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Terms and Conditions

Definitions
‘I/me/my’ means Tania Taylor Genealogy, 1 Tyneview Terrace, Fellside, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 1RE. I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under the Data Protection Act, registration reference ZB706803.

‘You/Your’ means [the client]

Your information and instructions
1. Your contact and family information is treated as strictly confidential and will not be provided to any other person or organisation without your permission. If you wish me
to communicate with anyone other than you regarding your family research, I will first require your written permission to do so.

2. I may from time to time ask your permission to publish extracts from my research on my website and social media sites.

3. Occasionally I may incorporate results of research in academic coursework or assignments I set for genealogy students, in talks I give or in publications I write.
No information about living people is revealed. I will always obtain your permission before using the results of your research in this way, and any new information discovered will be communicated to you.

4. Before beginning any research, I will confirm your instructions – and my understanding of your specific research requests – in writing.

5. If you provide details of any previous research, it is your responsibility to ensure its accuracy to avoid any research being inadvertently repeated, unless you specifically instruct me to check its accuracy. Anything found during the course of the research which duplicates something you already know, or have found yourself but
have not disclosed prior to research starting, will still be billed.

6. You understand that I cannot guarantee I will be able to find any particular person(s), family or other information and that I cannot predict how successful a search will be, if at all. If a search is unsuccessful I reserve the right to charge for my time in conducting such a search.

My commitment to you
7. I offer family history research of the highest quality, delivered in such a way as to ensure clients are happy with the service they receive, are aware of progress and
feel involved at every stage and you will be kept informed as to my progress at regular intervals.

8. I will not exceed the time initially commissioned by you without prior agreement.

9. I undertake to report the findings of my research with detailed sources of the information obtained, including unsuccessful search details. Where research is not
successful, I will provide a full description of the avenues I have explored.

10. Paid time includes research, analysis, drawing charts and reporting time as well as time spent communicating with you by telephone and/or email.

11. If in the course of my research it becomes clear that research has reached an insurmountable hurdle, I may offer a partial refund of the payment received. This will depend on the length of time spent on the project before coming to this conclusion.

12. If research does not take as long as expected, or cannot progress as anticipated, any unused pre-paid research hours will be refunded to you.

13. It may be necessary on some projects for me to instruct other researchers as sub-contractors, either because of the distance to the area in which the records are held

or

because of a need for a particular subject specialist. In these cases, researchers will be carefully selected based on their specialisms and quality of work, and I will consult you before instructing them.

14. I remain the primary contact on all projects, and oversee all research conducted under the banner of Tania Taylor Genealogy.

Professional Standard
15. As a member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists (RQG), I abide by their Professional Code, which can be found online at:
www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/the-professional-code.

Pricing
16. The price I quote for your project includes:

  • research undertaken on any major genealogy website requiring an annual subscription
  • a hard copy, and electronic copies, of all reports and other materials to be supplied in accordance with what we have agreed

17. The following are not included in my standard prices, and are charged at cost:

  • copies of birth, marriage and death certificates from the General Register Office (currently priced at £12.50 for a certificate, £8 for a downloadable PDF, and £3 for a digital image viewable online)
  • research on pay-per-view websites, such as ScotlandsPeople
  • costs incurred through archive search requests, and copies of documents, when these are essential to the research
  • photography or photocopying of documents in libraries and archives
  • postage of hard copies of reports, books and any associated materials
  • public transport costs incurred in the course of my research for you
  • car mileage at £0.45 per mile

18. I will never go ahead with work that will incur extra costs, without your agreement.

Payment Terms
19. For Family History Packages and Bespoke Genealogical Research, an invoice for 50% of the cost of your project will be issued once we have agreed on the scope of the research. I will require payment of this invoice before I start work. When I have completed the project, I will send you an invoice for the outstanding balance. Once I have received your payment, I will send you your completed project.

20. If you decide that you would like to extend the scope of your research, we will agree on the number of extra research hours I should work. This will be charged at £40 per hour. For five hours’ research or less, I will invoice you for the total cost, and must receive your payment before I begin this work. For six hours’ work or more, I will invoice you for 50% of the total, which must be paid before I begin; once I have completed the work, I will invoice you for the outstanding balance, which must be paid before I send you your completed project.

21. Payment plans can be agreed at any stage of the research, but the final report and any supporting documentation will not be sent to you until full payment is received.

22. All invoices should be paid within 14 days of issue. If I have not heard from you within this time, I will assume that you no longer wish me to go ahead with your project.

Document copies
23. Documents are supplied at cost price and no documents will be purchased without your prior agreement and advance payment

24. Where a budget has been agreed, documents will be purchased without your prior agreement unless to do so would exceed the budget, in which case they will not be
purchased without your prior agreement.

25. Where copies of documents are required and a definite cost of these cannot be determined upfront, an invoice will be issued and the cost will be deducted from any
amount paid to date.

