Trust Centre : Our Terms of Business, Policies and Procedures

Thank you for considering Amanda-Louise Funeral Services’ to arrange your funeral. We will work hard to deliver the funeral that is right for you and for the person whom has died in a smooth and dignified way. 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.  

A legal contract between “you” (as our client) and “we” “us” “our” (Amanda-Louise Funeral Services) incorporating these terms and conditions, will come into force 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-Louise Funeral Services Obligations

When you brief us, we will give you an indication of the costs of our Services. Following the initial meeting between you (the “Initial Meeting) and our funeral director, whether in person or online, Poppy’s will provide a full estimate of the costs, including expenses, as soon as possible, and in any event, at least four days prior to the funeral (the “Fees”). By continuing with our Services, you will be deemed to have accepted such Fees and will be liable to pay them in accordance with these terms.

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

Your Obligations

That you have the right to arrange the funeral of the person who has died, and that you have capacity to do so. This also means that you have agreed with other relatives and anyone else with rights about the type of funeral that you are arranging.  You are also responsible for paying the Fees/Invoice(s).

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.

Terms of Business

1.Estimates& Expenses

We will provide you with our estimate of the services we agree to provide to you. This is an indication of the charges likely to be incurred on the basis of the information and details we know at the date of estimate. While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the estimate, the charges are liable to alteration particularly where third parties change their rates or charges.

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

If you amend your instructions, we will require your written confirmation of the changes.

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 to you at the rate at the time of the invoice.

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

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. These charges will be paid by the client.

3.Payment Arrangements

The funeral account for the Unattended Cremation must be paid on booking of that service. Otherwise all other funeral services are required to be paid within 3 working days of the funeral date. We reserve the right to postpone the funeral is 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 cover the entire cost of the funeral so you will be required to pay the balance from your own funds. We will require our invoice to be paid in full by you in a timely manner, and we can then supply our invoice so you can submit it to DWP to claim reimbursement direct to you if applicable.

We will raise an invoice for all accounts. We accept payment by bank transfer, or cheque (cleared funds by due date) or via debit or credit card. If you pay by card, then there will be a surcharge of 2% added to the invoice.

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 the rate 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 are to 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 of your 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 is subsequently 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 timeand, if we have to take legal action, we will ask the Court to make you pay ourlegal costs. For further information, please refer to our Liabilities Policy.

6:Cancellation - Cooling-Off Period

The Cancellation of Consumer Contracts made in the Consumer’s Home or Place of Work etc 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 the cooling-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 contract during the cooling-off period, you will be required to pay a reasonable amount for goods and services already supplied.

7:Termination

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 for termination, you be asked to pay a reasonable amount based upon the work carried out up to the time your termination is received. For example as well as all third party charges which we have paid or committed to, our professional charges and expenses according to the scale set out below:

Termination within 2 days of the due date for performing services – 100% of fees payable

Termination within 1 week of the due date for performing services – 80% of fees payable

Termination within 2 weeks of the due date for performing services – 500% of fees payable

8.Data Protection

We will treat your personal information (data) with care and confidentiality in line with the UK 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 of the 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.Complaints & Conduct

We hope that you will be satisfied with the delivery of the service we provide for you. If you are not happy with the service you receive, we would ask in the first instance that you talk with the member of staff you have been working with. If the matter is still not resolved, you can read our complaints policy on our website which shows the procedures in place to ensure your concerns are heard and addressed.

Our code of practice requires that we provide a quality service in all aspects. If you are not content with our delivery in any aspect, you agree not to post on any media platforms 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 on your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other legislation; those rights main unaffected.

10.Clothing and Personal Effects

We will record all 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 them if you are with the person when we collect them. We will follow your instructions 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 jewellery and/or other valuables are placed in the coffin or left on/with the person who has died during visits Amanda-Louise Funeral Services are not responsible for their safekeeping and does not accept any liability in the event of loss or damage. Please refer to our policy regarding visiting the person who has died whilst in our care.

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.Intellectual ownership/copyright

From time 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/funeral announcement, and at times post on social media in relation to the funeral. The client agrees for us to do so, unless the client writes to us withdrawing their consent.

Should we write a celebrant funeral service/ceremony, then that script will remain the ownership 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 working practices, 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 will be 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, for which reimbursement (without markup) is subsequently charged by us to the client.

·       “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 to create 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 or the opening of bodily cavities, including embalming.

·       “Embalming” is a procedure whereby chemicals are inserted into the deceased’s body to preserve the body from deterioration. This procedure is not carried out routinely and written consent is required of us if the client wishes this to be undertaken. 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 the authorised 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 these terms 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.

Your instructions will not create any right enforceable (by virtue of the Contracts Rights 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

Nothing in these terms restricts or limits our liability for death or personal injury.

EnglishLaw is applicable to any contract made under these terms. The English and Welshcourts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.

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

(client)                                                                   (client)

Date   …………………………………………

Policy Updated - November 2025

Next Policy Review - November 2026

Policy Owner - Amanda-Louise Knight

Policy Reviewer - Amanda-Louise Knight

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