STANDARD TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT INCLUDING RELEVANT IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO CLIENTS

These Standard Terms of Engagement ("Terms") apply in respect of all work carried out by us for you, except to the extent that we otherwise agree with you in writing.

1.SERVICES

1.1 The services which we are to provide for you are outlined in our letter of engagement.

2.1 FEES

A. The fees which we will charge or the manner in which they will be arrived at, are set out in our letter of engagement and will be in accordance with the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

B. If the engagement letter specifies a fixed fee, we will charge this for the agreed scope of our services. Work which falls outside that scope will be charged on an hourly rate basis. We will advise you as soon as reasonably practicable if it becomes necessary for us to provide services outside the agreed scope and, if requested, give you an estimate of the likely amount of the further costs.

C. Where our fees are calculated on an hourly basis, the hourly rates are set out in our engagement letter. The differences in those rates reflect the experience and specialisation of our professional staff. Time spent is recorded in 6-minute units, with time rounded up to the next unit of 6 minutes.

D. We may deduct any funds held on your behalf in our trust account for our fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.

E. In addition we charge:

1. an administration fee on any trust account credit balances we hold on your behalf in our trust account where a credit balance exists for a period of 6 months or more. Each fee charged will be a maximum aggregate amount of $75 and can be paid by deduction from any credit balance held on your behalf;
2. a fee in relation to customer due diligence required to enable us to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 Act;
3. E-dealing office fees on land transactions to cover our administration costs, together with search and/or registration fees incurred on your behalf.

2.2 DISBURSEMENTS AND EXPENSES

(a) Payments may have to be made to other people for work to be done, for example, filing fees, search fees, agency fees, service fees and similar payments (called disbursements). We cannot pay these amounts on your behalf unless we first receive payment from you. We reserve the right to ask you either for the specific amount or for an approximate amount to cover these expenses. If you pay this amount into our trust account, you authorise us to make payment on your behalf to cover these disbursements. This will ensure that we are not out of pocket.

(b) If we instruct any other person (including counsel or another practitioner), we reserve the right to require payment of that person’s estimated fees into our trust account beforehand and you authorise us to make payment to that person from the money paid into our trust account. By instructing that person, we are obligated to pay that person’s fees and accordingly we require protection for payment. We may require you to enter into a payment arrangement directly with that person.

(c) Out of pocket costs of any other services will also be charged to you.

2.3 GST (if any): GST is payable by you on our fees and charges.

2.4 Invoicing: We will send interim invoices to you, usually monthly and on the completion of the matter or termination of our engagement. We may also send you an invoice when we incur a significant expense.

2.5 Payment and interest: Invoices are payable within 14 days of the date of the invoice, unless alternative arrangements have agreed by us in writing. All payments to us must be made in full by the due date (time being of the essence) without any deduction, set off or withholding of any nature. We may require interest to be paid on any amount which is overdue. Interest will be calculated on all overdue amounts at the rate of 18% p.a., or such other interest rate as notified by us to you, with any change taking effect one calendar month after we send notice to you of that change. All costs in relation to the collection of overdue accounts will be added to your account.

2.6 Security/Prepayment: We may ask you to pre-pay amounts to us (as a retainer) at any time (whether before we start work and/or during our engagement) and from time to time, or to provide security for our fees and expenses. You authorise us to:

(a) debit against amounts pre-paid by you; and

(b) deduct from funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.

2.7 Third parties: Although you may expect to be reimbursed by a third party for our fees and expenses, and although our invoices may at your request or with your approval be directed to a third party, you will nonetheless remain responsible for payment to us if the third party fails to pay us.

3. CONFIDENTIALITY

3.1 We will hold in confidence all information concerning you or your affairs that we acquire during the course of acting for you. We will not disclose any of this information to any other person except:

A. To the extent necessary or desirable to enable us to carry out your instructions; or
B. To the extent required by law or by the Law Society's Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers.