Likelihood of Success
26. It is sometimes not possible to trace a family back as far as expected or find the expected information in a particular document. Research time includes time spent searching with a negative outcome. However, all research is positive in that a particular document or direction has been ruled out. Any negative outcomes will be included in my report.

Cancellation

Your rights
27. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you the right to cancel your agreement with me at any time during the 14 working days immediately following the day that you return the copy of this letter duly signed / respond by email. It is in your interests that I start work as soon as possible. Please note, therefore, that by signing and returning this letter / confirming by email, you authorise me to start work immediately. This means if you later choose to exercise your right to cancel, you must do so in writing by completing the Cancellation Form attached and returning it to Tania Taylor, 1 Tyneview Terrace, Fellside, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 1RE, or by email to tania@ttgenealogy.co.uk. You will be liable to pay for the work I have done up to the date you cancel. The amount due will be deducted from any payment you have made to me and any balance remaining will be returned to you within 14 days of the date of cancellation.

My Rights
28. I reserve the right to decline cases where I consider the likelihood of success to be low, for example if the only information were to be a starting point of ‘his name was John Smith and he was born in the UK in about 1900’.

29. If payment is not made under the terms of this agreement and/or any invoice submitted to you, I reserve the right to cancel your instructions and discontinue work on your behalf. All outstanding payments will however remain outstanding.

30. Failure to pay may result in dispute resolution and/or court proceedings to recover any outstanding fees, which may in themselves result in further costs being payable by you.

31. If I have not received a signed copy of the letter / reply by email within 14 days I shall assume that you do not wish to proceed, and will take no further action.

Limitation of Liability
32. Documents are provided and interpreted on an ‘as is’ basis and I do not accept responsibility for any errors in those documents.

33. My liability for any actual, incidental, indirect or consequential loss or damage howsoever caused, is limited to the value of the contract.

34. The services of any third party instructed to assist in the research process are subject to these terms and conditions. If they require you to agree to their own terms
and conditions, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have read and understood them and you agree that any recourse for dissatisfaction or problems with any third party research will be sought from the third party provider.

Copyright
35. Any documents prepared by me in the process of my research, including any charts, reports, photography, transcriptions and translations remain the copyright of Tania Taylor Genealogy and should not be published without my prior consent.

36. Any material which has been digitised by and obtained from websites, remains the copyright of the individual website and will be fully acknowledged in my work. It
should not be further published.

37. Documents obtained from the General Register Office (either in pdf format or as certified copies of originals) by Tania Taylor Genealogy acting as your agent, are
owned by you, but remain the copyright of the Crown and will be fully acknowledged in my work.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
38. By agreeing to these terms and conditions you agree to me holding your personal information as is required and necessary to conduct the research on your behalf and for
me to retain them for a minimum period of 5 years as required by law.

39. Personal details or documents provided by you which contain information about living people are provided with their implied consent.

Complaints procedure
40. In the unlikely event of your not being satisfied with the research received, I will endeavour to address any issues as quickly as possible and agree a refund where
appropriate. If I am unable to resolve your complaint satisfactorily I will refer you to the RQG’s Resolution Procedure, which can be found at:
http://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Resolution-Procedure-Nov-2017-v1.pdf.

Applicable Law
41. The law applicable to this agreement shall be the law of England and Wales.

Notices
42. Any notices should be addressed to and served on Tania Taylor, 1 Tyneview Terrace, Fellside, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 1RE.

Non-performance
43. If, for reasons of injury or ill health rendering me unable to work, I am unable to fulfill your instructions, I will provide a full report of work carried out to date along with full supporting information and documentation. I will also provide my written consent for such reports, information and documentation to be passed to an alternative genealogist/family historian of your choosing. You agree to pay for all work completed up to that date; where pre-payment is made, any balance, after deduction for the work carried out, will be refunded within 14 days.

44. If, for reasons of my death, I am unable to complete your instructions, my Executors will provide a copy of the work carried out to date, along with such supporting information and documentation as they are able to ascertain from my research records. In those circumstances, these terms and conditions provide my written consent for such information and documentation to be provided to an alternative genealogist/family historian of your choosing. You agree to pay for all work completed up to that date; where pre-payment is made, any balance, after deduction for the work carried out, will be returned as soon as possible, subject to the laws of probate.

Other
45. These terms and conditions are based on the template created and freely provided by the Register of Qualified Genealogists (https://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/): Client Terms & Letter, September 2020 © Register of Qualified Genealogists, as amended by Tania Taylor, 1 Tyneview Terrace, Fellside, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 1RE.

Cancellation Form
I, [client’s name and address] hereby cancel my instructions to Tania Taylor Genealogy for [details of work which was to be carried out]. I understand that I will be responsible for any work carried out to the date of this cancellation form and agree to payment of any invoice sent to me by Tania Taylor Genealogy in this respect under their usual payment terms.

Signed:

Dated: