Important Regulatory Information
Our regulation
Our principal, Tom Ginot, is a notary public regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and is also a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Our notarial practice is regulated by the Faculty Office, and we are bound by its rules of professional conduct (including the Notaries Practice Rules 2019 and the Notaries (Conduct and Discipline) Rules 2015 and its code of practice (available at www.facultyoffice.org.uk)).
We may also provide certain non-reserved legal services (corporate legal services and legal consultancy). Such services are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and the protections available to clients of SRA-regulated firms (including the SRA Compensation Fund) do not apply to them.
How will my case be handled?
Each notarial matter is different and the requirements vary according to whether the client is a private individual or a company. That said, the typical key stages of our notarial work are likely to include:
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receiving and reviewing the document in question;
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liaising with your legal advisors or other bodies to obtain the necessary documentation (e.g. information from Companies House or foreign registries, powers of attorney etc.);
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checking the identity, capacity and authority of the person who is to sign the document;
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verifying with the relevant issuing authorities that the document or award is genuine (in the case of academic awards, this entails checking with the appropriate academic institutions);
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meeting with the signatory to verify their identity and to ascertain that they understand what they are signing and are doing so of their own free will, and ensuring that the document is executed correctly;
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drafting and affixing or endorsing a notarial certificate to the document;
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arranging for the legalisation of the document as appropriate; and
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arranging for the storage of copies of all notarised documents in accordance with the requirements of the Notarial Practice Rules 2019.
Insurance and redress
In the interests of our clients, and in line with regulatory requirements, we maintain professional indemnity insurance that covers both our notarial services and our non-reserved legal services, with a limit of indemnity of £1,000,000 for any one claim and in the aggregate. Our Notary also benefits from fidelity cover under the Notaries Guarantee Scheme arranged through the Notaries Society.
Confidentiality and data protection
We treat all client information as strictly confidential, both as a matter of professional obligation as a notary and a solicitor and under data protection law. Our practice is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and we handle personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Full details of how we collect, use and store personal data are set out in our Data Protection Privacy Notice.
Complaints
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
If you are dissatisfied about any aspect of our services, please do not hesitate to contact us in the first instance. If we are unable to resolve the matter, you may then complain to the Notaries Society, of which our principal Notary, Tom Ginot, is a member. The Notaries Society has a Complaints Procedure which is approved by the Faculty Office; it 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 call the Notaries Society or 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 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
Telephone: 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 or omission, or within one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.