3.2 Confidential information concerning you will as far as practicable be made available only to those within our firm who are providing legal services for you.

3.3 We will of course, not disclose to you confidential information which we have in relation to any other client.

4. TERMINATION

4.1 You may terminate our engagement at any time in writing.

4.2 We may terminate our engagement:

(a) in any of the circumstances set out in the Law Society’s Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers (which includes if you do not pay any amount to us in full when we require it from you, whether security, interest or other); or

(b) you have not complied with any requirements under any legislation.

4.3 If our engagement is terminated you must pay us all amounts in full relating to the period up to the date of the termination of our engagement together with all fees, charges and/or expenses suffered or incurred by us connected with the termination.

5. RETENTION OF FILES, DOCUMENTS, RECORDS AND INFORMATION

5.1 We will keep a record of all important documents which we receive or create on your behalf on the following basis:

(a) We may keep a record electronically and destroy originals (except for Wills and Enduring Powers of Attorney where the existence of an original is legally important). Wherever possible we will return the originals of all other documents to you.

(b) At any time, we may dispose of documents which are duplicates, or which are trivial (such as emails which do not contain substantive information), or documents which belong to us.

(c) We are not obliged to retain documents or copies where you have requested that we provide them to you, or to another person, and we have done so. However, we are entitled to retain copies for our own records if we wish to do so.

5.2 We will provide to you on request copies or originals (at our option) of all documents to which you are entitled under the Privacy Act 2020 or any other law. We may charge you our reasonable costs for doing this.

5.3 Where we hold documents (whether files, or deeds, or other forms) that belong to you or a third party, you will need to provide us with the appropriate party’s written authority to uplift to obtain those documents or to send them to another person. We may charge you our reasonable costs for doing so which must be paid prior to the release of any documents.

5.4 Unless you instruct us in writing otherwise, you authorise and consent to us (without further reference to you) destroying (or deleting in the case of electronic records) all documents held by us seven (7) years after our engagement ends, or earlier if we have converted those documents to an electronic format (other than any documents that we hold in safe custody for you or are otherwise obliged by law to retain for longer). We may retain documents for longer at our option.

5.5 We own copyright in all documents or work we create in the course of performing the services, but grant you a non-exclusive licence to use and copy the documents as you see fit for your own personal or commercial use. However, you may not permit any third party to copy, adapt or use the documents without our written permission.

5.6 Our Privacy Policy (which can be found at https://senthilmukusha.co.nz/privacy-policy) applies to your engagement of Senthil & Mukusha Limited and its provision of services to you. By accessing and using Senthil & Mukusha Limited’s services, you are deemed to have read, and agreed to be bound by, the Privacy Policy.

6. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

6.1 We are obliged to protect and promote your interests to the exclusion of the interests of third parties and ourselves as set out in the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 (Rules). This may result in a situation arising where we have a conflict of interest.

6.2 We have procedures in place to identify and respond to conflicts of interest or potential conflicts of interest. If a conflict of interest arises, we will advise you of this and follow the requirements and procedures set out in the Rules. This may mean we cannot act for you further in a particular matter and we may terminate our engagement.

7. DUTY OF CARE

7.1 Our duty of care is to you and not to any other person. We owe no liability to any other person, including for example any directors, shareholders, associated companies, employees or family members unless we expressly agree in writing. We do not accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever to any third parties who may be affected by our performance of the Services or who may rely on any advice we give, except as expressly agreed by us in writing.

7.2 Our advice is not to be referred to in connection with any prospectus, financial statement, or public document without our written consent.

7.3 Our advice is opinion only, based on the facts known to us and on our professional judgement, and is subject to any changes in the law after the date on which the advice is given. We are not liable for errors in, or omissions from, any information provided by third parties.

7.4 Our advice relates only to each particular matter in respect of which you engage us. Once that matter is at an end that is when we send you a closing statement/files, we will not owe you any duty or liability in respect of any related or other matters unless you specifically engage us in respect of those related or other matters.

