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Terms and conditions

Terms and conditions

  1. About Willfully
    1. Willfully is a trading style of Willfully Ltd, 76 King Street, Manchester, England, M2 4NH
      1. Email: [email protected]
      2. Web Site: https://willfully.co.uk
    2. In these Terms of Business all first-person terms such as ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refer to the Firm and not to any Partner, Director, Consultant or Employee personally or to any combination of Partners, Directors, Consultants or Employees collectively. By accepting these Terms of Business, you are entering into an agreement with the Firm and not with any Partner, Director, Consultant or Employee personally or with any combination of Partners, Directors, Consultants or Employees collectively. The fact that an individual Partner, Director, Consultant or Employee signs in his or her own name any letter or other document in the course of carrying out his or her work does not mean he or she is assuming any personal legal liability for that letter or document. 
  2. Terms of Business Willfully 
    1. These Terms of Business may not be varied unless agreed in writing and signed by a Director. They should be read in conjunction with our Client Care Letter which sets out the basis on which we act for you and any documents referred to in that letter. Together these form the ‘Agreement’ between us relating to each matter on which we advise you.
    2. These terms, including the limits on our liability in clause 14, shall apply to all work done by us for you (and any work to be done in the future) unless we otherwise notify you in writing.
    3. If any provision of the Agreement is inconsistent with our legal obligations under the applicable laws then the applicable laws shall apply instead of those terms.
  3. Who can buy an online will
    1. You need to:
      1. Be 18 or over
      2. Be able to independently navigate the online journey to create your document
      3. Be able to read and understand the documents we send you without assistance
      4. Require a document capable for use as a will in either England (including Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight) or Wales
      5. Be a permanent resident in the United Kingdom
    2. You won’t be able to buy an online will from us in some circumstances, which include but are not limited to: agricultural property, business assets, assets you have outside of the United Kingdom requiring specialist advice, an estate over the value of £1,000,000 or if you have complicated circumstances or require specialised tax advice (including in relation to inheritance tax).
    3. When registering for an online will you will be asked questions pertinent to your suitability for the service. It is really important that you provide correct and accurate information to us and only proceed if you are suitable for an online will.
    4. Paying for your document (or using a voucher to redeem a free will) means that you agree to these terms and have read and understood our privacy policy. We accept your order when you pay (or redeem a voucher), and at this point a contract is formed between you and us. Unless we both agree otherwise, our contract will terminate automatically once we’ve provided the service to you. Our service is provided to you when your document is either posted to you or available for download.
  4. The Service

This service is for the provision of:

  1. Access to the online journey so you can write your document
  2. Access to guidance to help you to write your document
  3. Guidance and support from our team to help you navigate the online journey and to complete your document
  4. A review of your document as explained below
  5. A document in English that you have written for use as a will in either England (including Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight) or Wales
  6. A document capable for use as a will emailed or posted to you with signing instructions and the guidance outlined above

You will be asked a series of questions on the online journey and the answers you give will generate the content of your document. It is really important that you provide correct and accurate information to us, for example about the identity of any parties (for example beneficiaries). It is your responsibility to check the document to ensure it is correct and fully reflects your wishes.

When we review the document the review is not substantive, is not legal advice and should not be relied on as legal advice. We will not be responsible for identifying all errors or for ensuring the document is fit for your own purpose(s).

If you are part of a couple and your partner prepares their own document with us, your document will be reviewed individually and not with your partner’s document.

You prepare your own individual document when using our service. If you are part of a couple and your partner prepares their own document with us, your document will be reviewed individually and not with your partner’s document. If you require a couples will (also known as a mirror will) or if you are part of a couple and wish for your document to be reviewed together with your partner’s document, please use our telephone service.

The document review will check for:

 

  1. Typographical errors (except for dates of birth, addresses, place names and/or other text where it would not be reasonable for us to know whether these are correct or incorrect)
  2. Contradictions
  3. Whether your stated wishes and instructions are compliant, clear and unambiguous
  4. Whether your document is sufficiently detailed to allow your executors to distribute your estate to beneficiaries in accordance with your stated wishes and instructions

Where the document review flags that the document needs further information or additional input from you (for example, in the case of a contradiction or typographical error), we will either (i) highlight this to you when the document is available for download; or (ii) contact you directly to clarify or discuss what further information or additional input is required from you.

  1. Excluded from the service
    1. When providing the service we have no responsibility and will accept no liability for verifying:
      1. your testamentary and/or mental capacity
      2. that you will be treated as domiciled in one of England (including Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight) and Wales at the time of your death
      3. whether you are or were subject to any undue influence when instructing us
      4. whether you knew, understood and approved the contents of your Will
      5. whether there were or might be any actual or potential third party beneficiary(ies) who might have a claim in law against your Estate.

We have no responsibility for verifying any of the information provided to us by you online, in writing, or over the telephone and we will prepare your Will or any other documents relying on you having correctly stated all information given to us online, in writing, or over the telephone as the case may be.

  1. We do not advise on the laws and regulations of jurisdictions other than England & Wales.
  2. Our service includes a document preparation service and is not a legal advice service. You will not be given specific legal advice on writing your document. We will not assess or certify that our service is right for you. After reading these terms and our guidance, including the online suitability questions pre-registration, you should satisfy yourself that our service meets your requirements and is satisfactory for your purposes and any legal requirements.
  3. We do not provide a couples will (also known as a mirror will). If you are part of a couple and wish for your document to be reviewed together with your partner’s document, please use our telephone service.
  4. Our service does not include a duty to supervise the execution of any will nor to take responsibility for the will being correctly executed. We will provide you with instructions on how to sign your will in accordance with the law of England and Wales.
  5. We do not assume any responsibility nor will we accept liability for failing to provide later advice on the terms of any will we prepare on your behalf should future taxation changes or any other changes in the law render their terms inappropriate. The responsibility for future reviews of the terms of your will rests with you.
  6. Whilst we have a degree of understanding of the taxation that is relevant to an individual or corporate entity, of value added tax, and of other forms of tax, we are not qualified to give any tax advice. You should take the professional advice of a tax specialist if the work we are doing for you has tax implications. If you instruct us to proceed with a transaction, we will proceed on the basis you have sought appropriate professional tax advice. If you want us to help you appoint an appropriate professional, it is your responsibility to ask.
  7. We do not provide financial advice generally, or comment upon the commercial viability of any transactions upon which we advise. Nothing we say to you or do in the course of our Agreement with you should be taken as advice on the commercial or financial viability of any investment you choose to make. The commercial or financial viability of any transaction is entirely a matter for you and is strictly excluded from the scope of our Agreement with you.
  8. Your Duty to Retain and Preserve DocumentsIf now, or at any time in the future, any matter on which we act for you is the subject of formally contested proceedings, whether in the courts or other tribunals, you will almost certainly have to disclose documents, including electronic documents, relevant to the matter. You should ensure that you do not destroy or allow to be destroyed any documents that relate to such matter in any way however slight you believe the connection may be), as your position in such proceedings could be seriously compromised if you do so.
  9. Copyright
    1. Unless we agree otherwise, all copyright which exists in the documents and other materials that we create whilst carrying out work for you will remain our property. You have the right to use such documents and materials for the purposes for which they are created, but not otherwise.
    2. If you use such documents for any purpose other than that for which they were created we are not responsible to you for any losses that you may suffer as a result.
    3. Unless otherwise required by law or court order, you agree not to make our work, documents or materials available to third parties without our prior written permission. Our work is undertaken for your benefit alone and we are not responsible to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that you make available to them.
  10. Website Use
    1. We will do our utmost to ensure that the availability of our website and service will be uninterrupted and transmissions will be error-free. However, due to the nature of the internet, this cannot be guaranteed. Your access may also be occasionally suspended or restricted to allow for updates and maintenance. We will try to limit the frequency and duration of updates and maintenance.
