Terms & Conditions

Thank you for considering Amanda-Louise Funeral Services to arrange your funeral. We are a member of The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) and The Association of Green Funeral Directors, and subscribe to their current Code of Practices, copies available upon request.  We will work hard to deliver the funeral that is right for you and for the person whom has died in a smooth way. We aim to act in a professional manner and provide courteous, sensitive and dignified service to you.  

This document details our terms and conditions, which we are required to issue with regards the terms on which we are providing our services to you.

Our ethos is being transparent, to speak in plain language, be honest and provide clear and concise information, so we have summarised the key important points of our terms and conditions next for your ease, with the information in full underneath.

Amanda-Louise  Funeral Services Key Points

·         We work on the basis that you have  the right to arrange the funeral of the person who has died. This means that  you have agreed with other relatives and anyone else with rights about the  type of funeral that you’re arranging, and you have established if the  deceased had left any funeral instructions and if they had pre-paid for their  funeral.

·         You are fully responsible for all  costs attached to the funeral that you ask us to arrange. We must receive  payment for that funeral in full , five working days before the date of the  funeral.

·         If you’re applying for funds from  the government or other sources, and if they don’t give you funding or only  fund part of the funeral, you will still be responsible for paying the full  amount. You are required to pay us, and then if your DWP claim is successful, they will pay you directly.

·         Legislation allows you to cancel a  contract within 14 days. However, you may ask us to arrange a funeral more  quickly than this would allow. Therefore, you need to agree for us to start work immediately. You will be liable for any costs that we incur on your  behalf should you decide to cancel.

·         We’ll hold your personal data safely, in line with our data privacy policy.

 What do I need to do next?

·       Please read the following terms and conditions in full.

·       Contact our team if there is anything you are unsure about. We’re happy to help and to answer questions.

·       Sign the document on the final page to confirm that you accept the full terms and conditions. However, notwithstanding your signature, the contract will come into force when we accept your instructions to us to provide you with our services.

Terms And Conditions For Amanda-Louise Funeral Services

You are asked please to read and sign this document to indicate your agreement of such terms, and we are happy to answer any queries you may have.  If we do not receive this document signed byyou, a legal contract between “you” (as our client) and “we” “us” “our” (Amanda-Louise Funeral Services) incorporating these terms and conditions, will come intoforce when Amanda-Louise Funeral Services receive your instructions either verbally or in writing and/or our acceptance of those instructions orally or by email to you. These terms and conditions take precedence over any other documentation or communication between you and Amanda-Louise Funeral Services.

Amanda-LouiseFuneral Services Obligations

When you briefus, we will give you an indication of the costs of our Services. Following theinitial meeting between you (the “Initial Meeting) and our funeral director,whether in person or online, Amanda-Louise Funeral Services will provide an estimate of the costs, including expenses, as soon as possible, and in anyevent, at least four days prior to the funeral (the “Fees”). By continuing withour Services, you will be deemed to have accepted such Fees and will be liable topay them in accordance with these terms.

We will work to the best of our abilities to ensure that your wishes, and those of theperson who has died, are honoured. If it transpires, following the family meeting, that certain requests can’t be met because of family circumstances ormatters outside of our control, we will assist in making alternative arrangements, but we will not accept any liability for additional costs orlosses that may arise as a result.

Your Obligations

Before we cantake a person who has died into our care, that a suitably trained registered healthcare professional has confirmed or verified the death or pronounced life extinct; you are to ensure that this has taken place.

That you havethe right to arrange the funeral of the person who has died, and that you havecapacity and/or permission to do so. This also means that you have agreed with other relatives and anyone else with rights about the type of funeral that youare arranging.  You are also responsiblefor paying all the Fees/Invoice(s). You will also have checked if the person left any funeral instructions themselves, and taken those wishes into account when making your decisions and if they had taken out a pre-paid funeral planprior to their death (and inform us of such).

You are responsible for registering the death of the person who has died and providing us with all the necessary paperwork to conduct the funeral. We will guide you through this process.

You will provide us with full detailed instructions at our initial meeting. If your plans or the timings change, then it is your responsibility to tell us as soon as possible.

For cremation only, you need to inform us if the person who has died has any electrical devices inside their body and you must consent in writing that we remove suchdevice(s) as required by the crematorium.

Terms of Business

We will informy ou of full and detailed range of services we can supply and what you have asked us to provide for you. We will inform you when we have collected the person who has died, and the location of where we will care for them, of the arrangements, and of parties involved.

1.Estimatesand Expenses

We will provide you with an estimate of the services we agree to provide to you. Suchan estimate is an indication of the charges likely to be incurred on the basis of the information and details we know about at the date of the enquiry. Whilstwe make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the estimate, the charges areliable to alteration, particularly where third parties change their rates orcharges.

We may not know the amount of third party charges in advance of the funeral. Wewill, however, give you a best estimate of such charges in the written quotation. The actual amount of the charges will be detailed and shown in the final account.

If you amend your instructions, we will require your written confirmation of the changes.  We may need to make an extra charge in accordance with prices published in our current price list.

2.Prices

Certain items of our service, for example but not limited to hospitality, flowers and memorials are or may be subject to Value Added Tax. This will be charged toyou at the rate at the time of the invoice.

Where a double funeral is arranged (for the same day) only 50% of our professiona lfee will be charged for the second person.

We will provide you with an invoice which will itemise the services and products provided to you.

For cremations, many crematoriums are now charging a late penalty fee if for whatever reason the funeral runs over its allotted time, even by a few minutes.You will be responsible for this cost.

3.PaymentArrangements

Werequire cleared funds at least five working days before the funeral takes place.

Youcan pay via bacs payment, or cheque. If you pay via debit or credit card then a2% surcharge will be applied. Please note, we do not accept American Express.

We reserve the right to postpone the funeral if our fees are not paid when due.

You may be able to claim assistance for the funeral account from the Social Fund.Generally these payments are a contribution towards the costs and may not coverthe entire cost of the funeral so you will be required to pay the balance fromyour own funds. We will require our invoice to be paid in full by you at leastfive working days before the funeral takes place, and we can then supply ou rinvoice receipt so you can submit it to DWP to claim reimbursement direct toy ou if applicable.

If a solicitor is paying the invoice from an estate, we must have a letter fromthem confirming that funds are available to cover the full cost of the funeral.Our surcharge of £250 will apply to cover our additional administrative workwhen solicitor is paying.

4.Late Payments

Please speak to us at the earliest opportunity if you foresee any difficulty in paying for our services.

Amanda-Louise Funeral Services may charge interest on the late payment of invoices at therate of 5% above the base lending rate of Nat West Bank, compounded daily, from the invoice due date up to and including the payment date.

5:Indemnity

You aret o indemnify us in full and hold us harmless from all expenses and liabilities we may incur (directly or indirectly including financing costs and including legal costs on a full indemnity basis) following any breach by you of any ofyour obligations under these terms. 

This means that you are liable to us for losses we incur because, for example, we incur an administration fee where we receive a cheque from you which issubsequently not honoured or if we write to remind you that an account is overdue. If we instruct debt collection agents we may also recover from you the fees we incur. Further details regarding these fees are available on request.We may claim those losses from you at any time and, if we have to take legalaction, we will ask the Court to make you pay our legal costs.

Where a funeral involves actions beyond the control of the Company and staff, you are to indemnify us against any claim for loss, damage, distress or hardship following such action. This would include such things as: the backfilling of a grave by someone other than Cemetery staff, or the delay in the repatriation ofthe deceased caused by the failure of airport staff or the cancellation of flights.

6:Cancellation - Cooling-Off Period

The Cancellation of Consumer Contracts made in the Consumer’s Home or Place of Worketc Regulations 2008 may give you the right to terminate this agreement in the cooling-off period of fourteen days. If you wish the performance of the agreement to which this right applies to commence before the end of thecooling-off period, you must sign the authority in the form which will behanded to you. In the event that you exercise the right to cancel the contractduring the cooling-off period, you will be required to pay a reasonable amount for goods and services already supplied.

