Invoices are prepared either on completion of works, weekly, 2 weekly or monthly for either payment due on receipt of invoice or FOURTEEN (14) days, of receipt of invoice.
Depending on the works that are to be carried out we may raise a pro former invoice for payment in advance. Interest of 8% above the Bank of England base rate will be applied on a daily basis for all debts over fourteen (14) days in accordance with Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and the Late Payment of Commercial Debt Regulations 2002.
You are at all times responsible for payment to us of our total fees and other charges, expenses and disbursements without waiting for recovery of any costs or damages which any other party either agrees to pay or is ordered to pay. For the avoidance of doubt, this responsibility to pay our fees includes any shortfall resulting from limits on costs recovery imposed by the court.
If a costs order is made against you, any liability imposed on you to pay the costs of another party will be in addition to your liability to pay our fees and other charges, expenses and disbursements.
Where you are awarded interest by the court on costs, we will account to you for that interest to the extent you have paid our fees and other charges, expenses and disbursements, but we will be entitled to the remainder of the interest.
If we are ordered by the court, as your enforcement agents, to pay the other party’s costs, where we are simply following your instructions, then you will be responsible for those costs.
Where you are directly instructed by a client and or engage our services on their behalf, you will still remain ultimately liable to pay our costs and disbursements in full for actions taken on your instructions however received.
The Company reserves the right, at its absolute discretion, to withhold payment of remittance where outstanding balances are owed by the Client for past or current actions owed in relation to services employed, and or assign such funds to balances owed to the Company.
The Company reserves the right to deduct some or all the statutory or other fees due prior to making any payment to the Client. Any costs prescribed under applicable legislation which are incurred during any process will be off-set against monies recovered.
In matters relating to the recovery of money, If the Client receives payment on or after the day of instruction, or the instructing client cancels or withdraws an instruction, then the Client becomes liable for the full fees charged by the Company and agrees to fully pay all statutory fees otherwise recoverable or would be recoverable in the action of the instruction from the debtor.
In certain services (e.g. evictions, forfeitures) the Company will invoice the Client directly for the costs associated with providing the service. In such circumstances the Client will make payment of the sums due within the timescales specified on the invoice. If any element of an invoice is queried, the part of the invoice which has not been queried is to be paid in any event.
The client shall indemnify the Company against any additional costs that the Company may incur as a result of specific directions provided by the Client in the course of an instruction.
The Company reserves the right to charge late payment interest at four per cent above the base rate applied on any balance outstanding. The Client will also make payment of costs associated with debt recovery procedures, where applicable, should the matter remain unpaid beyond the terms stated.
After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us. Generally, we will keep your file of papers for you in storage for six years and we may keep them longer if we decide. Storage is on the clear understanding that we have the right and you hereby authorise us to destroy the papers and documents after such period as we consider reasonable.
We will not of course destroy any documents such as original Wills, Deeds, and other securities
We make a charge for storage in our fees to you where applicable.
For time we spend producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request we may also make a charge.
You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time and you must tell us this clearly in writing. You will be responsible for paying our fees, disbursements and VAT for any work undertaken prior to cancellation and the cost of returning any relevant paperwork. We will retain papers until all outstanding bills have been paid in cleared funds.
We may terminate this agreement with immediate effect, and prior to termination suspend our work for you, if you or any person associated or connected with you or in which you have any direct or indirect interest, is or becomes subject to financial sanctions or similar restrictive measures under the laws of any jurisdiction or if we reasonably consider this is likely to occur. We may also stop working for you for any other good reason and on reasonable notice. If the agreement is terminated by you or us, you will only be liable for our fees until termination plus VAT and other charges, expenses and disbursements.
We will be entitled to retain all your files and documents while there is money owing to us on any matter.
Any provisions of this agreement which are capable of having effect after termination, shall do so.
If we require instructions by a certain date and you fail to comply with such a request, we reserve our rights to terminate the contract and, if necessary, seek to be removed from any relevant Court records as your appointed agent. The Company reserves the right to recover in full balances and monies owed in relation to services and actions employed.
If we decide to stop acting for you in any capacity, we will tell you the reason without any requirement for a notice period.
When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company or partnership, we require a Director and/or controlling shareholder and/or partner to guarantee the charges and expenses of this firm. In that regard, you (as such a Director and/or controlling shareholder and/or partner) hereby guarantee that you will be liable for the charges and expenses of this firm should they not be paid by the Limited Company or Partnership. This constitutes a separate contract enforceable by this firm.
We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority to give financial advice.
We will not offer tax advice or advise on matters which have investment and/or tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies.
The Company is not authorised to provide legal advice in any form. Any advice provided by the Company relates strictly to the provision of services undertaken by the Company and should not be relied upon by the Client as advice in a wider context or advice relating to any litigation, dispute or other areas of law in which the Client is a party.
The Company accepts no liability for any actions which the Client may take or loss or damage which the Client incurs as a result of advice given in any communication with the Company. We recommend that you seek independent legal advice in relation to any legal issues at all times.
