1. About Us and These Terms
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern the supply of services by Bertolini & Co. Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 16935983, whose registered office is at 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ, trading as Brücke (“Brücke”, “we”, “us”, “our”).
By accepting a quotation, signing an engagement letter, or instructing us to begin work, you (“you”, “the Client”) agree to these Terms. They form a binding contract between you and us.
Where a signed engagement letter or quotation conflicts with these Terms, the engagement letter or quotation prevails in respect of scope, fees and timescales.
2. What We Do — and What We Do Not Do
Brücke provides document preparation, financial packaging and coordination services. We organise, analyse and present your financial, personal or corporate information in a structured dossier suitable for submission to a third party — such as a bank, fund, consulate, educational institution, landlord, notary or supplier — and we coordinate ancillary services such as apostille and sworn translation.
Important — the limits of our service. We do not provide, and nothing we deliver constitutes:
- Legal advice or immigration advice. We are not solicitors and not regulated immigration advisers.
- Investment advice, financial advice or tax advice. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
- Credit intermediation, brokerage, or the placement or solicitation of investment. Our fee is payable for the preparation of a dossier and is not contingent on any funding, approval or transaction.
- Audit or assurance. We do not verify or audit the information you give us.
You should obtain independent legal, immigration, tax or financial advice from a suitably qualified and, where applicable, regulated professional. We are happy to work alongside your advisers.
3. No Guarantee of Outcome
We prepare your dossier to a professional standard. However, the decision of any third party is entirely outside our control. We give no guarantee, representation or warranty that a visa will be granted, a credit facility approved, an investment raised, a tenancy awarded, a bank account opened, a place at an institution offered, or any other outcome achieved. Our fees are payable regardless of the outcome and are not refundable on the basis that an application was unsuccessful.
4. Your Responsibilities
The quality and lawfulness of our work depends entirely on the information you provide. You agree that:
- All information and documentation you provide is true, accurate, complete and not misleading, and you are solely responsible for its veracity. We organise and present the information you supply; we do not independently verify or audit it.
- You will provide the documents on our checklist promptly, and will tell us immediately if any information changes or becomes inaccurate.
- You have the lawful right to hold and share the documents and data you provide, including any personal data relating to third parties (see our Privacy Policy).
- Any funds or assets described in a dossier are of lawful origin.
We may suspend or terminate an engagement, without refund of work performed, if we reasonably believe that information provided is false or misleading, or that the engagement would involve us in unlawful conduct.
5. Scope, Timescales and Revisions
Each service is supplied to a defined, fixed scope set out in your quotation. Work outside that scope is chargeable and requires a new or amended quotation.
- One round of revisions is included as standard. Further revisions are chargeable.
- Timescales are estimates and run from the date on which we receive your complete documentation and cleared payment of the deposit. They are not of the essence.
- If documents are outstanding, the timescale is paused and restarts when the file is complete. We are not responsible for delay caused by incomplete information, by third parties (translators, notaries, authorities), or by matters outside our reasonable control.
6. Fees, Disbursements and Payment
6.1 Our fee
Our professional fee is a fixed fee, stated in your quotation, in pounds sterling. It is payable for the preparation and delivery of the dossier, and is not contingent on any outcome.
6.2 Disbursements
Third-party costs — including apostille, sworn or certified translation, valuation, audit and legal fees — are disbursements. They are charged in addition to our fee, at cost plus a coordination charge, as shown separately on your quotation. Disbursement estimates are indicative; the amount actually charged reflects the supplier's fee and the number of documents.
Disbursements are non-refundable once incurred. Once a translator, notary or other supplier has been instructed on your behalf, that cost cannot be recovered, even if you subsequently cancel.
6.3 Payment terms
| Stage | Payment |
|---|---|
| On acceptance of the quotation | 70% deposit of the fee, plus estimated disbursements. Work begins on receipt of cleared funds. |
| On delivery of the dossier | Balance of 30%, plus any disbursements incurred above the estimate. |
Invoices are payable within 14 days. Payments are processed by Stripe. We reserve the right to charge statutory interest on late payment and to suspend work while an invoice is overdue. VAT is charged where applicable, at the rate determined by your location and status.
7. Cancellation and Refunds
7.1 Consumers — statutory right to cancel
If you are a consumer (an individual acting outside your trade or profession) and you contract with us at a distance (online, by email or by telephone), you have a statutory right to cancel within 14 days of entering the contract, without giving a reason.
If you ask us to start work during the 14-day period — which is usually necessary, because these matters are time-sensitive — you expressly request that we begin, and you acknowledge that:
- If you then cancel within the 14 days, you must pay for the work performed up to the point of cancellation, proportionate to the full contract price, together with any disbursements already incurred on your behalf; and
- You lose the right to cancel once the service has been fully performed (that is, once the dossier has been delivered).
To cancel, write to us at hello@brucke.co.uk. We will refund any sum due within 14 days of being informed.
7.2 Business clients
Where you contract with us in the course of a business, the statutory cancellation right does not apply. On cancellation, the deposit is non-refundable, and you remain liable for work performed and disbursements incurred.
8. Liability
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. Your statutory rights as a consumer are not affected.
Subject to the paragraph above:
- We are not liable for the decision of any third party, or for any loss arising from an unsuccessful application, refused visa, declined credit, or failed transaction.
- We are not liable for loss arising from information you provided that was inaccurate, incomplete or misleading.
- We are not liable for the acts, omissions or delays of third-party suppliers (translators, notaries, auditors, valuers, authorities), although we will use reasonable care in selecting and coordinating them.
- We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, opportunity, goodwill or anticipated savings.
- Our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with an engagement, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited to the professional fees paid by you for that engagement.
We maintain professional indemnity insurance appropriate to our activities.
9. Intellectual Property
We retain ownership of our templates, methodologies, know-how and working materials. On payment in full, you receive a licence to use the delivered dossier for the purpose for which it was prepared. You may not resell it, or hold it out as the work of another.
10. Confidentiality and Data Protection
We treat your information as confidential and disclose it only as necessary to deliver the service (including to the counterparty for whom the dossier is prepared and to our suppliers), or where required by law.
We process personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. Where a service requires the processing of criminal record certificates or other special category data, we do so on the basis of your explicit consent.
11. Anti-Money Laundering and Compliance
We are required to carry out customer due diligence. You agree to provide identification and source-of-funds information on request. We may decline or terminate an engagement, and may be obliged to make a report to the authorities without notifying you, where we have concerns about the lawfulness of the matter or the origin of funds.
12. Complaints
If you are unhappy with our service, please write to hello@brucke.co.uk setting out your concern. We will acknowledge within 5 working days and respond substantively within 20 working days.
13. General
- Force majeure: we are not liable for failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
- Assignment: you may not assign your rights without our written consent.
- Severability: if any provision is held unenforceable, the remainder continues in force.
- Third parties: a person who is not a party to the contract has no right to enforce it.
- Entire agreement: the quotation, engagement letter, these Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between us.
- Changes: we may amend these Terms; the version in force at the date of your quotation applies to that engagement.
14. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, you retain the benefit of any mandatory protections of the law of your country of residence.