Ridley and Hall is the trading name of Ridley & Hall Legal Limited a company incorporated and registered in England and Wales (registered number 09071325) which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority ref no. 614166.

INTEREST POLICY

As part of carrying out your instruction to us, we may need to hold your money in our client account. In holding clients money, we have an obligation to pay interest on that money at a fair and reasonable rate and are required to put in place an interest policy. This policy sets out the guidelines for when interest will be paid and is summarised below.

We aim to account to you for interest at a reasonable rate of interest. However as the holding of funds is incidental to the carrying out of your legal instructions, the rate is unlikely to be as high as the rate you may be able to obtain when depositing the money we hold on your behalf yourself. In all cases we must ensure that money held on client account is immediately available and so the need for instant access is taken into account when setting the rate of interest payable by us.
We align our interest rates paid on general client account to the Natwest Bank Client Deposit account or nearest equivalent as appropriate, assuming this will offer a fair and reasonable outcome for the client and the firm. This rate is likely to change from time to time**.

Where amounts are held outside of a general client account or separate designated deposit account, the rate of interest and date that interest is credited will depend on the relevant institution where the funds are held and as such fall outside the requirements of this policy. The relevant interest information can be obtained at your request.

Where your money is held in our general client account, any interest paid to you is paid without any deduction for income tax (unless you are resident overseas – see below). As such it is your responsibility to inform HMRC of interest amounts received from us and the implications of this will depend upon your own financial circumstances.  Where funds are held in a separate designated deposit account interest is usually paid net of tax (unless you have signed a declaration confirming your entitlement to receive gross  bank interest). The same rate of interest will be paid on money held in a general client account as will be paid on money held in a separate designated deposit account, assuming that this is a fair and reasonable outcome for the client and the firm.

Interest will be calculated from the time the funds become cleared funds in our account. Interest will be calculated on a daily basis and calculated on amounts held overnight from the day the funds become cleared for interest purposes.

Interest will not be paid if the total interest due over the life of the matter is less than £50.

Interest will be calculated at the end of the matter and will credit the client ledger at that date.  Any accrued interest will be included with any final payment made to you by cheque or bank transfer. We will inform you of any interest credited to your account.

** The interest rate paid on Natwest Bank Client deposit Account is a gross rate per annum of 1.05% in May 2023.