The Company will not be liable for any loss of income, profits, reputation, customers or loss of use or opportunity, even if we had knowledge that such damages or loss might arise or for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages or loss howsoever arising including without limitation breach of contract, negligence, willful act or default.
The Company provides no warranty on written information or correspondence sent either electronically or otherwise expressed in relation to a product or service provided or discussed unless specifically excluded by way of indemnification.
None of the content presented on any of the Company’s websites constitutes legal advice
The Client, its employees, contractors or agents shall not under any circumstances move, take down, relocate, dismantle or refit any or all of the Hired Equipment at any time. All such actions must be performed by the Company upon request by the Client and is subject to the Company’s charges. On acceptance of the goods, the Client will be deemed to accept that it will not sell, transfer, assign or let any premises where the Equipment is installed without first obtaining written confirmation to the company from the person to whom the premises are being sold, assigned or transferred/let that it agrees to be bound by these terms and conditions as if it were the Client. The first Client shall remain fully liable for any and all breaches of this Agreement.
The Company or others retained by the Company may be required to force entry to the Client’s property. The Company shall not be liable for consequences of such forced entry including without limitation any damage to property or glass breakage resulting from such forced entry.
10.1. The Client shall not sublet the Hired Equipment or transfer this Hire or the Equipment to a third party without the written permission of the Company.
The company confirm that any recorded CCTV footage will be available for 30 days. If after 30 days the customer has not requested footage to be stored it shall be deleted
Our clients and our staff are of first importance to us. We will work hard for you and we hope that you will be pleased with the work we do for you. However, should there be any aspect of our service with which you are unhappy, please raise your concern in the first place with the person dealing with your assigned case. If you still have queries or concerns, please contact Marc Mooney, who is the Managing Director.
Correspondence either in written form or sent electronically may contain confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete or destroy the said correspondence your system. E-mail transmission cannot
be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The Company therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of the correspondence, which arise as a result of transmission. If verification is required please request a hard- copy version.
The Data Protection Act 2018 is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and this requires us to advise you that your particulars are held on our database. We may, from time to time, use these details to send you information which we think might be of interest to you and you hereby authorise us so to do. We may deal with, transfer or disclose information about you for the purpose of providing you with our services, the prevention of fraud and verifying your identity and so as to comply with the law as it is from time to time.
The Company accepts such liability as would, but for these conditions, be imposed by law, subject to the following limitations and indemnity:
The Company’s liability shall not exceed the monetary limits referred to herein, no matter how the liabilities may arise and howsoever they may be caused and in relation to whomsoever and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, whether or not the same shall directly or indirectly be attributable to, or arise from, or be in any way caused or connected with or related to any breach of warranty obligations or conditions save that the limitations shall not apply to the following:
The Company shall not be held responsible for any loss or damage whatsoever arising during the period of any such deficiency in or omission of the services where such deficiency or omissions are caused by or due to pandemics, acts of war, terrorism, strikes, lock-outs, labour disputes, obstruction of any public or private road or highway or to any other circumstances outside the control of the Company.
Any loss of computers or related equipment that has not been adequately secured or in the case of laptop computers, those that have been left unattended or have not been placed in a secure location.
Any damage to computer equipment and records and financial loss arising from a computer virus and hacking.
Any claim in respect of loss or damage should be reported to the Company within seven days of the said incident, in writing, quoting the relevant crime number where appropriate. Claims will not be accepted beyond this period.
The Company will not be held responsible and will not accept liability for any plant hire goods or other equipment belonging to a third party, subcontractor or agent of the customer unless mutually agreed in writing and subject to implementation of all recommendations included in a detailed risk assessment carried out by the Company and providing that such risk assessment does not contradict or increase any liability already detailed in these Terms and Conditions.
You shall have no right to set off any sums in part or in full arising from any actual, potential or purported claim made or to be made against the Company howsoever arising or in any event until the outcome of any such claim has been determined in relation to any of our invoices rendered or any sums .
Our liability for loss or damage attributable to our negligence, breach of contract, misrepresentation or otherwise (but not in respect of fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury) shall not exceed our level of insurance cover.
A limitation of liability provision in these terms shall apply to each and every subsequent transaction or work we carry out for you unless we agree otherwise.
Where this letter is addressed to more than one client, this limit of liability applies to the total of all claims by all such clients and not separately to each client.
We shall therefore not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by you arising from changes to the law or its interpretation (and we do not undertake to alert you to any such changes) or changes in your circumstances. It is also not possible for us to guarantee that any services we provide will be successful and we shall not, therefore, be liable for any loss or damage suffered by you if and to the extent that they may not succeed.
In some circumstances the Company may outsource the services to approved third-party sub-contract company. The Company will ensure that appropriate insurances and accreditations are in place and will regularly check these documents.
