Adverse possession and prescriptive rights
Breach of covenant
Completions
Deeds of variation
Landlord/tenant disputes
Licences to alter/assign
Nuisance/trespass
Paying/calculating SDLT
Plot sales
Registration of notices and charges
Reports on title
Sales and purchases
Searches
Serving notices
Voluntary lease extensions
Client Owners receive an Introducer Fee on all COL fees. Where possible, Costs on Account are advised before incurring COL fees; however, Costs on Account are essential before incurring COL fee exposure in excess of £1,000 (ex. VAT). COL fees are treated like disbursements and so rank for payment before Fee Notes. You need to give a file number before incurring COL costs. You should not incur COL time on a speculative basis or where payment by the client is in question. If you would like to request a paralegal write-off of more than one hour's time or otherwise have concerns as to the recoverability of COL fees, then you should contact Mark Healing who manages the COL Team. COLs have a standing authority that they may write off up to an hour on any matter themselves to facilitate greater ease of file administration. Where requested, the COLs can give an estimate of the time they expect to incur on any given task. Our rules as to estimates apply to COLs as well. The COLs can give an estimate or cap their fees, but need to be asked to do so before they start work on the matter in hand. The COLs can work on a CFA, but this needs to be cleared with Mark Healing or the Director of Operations and Compliance to ensure the risk and reward are properly balanced. COL time should be billed alongside your time. The COLs operates a central email address which is closely monitored. You should email COL@keystonelaw.co.uk to request COL support.
Keystone COLs report to you and you are responsible for their work and their supervision. The SRA outlines the duty of supervision in legal practice as a critical aspect of ensuring high-quality client service and to mitigate risks. The SRA's guidance emphasises that effective supervision is both a regulatory requirement and an aspect of good practice in the delivery of legal services to clients. The Law Society also provides helpful guidance in this regard.
You must ensure you give the COLs clear instructions, what you expect the finished work to look like, how you want to be updated, how long you expect it to take. It's a good idea to have the COL repeat the instructions back to you and to check in with you once they've made a meaningful start. As fee earners, they are required to record all of their time and are encouraged to devote the majority of their time to chargeable matters. COL charges are recorded in Tracker and should be billed together with your time in full at suitable intervals. If you require non-chargeable assistance, then you should contact the Administration Team. We won't charge the client for learning on the job, so feel free to give your COL instructions to get up to speed on the relevant law and procedure and to charge their time to a training file, rather than the client. However, if you do this, you must copy Mark Healing to your email.