CILEX-ACCA Probate Entities – Price and Service Transparency Regulations

Regulation 16.1

The following required information must be published on the homepage of your website, or via a link from the homepage (regulation 16.1a)):

1. price
2. service
3. complaints and
4. redress, and regulatory

If you do not have a website, you must make the required information available on request (regulation 16.1 b)).

Information about website publication is on pages 3, and 7 to 13 of the transparency guidance document.

Regulation 16.2

Price information must include:

1. The total price of the legal service being provided.
2. The basis on which the total price is calculated, for example, fixed fee or hourly rate. CILEx Regulation 2021
3. The services that are included in the published total price, and services that might reasonably be expected to be included in the published total price but are not.
4. The price of all disbursements payable, together with an explanation of the disbursement.
5. The prices and disbursements on which VAT must be paid and the amount of VAT payable.

Information about price publication is at pages 3 to 5, and Annexes A, B and C of the transparency guidance document.

Regulation 16.3

Service information must include:

1. A description of non-contentious probate.
2. The key stages of non-contentious probate.
3. Typical timescales for each stage of non-contentious probate.

Information about service publication is at pages 5 to 6, and Annexe D of the transparency guidance document.

Regulation 16.4

A CILEX-ACCA Probate Entity must publish details of its free complaints handling procedure including how and when a complaint can be referred to the Legal Ombudsman and to CILEx Regulation.

Information about complaints and redress publication is at:

• regulation 13 of the CRL ACCA Handbook
• pages 6 and 7 of the transparency guidance
• pages 4 and 5 of Regulatory Guidance for CILEX-ACCA Probate Entities
• You are required to publish a link to the Legal Ombudsman decision data page – page 10 transparency guidance.

Regulation 16.5 – 16.7

A CILEX-ACCA Probate Entity must

• state that it is required to have Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) to cover non-contentious probate and any related work (regulation 5)
• display on the company’s letter headed paper, emails and on the home page of its website the wording that it is ‘Authorised and regulated as a CILEX-ACCA Probate Entity’ followed by its Authorisation number (regulation 6).
• display on the home page of its website the CILEX-ACCA logo relating to probate for which the firm is authorised (regulation 7).

Details on publishing regulatory information is at Annex E of the transparency guidance document.

Consumers are looking for information which feeds into the quality of your services, so they can assess value for money.

As good practice we encourage publication of reviews/testimonials on your website or via a third-party platform. Independent services have been set up over recent years which collect and publish client reviews and you may wish to consider use of one of these. You can often demonstrate your commitment to consumer service by providing a positive response in the unlikely event of receiving negative feedback.

You can find additional information at page 7 of the transparency guidance document and on our website at online reviews and endorsements.