7: Changesto Funeral Services And Or Termination

The dates and times for the funeral cannot be guaranteed until final bookings aremade, and confirmation received from all third parties involved. We ask thatyou make timely decisions to ensure there are no delays. On occasion, even after confirming details to you, Amanda-Louise Funeral Services may be forced to make other minor changes to funeral arrangements and timings due to reasons beyond our control. Where possible, we will tell you about any changes in advance, but this may not always be possible and we do not accept liability fordelays caused by third party suppliers or factors outside its control such asroad works, adverse weather, traffic congestion or mechanical failure. In these circumstances, our charges remain payable in full.  We will make all reasonable attempts tocontact you to agree to any changes, but this may not always be possible. If we cannot contact you, we reserve the right to assess the situation and act in themanner that we believe is in your best interest.

We reserve the right to cancel, postpone or change the date of a funeral due to adverse weather conditions. After discussion with you, and where possible, wewill attempt to provide an alternative service on a day and at a time convenient to all parties, but this will be dependent upon circumstances appertaining at that time.

This agreement may also be terminated before the services are delivered: (1) by us,if you fail to honour your obligations under these Terms and (2) by you communicating to us in writing, terminating your instructions.

If we, or you, terminate your instructions you may, depending upon the reasons fortermination, you be asked to pay a reasonable amount based upon the work carried out up to the time your termination is received. For example aswell as all third party charges which we have paid or committed to, our professional charges and expenses will also be chargeable.

8.Data Protection

We will treatyour personal information (data) with care and confidentiality in line with theUK Data Protection laws. In order to provide our services, we may need to pass such data to third parties and those third parties, who are performing some ofthe services for you, may contact you directly. Under the General Data Protection Regulations you have the right to access all personal data we hold on you. For further information please refer to our Privacy Policy.

9.Standards ofService

Our business policies and proceduresprovide us with frameworks on our positive behaviours and working practices.SAIF’s Code of Practice also requires that we provide a high quality service inall aspects. You can refer to our Operational Procedures to learn how weoperate.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service we provide to you, please raise them in the first instance with the member of our team you have been working with. 

10.Complaints Procedures

If the matter is still not resolved,you can read our complaints policy on our website (or ask us for a copy) whichshows the procedures in place to ensure your concerns are heard and addressed.

If you are not satisfied with our delivery in any aspect, you agree not to post on any mediaplatforms any negative comments about our services for a period of three years.  

The client(s) is/are responsible for the conduct of funeral attendees and all other service providers.  Verbal or physical abusive language or behaviour towards Amanda-Louise Funeral Services will not be tolerated in any way and may lead to an immediate termination of their services.  In these circumstances, there will be no refunds whatsoever paid by the funeral director services.

Nothing in this contract impinges onyour statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other legislation;those rights main unaffected.

11.Clothing,Personal Effects and Spending Time With Your Person Whilst inOur Care

We will recordall clothes and personal effects that are with the person who has died when webring them into our care and will ask you to sign to confirm that we have themif you are with the person when we collect them. We will follow you rinstructions as to what to do with these items. Any items left with us for more than a month after the funeral will be recycled, donated to charity, or disposed of.

When jewelleryand/or other valuables are placed in the coffin or left on/with the person whohas died during visits, Amanda-Louise Funeral Services are not responsible fortheir safekeeping and does not accept any liability in the event of loss ordamage during visits.

Whereappropriate, you need to consent for any family or friend regarding visiting the person who has died whilst in our care, and each person will need to sign separately and abide by our safeguarding procedures in relation to this. Please refer to our Operational Procedures Policy and Spending Time With Your Loved One Document, regarding spending time with your person.