Our engagement including any fee estimate and the likely timescale are based on the following:
You and any others with whom we need to liaise provide prompt, clear and accurate instructions and provide relevant information (whether or not we ask for it) and tell us promptly of any changes. We may act on your oral instructions but we may ask you to confirm these in writing.
You understand and adhere to any disclosure obligations.
Where the matter involves negotiation, those negotiations are conducted by all parties on a reasonable and professional basis and are not unduly protracted.
That there are no circumstances outside our control that delay the timely progress and conclusion of the matter.
That you pay us in accordance with these terms and provide funds for the services promptly when requested to allow for clearance.
We are not required to do work that is outside any scope that we have agreed.
In any event the Client shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its directors, shareholders and employees against all loss, damage liability or any legal claim (including legal costs) which is brought against any or all of the Company, its directors, shareholders and employees howsoever arising out of or in connection with the provision of services undertaken by the Company.
In supplying an instruction the Client provides Indemnification to the Company against all actions at law, as well as against all costs, charges, expenses and legal disbursements which you may incur or be liable to pay by reason of executing such instruction, and hereby undertake not to hold the Company or its subsidiaries accountable for any associated losses to include goods forcibly or clandestinely removed
By submitting an instruction to the Company you are signing such document electronically, and agree that this constitutes the legal equivalent of your manual signature (referred to as your “E-Signature”), acceptance and agreement as if actually signed by you in writing.
You also represent that you are authorised to provide these instructions on behalf of the creditor and will be bound by the terms of this Agreement.
A copy of our Privacy Notice is available on our website or a hard copy may be requested from us by phone, email or mail addressed to the Privacy Officer.
The Privacy Notice sets out further information about the personal data we collect and how we use it. It also provides further information about your rights in respect of your personal data held by us, including your right to make a complaint.
If you have any queries regarding your personal data, please contact our Privacy Officer.
When we provide you with our services (which may include legal services, training, administration, marketing, for other commercial purposes, or as required by law), we process personal data – either yours if you are an individual client or, if you are a corporate client, of individuals within your organisation with whom we deal. If we use this data to communicate with you about our services, you can choose not to receive these communications at any time: see the Privacy Notice on our website.
When we use Client Personal Data we do so subject to your instructions, our professional duty of confidentiality and the Privacy Laws as set out in the Data Processing Details. We process Client Personal Data supplied to, or created by, us in providing our services to you, as a Data Controller with you. In limited instances, for example where we provide trustee, trust administration or company secretarial services, we may act as Data Processor and the basis upon which we do so is set out in the Data Processor Terms.
As Data Controller of the Client Personal Data we and you shall each comply with our respective obligations under the Privacy Laws and use all reasonable efforts to assist the other to comply with such obligations as are respectively imposed on each of us by the Privacy Laws. We shall both ensure that we notify any relevant supervisory authority as required including about the use and processing of the Client Personal Data.
We and you each acknowledge and agree that we have allocated responsibility for compliance with the Privacy Laws, as set out in the Data Processing Details. You and we acknowledge and agree that the Data Processing Details are an accurate description of the Processing of Client Personal Data. Where you collect Client Personal Data, which you provide to us, you shall ensure that:
You and we shall be separately responsible for compliance with the following obligations as a Data Controller of the Client Personal Data:
Neither you nor we shall, by your or our acts or omissions, cause the other party to breach its obligations under the Privacy Laws.
The Client Personal Data we process may be transferred to our service providers and agents and may be accessible by each and every affiliate of ours (worldwide) for the provision of our services.
You agree that we may disclose that we are acting for you in our marketing and similar materials and, if in the public domain, the matter on which we have acted or are acting for you. If the matter is not in the public domain, we may only disclose the matter for marketing purposes in a generic form (and without reference to you) unless otherwise agreed between us.
If you have any queries or concerns regarding our work for you, you should raise these in the first instance with the person handling your assigned case. If you are unhappy with their response, you must write to our Complaints Manager at County, Unit 43 Riverside 2, Sir Thomas Longley Road, Medway City Estate, Rochester, Kent, ME2 4DP or at complaints@countyuk.com. Any dispute or legal issue arising from our terms and/or letter of engagement will be determined by the law of England and considered exclusively by the English Courts.
For the avoidance of fraud it is your responsibility to check with us that you are using our correct bank details for any payments to us.
If in doubt you should NOT contact us by email. Write to us by post or fax or pay us a personal visit so we can verify your identity and instructions.
The Company reserves the right at its absolute discretion right to decline any instructions without stating a reason. In such circumstances any monies paid to the Company in respect of those instructions may be refunded upon written request and approval by a Director.
Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of relevant charges and costs currently in force, these Terms of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.
Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms of Business, we will be entitled not to start work on your behalf until one copy of them has been returned to us for us to keep on our file.
This agreement shall constitute part of the contract between the parties hereto and will only be supplemented by additional service specific terms and conditions confirmed in writing by the Company. No variation of this agreement shall be of any effect unless agreed in writing and signed by a director of the Company.
This agreement shall be governed by the law of England and Wales