7.5 Unless otherwise agreed, we may communicate with you and with others by electronic means. We cannot guarantee that these communications will not be lost or affected for some reason beyond our reasonable control, and we will not be liable for any damage or loss caused thereby.

8. The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT)

8.1 We are required to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act). We will perform customer due diligence and account monitoring, keep records and report any unusual or suspicious transactions where required by the AML/CFT Act or any other law. We will periodically advise you what information and documents are required for these purposes, which may include information about you and others (e.g. beneficial owners), information relating to the source of funds/wealth, the transaction, ownership structure and any other relevant matter.

8.2 Please promptly provide the information and documents requested. We may have to refuse to act or cease acting if we cannot meet our AML/CFT Act obligations. We may retain the information and documents or provide them to a bank or other entity (where applicable) to deal with in accordance with their terms, and disclose them to any law enforcement, regulatory agency or court as required by law or to fulfil our obligations under the AML/CFT Act (e.g. to an auditor).

8.3 You accept we may use an agent to verify your identity and conduct other due diligence required to meet our obligations, and you authorise us to exchange personal information about you and your affairs with the agent for that purpose. The agent may host your personal information for us for storage purposes and to meet our AML/CFT obligations only. You agree to pay a fee and/or the agent's costs in relation to undertaking due diligence whether or not the matter proceeds.

8.4 We may terminate our engagement and take no further steps if you fail to provide information to us in a timely fashion and/or we consider that we are required or entitled to do so by the AML/CFT Act and/or any related regulations.

9. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

9.1 Our bank (ASB) is required by law to obtain certain information about funds held in our trust account and advise the IRD, who may in turn forward the information to foreign tax authorities. The IRD has the power to compel any person, including our firm to supply such information to the IRD. The FATCA/CRS information required relates to funds held in our trust account on Interest Bearing Deposit (IBD) for an entity or individual that is a foreign tax resident. Entities are also required to disclose whether they conduct active or passive business, and whether they are financial institutions.

9.2 You agree and consent to us providing any information held by us in relation to your FATCA/CRS status or FATCA/CRS matters to the IRD and/or our bank.

9.3 You acknowledge and agree that we are unable to place funds in our trust account on IBD unless we have received your signed FATCA/CRS self-certification form. This means that interest will not be earned on your funds until we receive the signed form.

10. TRUST ACCOUNT

10.1 We maintain a trust account for all funds which we receive from clients (except monies received for payment of our invoices). If we are holding significant funds on your behalf and you have returned your signed FATCA/CRS self-certification form, we will normally lodge those funds on interest bearing deposit with a bank. In that case we will charge an administration fee of 7% of the interest derived. We may charge this fee from time to time with any change taking effect one calendar month after we send notice to you of that change.

11. PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE

11.1 We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets or exceeds the minimum standards specified by the Law Society. We will provide you with particulars of the minimum standards upon request.

12. FEES

12.1 The basis on which fees will be charged is set out in our letter of engagement. When the payment of fees is to be made is set out in our Standard Terms of Engagement. We may deduct from any funds held on your behalf in our trust account any fees, expenses or disbursements for which we have provided an invoice.

13. LAWYERS FIDELITY FUND

13.1 The Law Society maintains the Lawyers Fidelity Fund for the purposes of providing clients of lawyers with protection against pecuniary loss arising from theft by lawyers. The maximum amount payable by the Fidelity Fund by way of compensation to an individual claimant is limited to $100,000.00. Except in certain circumstances specified in the Lawyers & Conveyancers Act 2006 the Fidelity Fund does not cover a client for any loss relating to money that a lawyer is instructed to invest on behalf of the client.