    2. We aim to update our website regularly and may change it and the content on it at any time without letting you know. We do not guarantee that the information on our website is up to date, complete or accurate at any given time.
    3. We grant you a non-transferable, non-exclusive, revocable, limited licence to use and access our website for your own personal, non-commercial use. In using our website you agree not to:
      1. license, sell, rent, lease, transfer, assign, distribute, host, or otherwise commercially exploit our website, whether in whole or in part, or any content displayed on it
      2. modify, make derivative works of, disassemble, reverse compile or reverse engineer any part of our website
      3. access our website in order to build a similar or competitive website, product, or service
      4. except as permitted in our terms, not copy, reproduce, distribute, republish, download, display, post or transmit our website in any form or by any other means
    4. Excluding any user content (meaning any and all information and content that you submit to, or use with our website), you acknowledge that all the intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trade marks, and trade secrets, in our website and its content are owned by us or our suppliers. Neither these terms or your access to our website transfers to you or any third party any rights, title or interest in or to such intellectual property rights and we reserve all rights not granted in these terms and conditions. There are no implied licences granted under these terms.
  11. Willfully accountYou are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Willfully account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and to the extent permitted by applicable law you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. You should take all necessary steps to ensure that your password is kept confidential and secure and should inform us immediately if you have any reason to believe that your password has become known to anyone else, or if the password is being, or is likely to be used in an unauthorised manner. In such a case, we reserve the right to immediately withdraw or suspend access and/or alter your password.
  12. Client Satisfaction
    1. We operate strict client care and quality policies and always aim to be available, approachable, understandable, prompt and courteous.
    2. We will keep you informed about all important developments in your case and we will respond to your letters, emails and telephone calls promptly and efficiently.
    3. The majority of our clients are very happy with the service we provide them, but in the event that you have any cause for concern, including about a bill, then please be aware that you are entitled to make a complaint, and that you can do so by emailing [email protected]. We take all feedback from clients seriously and operate a Complaints Handling Procedure, a copy of which is available upon request.
    4. We are usually able to deal with any concerns you have promptly and to your satisfaction, but if this is not the case, you will be able to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman provided you do so within six months of the end of our internal complaints procedure if you are still not satisfied with the outcome.
    5. In addition, there are time limits for bringing a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, linked to the date of the act or omission giving rise to a complaint or the date on which you should reasonably have known there were grounds for a complaint. The relevant time limits are set out in the version of the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules in force from time to time and may only be extended by the Legal Ombudsman in exceptional circumstances. If you wish to bring a complaint to him, you should refer to the version which is in force at the time of your complaint. The Rules can be accessed at: www.legalombudsman.org.uk).
    6. You should also be aware that, when your complaint relates to a bill, the Legal Ombudsman will not consider your complaint while your bill is being assessed by a court.
    7. Legal Ombudsman Contact Details:
      1. Address: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
      2. Telephone: 0300 555 0333
      3. Email: [email protected]
      4. Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
    8. The Firm is committed to ensuring that all Directors, Consultants and Employees give their full cooperation to the Legal Ombudsman in the event of any dispute or complaint against the Firm.
  13. Price and payment
    1. Where our Client Care Letter states that we are charging on a fixed fee basis, additional services may be provided on request and (unless otherwise agreed by us in writing) will be charged at our standard hourly rates as set out in our Client Care Letter.
    2. The price you pay for your will is the price that is communicated to you when you make your order online. You may use a voucher, provided it is valid.
    3. Subject to your Cancellation Rights, we don’t provide refunds if you decide not to sign your document.
    4. We work with several partners, such as charities and sports clubs who through our partnership, enable customers to benefit from a discounted or free service. We may also provide vouchers to customers directly (for example, to share with friends and family).
    5. If you use a voucher associated with a partner, we will share some of your personal data with that partner in accordance with our privacy policy and they will become an independent data controller of your personal data. You may also see prompts and/or information during the sales process which relates to the partner associated with the voucher. We may benefit from a fee if you have been referred to us by a partner. Our client care letter will contain specific details of these if they apply.