11.Own Bearers

Bearing by family members or anyone other than the staff of Amanda-Louise Funeral Services will only be permitted at the discretion of the Funeral director.  Should own bearers be permitted, then our professional bearers will still be required to attend. We will not be held responsible for any mishap, loss, injury or damage should anyone other than our staff wish to pall bear, or carry out any other function usually carried out by the Funeral Director staff.

12.Intellectualownership/copyright

Fromtime to time, we may use a photograph of a coffin or aspect of an event for our marketing purposes. The client agrees for us to do so, unless the client writes to us withdrawing their consent.

We will automatically provide information on our website of the death/funeralannouncement, which you can share that page to inform family and friends if youwish.

We canpost on social media in relation to the funeral details but only if you consentfor us to do so. Otherwise, we may post on social media photos of our funeral directors or team.

Should we write a celebrant funeral service/ceremony, then that script will remain theownership of us until payment has been received in full. Notwithstanding this,after payment, the content is under the ownership of us, and copyright – none of the content can be used by anyone else.

13.Terminology

In these Terms and Conditions and in our workingpractices, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the following meanings:

·       “Business Day” means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday.

·       “working or office hours” means Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

·       “Us” “we” means Amanda-Louise Funeral Services, and includes the business owner and any staff.

·       “You” means the “Client(s)” is the person(s) who book our services. This typically is the person who registers the death of the person who has died. This person willbe responsible to settle our invoice of funeral costs This definition also includes former clients. We assume that our client has capacity to make those decisions.

·       “Prospective client(s)” means any member of public.

·       “Contract” means the contract for the provision of the Services between us and the client, and no other persons have any rights to enforce any terms or instruct us.

·       “Disbursement” means any payment on behalf of a client to a third party supplier or venue, forwhich reimbursement (without markup) is subsequently charged by us to theclient.

·       “Services” means the services which are to be provided by us to you.

·       “writingor written" includes information provided in a letter, or in printed form orvia email

·       Relationship of the parties – nothing in these terms and conditions shall be deemed tocreate a partnership or joint venture between the parties.

·       “First Offices” is the process of making a person who has died look presentable. This can range from cleaning and washing the body, dressing the person who has died and closing the eyes. Closing of the mouth may also be carried out, where appropriate.

·       “Invasive procedure” relates to any care procedure that involves the breaking of skin orthe opening of bodily cavities, including embalming.

·       “Embalming” is a procedure whereby chemicals are inserted into the deceased’s body topreserve the body from deterioration. This procedure is not carried outroutinely and written consent is required of us if the client wishes this to beundertaken. We will use a professional embalmer who will charge for this service.

·       “Introducer ”relates to us and our relationship with Golden Charter Funeral Finance Company.We do not receive any commission as an introducer.

·       “Regulator(s)”The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) is theauthorised body we are associated to, abiding by their code of conduct and they carry out inspections of our policies, procedures, and of our funeral home;ensuring you of our quality assurance at all times. We are also a member of The Association of Green Funeral Directors demonstrating that we also provide eco friendly funerals as well as traditional funerals.

14.Agreement

Your continuing instructions will amount to your continuing acceptance of theseterms of business.

Any waver or variation of these terms is binding in honour only unless:

•Made (or recorded) in writing

•Signed by Amanda-Louise: and

•Expressly stating an intention to vary these terms.

You rinstructions will not create any right enforceable (by virtue of the contractsRights of Third Parties Act 1999) by any persons not identified as our client.

If any of these terms are unenforceable as drafted:

•It will not affect the enforceability of any other of these terms: and

•It would be enforceable if amended, it will be treated as so amended

Nothingin these terms restricts or limits our liability for death or personal injury.

English Law is applicable to any contract made under these terms. The English and Welsh courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.

Signed…………………………………………      Print Name………………………………………

(client)                                                                   (client)

Date    …………………………………………

 Policy Updated - April 2026

Next Policy Review -April 2027

Policy Owner - Amanda-Louise Knight

Policy Reviewer - Amanda-Louise Knight

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