14. COMPLAINTS

14.1 We maintain a procedure for handling any complaints by clients, designed to ensure that a complaint is dealt with promptly and fairly.
14.2 If you have a complaint about our services or charges, you may refer your complaint to the person in our firm who has undertaken your work.
14.3 If you do not wish to refer your complaint to that person, or you are not satisfied with that person's response to your complaint, you may refer your complaint to either Tonderai Mukusha (Partner) or Senthilraj Parthiban (Partner), Senthil & Mukusha Barristers & Solicitors by letter or email at senthilraj@senthilmukusha.co.nz or tonderai@senthilmukusha.co.nz or mary@senthilmukusha.co.nz
14.4 If you are not satisfied with the Principal’s response, you may contact The New Zealand Law Society which operates the Lawyers Complaints Service. To do so, contact

The New Zealand Law Society:

Phone: 0800 261 801
Website: https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/lawyers-complaints-service/how-to-make-a-complaint/
Email: complaints@lawsociety.org.nz

15. PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORK

15.1 The names and status of the person or persons who will have the general carriage of or overall responsibility for the services we provide for you are set out in our letter of engagement.

16. CLIENT CARE AND SERVICE

16.1 The Law Society client care and service information is set out below. Whatever legal services your lawyer is providing, he or she must:

- Act competently, in a timely way, and in accordance with instructions received and arrangements made.
- Protect and promote your interests and act for you free from compromising influences or loyalties.
- Discuss with you your objectives and how they should best be achieved.
- Provide you with information about the work to be done, who will do it and the way the services will be provided.
- Charge you a fee that is fair and reasonable and let you know how and when you will be billed.
- Give you clear information and advice.
- Protect your privacy and ensure appropriate confidentiality.
- Treat you fairly, respectfully and without discrimination.
- Keep you informed about the work being done and advise you when it is completed.
- Let you know how to make a complaint and deal with any complaint promptly and fairly.

The obligations lawyers owe to clients are described in the Rules of Conduct and Client Care for Lawyers. Those obligations are subject to other overriding duties, including duties to the courts and to the justice system. If you have any questions, please visit www.lawsociety.org.nz or call 0800 261 801.

17. LIMITATIONS ON EXTENT OF OUR OBLIGATIONS OR LIABILITY

17.1 Any limitations on the extent of our obligations to you or any limitation or exclusion of liability are set out in our letter of engagement.

18. GENERAL

18.1 These Terms apply to any current engagement and also to any future engagement, whether or not we send you another copy of them.
18.2 We are entitled to change these Terms from time to time, in which case we will send you amended Terms.
18.3 Our relationship with you is governed by New Zealand law and New Zealand courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.

19. Use of Senthil & Mukusha Limited’s Name and Advice

19.1 Senthil & Mukusha Limited’s name (either directly or by inference) must not be used by you without prior written consent of Senthil & Mukusha.

19.2 The advice provided by Senthil & Mukusha Limited is provided solely for your benefit and use by you in connection with the matter we were engaged to provide advice on. It should not be used or relied upon by you for any other purpose, nor may it be disclosed by you to any other third party without prior written consent Senthil & Mukusha Limited.

20. Entire Agreement

20.1 The terms together with the provisions of our letter of engagement to you forms the entire agreement between the parties relating to that engagement.

20.2 To the extent permissible by law all warranties, conditions, representations and liabilities or terms other than those expressly stated are excluded. In addition, we both agree not to make, and waive any right to make, any claim under sections 9, 12A or 12 of the Fair-Trading Act 1986 in respect of all matters covered by the Terms. We both agree this clause is fair and reasonable. 

20.3 If any term of the Terms is held to be invalid the enforceability of the remainder of the Terms will not be affected.

21. Limitations on extent of our Obligations or Liability: Any limitations on the extent of our obligations to you or any limitation or exclusion of liability are set out in our letter of engagement. We will not provide any financial advice (including accounting, tax or GST advice) or services beyond that incidental to the provision of the legal services for which you have engaged Senthil & Mukusha.