Terms and Conditions

All certificates supplied are original or certified copies provided by the official registers and departments specified and will be acceptable to all agencies.

Supply of information

We do not amend or alter the information given to us by you so please ensure that you complete the forms accurately.

In the event that an incorrect certificate or result is produced no liability shall attach to Official Certificates.

In the event that any mistake is the fault of Official Certificates, such liability shall only extend to the value of the product purchased from us.

Accepting your order

Official Certificates will only accept orders where it believes that the purpose for which the certificate has been ordered is legitimate and or legal.

We reserve the right to refuse your order in the event we believe the order is not for a genuine purpose.

For this purpose we require that you complete all requested fields on our application form.

Failure to complete all fields could result in delay or non acceptance of your order.

Payment Terms

Payment is provided in advance by credit or debit card using our secure payment provider HSBC secure e-payments. You will see a padlock in your browser when you leave our site and enter the secure payment screen.

Your card will be billed as OLS limited

We do not invoice and no credit terms will be given without prior agreement. We are able to accept cheques if you wish to pay by this method. However these will be subject to bank clearing and may take up to 7 days before we are able to apply for your documents. Please contact us for this option.

Breakdown of charges

Our charges constitute payment for a disbursement which is payable to the relevant government department for the search, together with an administration charge including vat which is our fee for the search. This will be detailed on your receipt which is our invoice to you.

Delivery of documents and service - Certificates

We are unable to supply certificates prior to 1837 or within 18 months of the event.

Delivery of all certificates is subject to delays by the registers and government departments who supply our documents. Any time scale given by us is advisory only, although we will endeavour to deliver your document to you in the time scale specified. We cannot therefore provide a refund where delays are beyond our control.

Unlike other services we change our delivery details on a weekly basis to reflect any delays that may be occurring in the government departments.

You are paying for our time to undertake a search of the registers of which the certificate is just one result. If in the event that your search produces a negative result, no refund will be given for non delivery of a certificate.

All our deliveries will be made by Royal Mail by first class post unless you choose another delivery method from the options on the order screen. If you do not choose a trackable delivery method and your certificate is lost in the post, we cannot be held liable for that loss and no refund will be given.

Any timescales given start from when we receive the information from you on a normal working day and not from when you submitted the information and made payment.

On occasions we may have to undertake fraud reviews where details given have been highlighted as potentially fraudulent by our bank. This may add two working days to your order.

Please note that you will also need to add at least two working days for postal delivery to take place.

For the purposes of clarification a normal working day is any day before 4.00pm, except Saturday and Sunday and bank holidays. Also the period between 24th December to 2nd January is not counted as normal working days.

By ticking the acceptance box on the order page you are deemed to have read and understood these terms and conditions of service.

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Delivery of documents and service - Change of name deeds

Your deed and certified copies will generally be sent to you by first class post on the next working day after receipt of the information by us.

Delivery of Documents and Service - Land Registry Documents

You are paying Official Certificates to search the Land Register of England and Wales to a) ascertain whether a property or land is registered and b) whether there are any documents available at the Land Registry.

This service does not cover Scotland or Northern Ireland.

You are paying for our time to carry out the search on your behalf. If after carrying out an index map search, we find that your property is not registered or documents are not yet available, you will not be entitled to a refund.

When found, documents will generally be sent to you by e-mail or post within 2 working days after receipt of the information by us. Occasionally this may have to be stretched to cover for sickness and holidays but we will never be more than a few days late.

Index Map Searches

If your property does not have a title number, we will automatically carry out an index map search to try and obtain the title number and then proceed to obtain your documents. This is not an electronic service and can take up to 14 days to obtain from the Land Registry.

The documents supplied are official office copies and can be used in any property transaction.

Problems and Complaints

Any problems and complaints should be addressed in writing to complaints@officialrecords.co.uk. Please give your full name, transaction reference number and nature of complaint, We will endeavour to answer your complaint within 48 hours of receipt.

The postal address of Official Certificates is:

Official Certificates
Alexander House
19 Fleming Way
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN1 2NG

Telephone: 0870 6260419

Email: support@officialrecords.co.uk

Refunds

You will be entitled to a refund within 7 days of purchase in the event that we have not dispatched your order to the relevant government department. This complies with The Distance Selling Directive.

If the order has been dispatched, we are unable to provide a refund to you unless the order has not been processed by us or the relevant government department has not received or processed our order on your behalf.

Privacy Policy

We are committed to protecting your privacy. We will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully (in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998).

We collect information about you for 2 reasons: firstly, to process your order and second, to provide you with the best possible service.

We will not pass your e-mail address to anyone else. Specifically, if you purchase documents from us, the information you supply to us will only be used to fulfill your order. We will not pass your details to anyone else, and we will not send you correspondence other than that related to the production of your documents.

The type of information we will collect about you includes:

• your name
• address
• phone number
• email address
• credit/debit card details (if you are purchasing documents)

We will never collect sensitive information about you without your explicit consent. The information we hold will be accurate and up to date. You can check the information that we hold about you by emailing us. If you find any inaccuracies we will delete or correct it promptly.

The personal information which we hold will be held securely in accordance with our internal security policy and the law and where applicable for no more than 6 months.

If we intend to transfer your information outside the EEA (European Economic Area) we will always obtain your consent first.

We may use technology to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to our site. This can include using a "cookie" which would be stored on your browser. You can usually modify your browser to prevent this happening. The information collected in this way can be used to identify you unless you modify your browser settings.

If you have any questions/comments about privacy, you should email us at support@officialrecords.co.uk Official Certificates is the trading name of Online Legal Services limited a company registered in England and Wales under company number 3964822 and whose registered office is 18 Marcham Road Abingdon Oxon OX14 1AA

Information on this page is current and last updated: 24/04/2007