    6. Vouchers are non-transferable, non-refundable, cannot be resold or otherwise exchanged for cash, are subject to fair usage and their use may be subject to the partner’s additional terms. A voucher does not automatically entitle you to access our service as use of our service always remains subject to these terms. A valid voucher can be used during the sales process. The voucher code must be redeemed by you prior to you paying for the service. Only one voucher can be used per sale.
    7. Sometimes we may run promotions for our services, including with our partners. We’ll set out the terms of these in any promotional material.
  14. Storage of Documents and Deeds
    1. We retain all documents relating to your matter (other than any documents which are in your possession or returned to you) for at least twenty one years from the conclusion of our involvement in the matter. You agree that we may destroy them after that time. We will not destroy documents you ask us to deposit in our deeds store.
    2. If you ask us to retrieve documents from storage there is a charge, which is normally £25 plus VAT for each matter, although we will not normally charge that fee if we retrieve documents to enable us to carry our further work for you. We will charge, however, for any work necessary to comply with instructions given by you in connection with retrieved documents. Unless otherwise agreed with you in writing, those charges will be at our hourly rates applicable at the relevant time and those charges will be applied on the same basis as set out in clause 8.
  15. Limitation of Liability
    1. You agree that the limitations on our liability, as set out in our Agreement with you, are reasonable having regard to the nature of your instructions and the work involved and the availability and cost of professional indemnity insurance. We are, however, happy to consider options to increase these limitations, should you so require (which may result in an increase to our fees).
    2. We will undertake the work relating to your matter with reasonable skill and care.
    3. We accept liability without limit for the consequences of fraud by us or any of our Directors, Consultants or Employees which is affected in their capacity as Directors, Consultants or Employees and for any other liability which we are not permitted by law or rules of professional conduct to limit or exclude. If any part of our Agreement with you seeks to exclude, limit or restrict liability (including provisions limiting the amount we will be required to pay or limiting the time you have to bring a claim) is found by a court to be void or ineffective for any reason, the remaining provisions shall continue to be effective.
    4. We will not be liable under our Agreement with you or the laws of negligence for any deficiencies in the work we have undertaken if and to the extent that deficiencies are due to any false, misleading or incomplete information or documentation which has been provided to us (whether by you or any third party) or due to the acts or omissions of you or any third party. However, where any failure by us to identify any such false, misleading or incomplete information (or any failure by us to inform you that we have identified such information or any failure to act on your resulting instructions) constitutes negligence then we shall, subject to the other provisions of our Agreement with you, remain liable for such failure.
    5. Despite anything else contained in our Agreement with you, we are not under any obligation to act for you (or to continue to act for you) if to do so would breach any laws or professional rules. Therefore, we will not be responsible or liable to you for any loss which you or any other party may suffer as a result of our refusal to proceed with your matter where we would be in breach (or we reasonably believe that we would breach) of our legal obligations or our professional rules.
    6. Except as stated in clauses 12.3 and 12.12, the total aggregate liability of the Firm to you under or in connection with our Agreement with you (including any addition or variation to it), whether for breach of contract, negligence, breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, shall not exceed £3,000,000.00 (three million pounds).
    7. Where we are instructed jointly by more than one party, the limit on our liability applies, in total, to all of you collectively (including anyone claiming through you or on your behalf).
    8. You agree that you will not bring any claims or proceedings in connection with our Agreement with you against our Directors, Consultants or Employees personally, unless (and to the extent that) you are otherwise permitted to do so by law or our professional rules. Our Employees may enforce this clause even though they are not parties to our Agreement with you (but despite having such rights, our Agreement with you may be varied or ended without their consent).
    9. Proceedings in respect of any claim against us must be commenced within six years after you first had (or ought reasonably to have had) both the knowledge for bringing an action for damages and the knowledge that you had the right to bring such an action and, in any event no later than six years after any alleged breach of contract, negligence or other cause of action. This provision expressly overrides any statutory provision which would otherwise apply; it will not increase the time within which proceedings may be commenced and may reduce it.
    10. If we and any other party or parties are liable to you together in respect of the same claim, then we shall only be liable to pay you the portion which is found to be fair and reasonable having regard to the level of our default. Therefore, we shall not be liable to pay you the portion which is due to the fault of such party, even if you do not recover all or any money from such other party for any reason.
    11. If we are liable to you and any other party or parties would have been found liable to you together with us in respect of the same claim if either:
      1. You had also brought proceedings or made a claim against them; or
      2. We had brought proceedings or made a claim against them for a contribution towards our liability,

then any sum due from us to you shall be reduced by the proportion for which such other party or parties would have been found liable had those proceedings been brought or those claims been made.

  1. Nothing in our Agreement with you excludes or limits the liability of the Firm for:
    1. Death or personal injury caused by negligence;
    2. Fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
    3. Any liability if and to the extent that it is not permissible in law for such liability to be limited or excluded.
  2. Confidentiality, Privacy & Data Protection
    1. We will keep your information confidential and will not disclose it to third parties except with your consent or as permitted or required by law.
    2. Further information about our duties and your rights under data protection law, including about your right to access the data we hold on you, can be found in our Privacy Notice, which is on our website and which accompanies these Terms of Business, but, for the avoidance of doubt, is for information purposes only and does not form part of the agreement between us.
    3. If, with your knowledge, we are working with other professional advisers or lawyers, we will assume that we may disclose any relevant aspect of your affairs to them.
    4. During the course of the firm’s work it may be necessary to discuss your case with cost specialists, experts or counsel. Your acceptance of these Terms of Business amounts to your consent to us to disclose information which we reasonably consider necessary to progress your case.
    5. The firm may, from time-to-time, become subject to periodic checks by Law Society approved Consultants and/or Assessors to audit and review files for compliance purposes. This means that your file could be selected for checking, in which case we would need your consent for the checking to occur. All such checks are conducted by individuals who have provided the firm with a Confidentiality Agreement. Your acceptance of these Terms of Business amounts to your consent to make your file available for checking. If you do not want us to make your file available for checking you must notify us immediately and we will mark your file accordingly. If you refuse to give us consent to checks, your refusal will not affect the way your case is handled in any way.
    6. Where you provide us with an Email address for sending material to, we will assume, unless you tell us otherwise, that your arrangements are sufficiently secure and confidential to protect your interests. The Internet is not secure and there are risks if you send sensitive information to us by Email. Data we send by email is not routinely encrypted, so please tell us if you do not want us to use email as a form of communication with you or if you require data to be encrypted. Email will be treated as written correspondence and we are entitled to assume that the purported sender of an email is the actual sender and that any express or implied approval or authority referred to in an email has been validly given. You consent to us monitoring and reading any email correspondence travelling between you and any mail recipient at the Firm.
    7. We will take reasonable steps to protect the integrity of our computer systems by screening for viruses on email sent or received. We expect you to do the same for your computer systems.
    8. If, with your knowledge, we are working with professional advisers or others, such as specialists and experts, we will assume that we may disclose any relevant aspect of your affairs to them. Your acceptance of these terms of business amounts to your consent to us to disclose information which we consider necessary to progress your matter.
  3. Referrals to Third Parties
    1. If we recommend that you use a particular firm, agency or business, we shall do so in good faith and because we believe it to be in your best interests. If we recommend that you use a particular firm, agency or business that can only offer products from one source, we shall notify you in writing of this limitation. We will pay to you any commission that we receive from any particular firm, agency or business that we recommend you use.
  4. Hours of Business
    1. Our offices are open between 9.00am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday, excepting bank holidays. We do not provide an out of office or emergency service to clients. The person responsible for your matter may, at his or her absolute discretion, provide you with a mobile telephone number, and may endeavour to take your telephone calls outside of office hours, but nothing he or she says should be interpreted as an agreement to routinely deal with your matter or to take your telephone calls outside of office hours.
  5. Anti- Money Laundering
    1. Identity Checks
      1. We shall inform you in our Client Care Letter whether the Anti-Money Laundering Legislation applies to you.
    2. All solicitors are obliged to carry out customer due diligence (“CDD”) in accordance with the UK anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime. This includes us obtaining and keeping documentary evidence of the identity of clients and gaining an understanding of their financial status and normal business affairs.
    3. Disclosure to the Authorities etc.
      1. We are in certain circumstance obliged under Money Laundering Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘POCA’) as amended by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (‘SOCPA’) to make a report to the National Crime Agency (‘NCA’) where we are suspicious that any matter or transaction in which we are instructed involves the proceeds of criminal conduct. We may be prohibited by law from informing you or anyone else when such a report has been made, and it is possible that we may not be allowed to proceed with the transaction or matter concerned until NCA gives us permission to do so. We may not be permitted to tell you anything about any of these circumstances should they occur.
      2. If any term or provision of these terms of business or our Client Care Letter is inconsistent with complying with our legal obligations under Anti-Money Laundering Legislation, our legal obligations will override the inconsistent term which shall be deemed modified accordingly.
      3. We will not accept any liability for any loss caused to you or any other party as a result of our refusal to proceed with a matter or transaction or otherwise complying with our legal obligations.
    4. Cash Payments

      We will not accept payments from you in cash.
  6. Equality & Diversity
    1. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our Equality and Diversity Policy.
    2. If you have any special requirements in relation to the way in which you would like us to handle your work, (for example, if you consider yourself to have a disability) please let us know.
  7. Rights of Third Parties Except as stated otherwise in clause 13, a person who is not a party to our Agreement with you shall not be entitled to enforce any of its terms
  8. Applicable Law, etc.
    1. These terms and our Client Care Letter shall be governed by, and interpreted in accordance with English law. Any disputes or claims concerning our Agreement with you and any matters arising from it shall be dealt with only by the courts of England and Wales.
    2. If we or you do not enforce our respective rights under our Agreement with you at any time it will not prevent either us or you from doing so later.
    3. If any provision in our Agreement with you is found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the other provisions of our Agreement with you which shall remain in full force and effect.
  9. Termination
    1. You may end our Agreement with you (and therefore, your instructions to us) at any time by writing to us by post, fax or email. However, we may be entitled to keep all of your documents and deeds while there is money owing to us (including fees and expenses which have not yet been billed).
    2. We may end our Agreement with you (and, therefore, cease acting for you) in relation to any matter or all matters of yours but only on reasonable written notice and for good reason. Examples of a good reason include where you have not given us sufficient instructions, told us information which means in our reasonable opinion that our service is not right for you, where you have not provided appropriate evidence of identification or we reasonably believe that the relationship between you and us has broken down.
    3. If your matter does not conclude, or we are prevented from continuing to act because of our legal obligations or our professional rules, we will charge you for any work we have actually done. Our charges will be based on our agreed fixed fee, and the charges will not exceed that fixed fee.
    4. There may also be times where our service is delayed or we cannot provide our service to you because of an event outside our control. If that happens, we’ll aim to contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we’ll take reasonable steps to minimise any effects of the delay.
  10. Cancellation Rights
    1. If you are an individual consumer (and not a business entity) and if our Agreement with you is a ‘distance contract’ or an ‘off premises contract’, you usually have the right to cancel our Agreement with you within 14 days of conclusion of our Agreement with you (the ‘cancellation period’). ‘Conclusion of our Agreement with you’ means 14 days from the ‘our Agreement Date, defined at the beginning of our Agreement with you. This right exists in accordance with The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.
    2. Prior to you receiving your will for download you have the right to cancel the service without giving any reason.
    3. However, due to the personalised nature of the document and document review the cancellation right no longer applies once you have received the document for download.
    4. If you cancel prior to you receiving the document for download, we will refund the payment you made for the document.
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