Website Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the website at www.lawvero.co.za, including its pages, tools, calculators, checklists and chat features (the “Website”), and the basis on which you may engage us for the services offered on the Website (the “Services”). The Website is operated by lawvero (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/679063/07 (“lawvero”, “we”, “us”, “our”).

By accessing or using the Website, or by submitting an instruction to us through it, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Website.

When you engage us for a particular Service, we will send you a written quotation, engagement confirmation or invoice setting out the Service, the total price and the expected turnaround (an “Engagement Confirmation”). These Terms apply to every engagement together with its Engagement Confirmation. If they conflict, the Engagement Confirmation prevails for that engagement.

These Terms must be read with our POPIA Manual and Privacy Notice and our PAIA Manual, both available on the Website.

We may update these Terms by publishing a new version on the Website with a new effective date. The updated Terms apply to your use of the Website from that date. An engagement you have already accepted remains governed by the Terms in force when you accepted it, unless you agree otherwise in writing.

Only a person with full legal capacity, or a person duly authorised to act for a company, trust or other entity, may engage us for Services. If you act for an entity, you confirm that you have that authority.

The information that section 43(1) of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (“ECTA”) requires us to make available is set out below. You may also request it from us at office@lawvero.co.za.

lawvero is a legal document and compliance services company. We prepare legal documents at fixed or quoted fees and provide related administrative, filing and compliance services. lawvero is not a firm of attorneys or advocates and does not provide legal advice.

Information on the Website (including guides, articles, FAQs, calculators, checklists and chat responses) is general information only. It is not legal, tax, financial or other professional advice, it does not take your particular circumstances into account, and it does not create an attorney-and-client relationship.

Some work may by law be performed only by an admitted and enrolled legal practitioner, for example, preparing and signing court process, appearing in court, and conveyancing or notarial work (“Reserved Work”). lawvero does not perform Reserved Work. Where your matter requires Reserved Work, we will tell you, and refer you to a licensed practitioner where applicable or required.

We prepare documents on the basis of the information and instructions you give us.

You may use the Website only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You must not:

1. (a)breach any applicable law;
2. (b)gain, or attempt to gain, unauthorised access to the Website or any connected system;
3. (c)introduce any virus, malware or other harmful material;
4. (d)scrape or harvest data from the Website, or use any automated system to access it beyond what a person could reasonably do manually;
5. (e)use the Website to send unsolicited commercial communications; or
6. (f)submit information that is false, or that belongs to another person whom you are not authorised to act for.

We may suspend, withdraw or restrict all or part of the Website for business or operational reasons, and may block your access if you breach these Terms.

Where the Website allows you to create an account, you must give accurate information and keep it current. You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for activity under your account, and must tell us immediately at office@lawvero.co.za of any unauthorised use. We may disable an account if you breach these Terms.

The Website may offer an automated chat assistant. It gives general information about lawvero and our Services and can help you put together a request for our team. It is software run with the help of an artificial-intelligence service provider. It is not a person and it cannot give legal advice. Its answers may be incomplete or wrong, so do not rely on them to make decisions. Please do not share identity numbers, banking details, passwords, or health or other sensitive information in the chat.

The main characteristics of each Service, what is included, what you need to provide and the expected turnaround are described on the relevant page of the Website and confirmed in the Engagement Confirmation.

An engagement works as follows:

1. (a)you send us an instruction through the Website, by email, by telephone or through the chat assistant;
2. (b)we confirm the scope and send you an Engagement Confirmation stating the Service, the total price (including disbursements and any VAT, if applicable), payment terms and expected turnaround;
3. (c)before accepting, you may review the Engagement Confirmation, ask us to correct any mistake, or withdraw without any obligation;
4. (d)the engagement is concluded when you accept the Engagement Confirmation in writing (including by email or electronic acceptance) or pay the quoted amount, whichever happens first; and
5. (e)we complete client verification where required (clause 5.4), prepare the documents or perform the Service, and deliver it to you.

We may decline an instruction, for example where we cannot complete client verification, the matter falls outside our Services, there is a conflict of interest, or we reasonably suspect an unlawful purpose. If we decline after you have paid, we will refund you in full.

Where the law requires it (including the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001) or our risk procedures require it, we must identify and verify you and related persons, such as trustees, founders, beneficiaries, directors and beneficial owners, before or during an engagement. If you do not provide what we need, we cannot proceed. The law may also require us to report certain transactions or activities to the Financial Intelligence Centre, and may prohibit us from telling you that we have done so.

Prices on the Website are in South African Rand. A price shown as “from” is the starting price for a standard matter; the final price for your matter is stated in the Engagement Confirmation before you are bound. We will not charge you more than the price in your Engagement Confirmation without your prior written agreement.

Official fees and other amounts payable to third parties, for example to the Master of the High Court, CIPC, SARS, the Deeds Office, sheriffs, couriers, commissioners of oaths and verification service providers (“Disbursements”), are listed separately in the Engagement Confirmation unless it states that they are included.

Payment is made by electronic funds transfer into lawvero’s bank account as stated on our invoice. Unless the Engagement Confirmation says otherwise, fees for once-off Services are payable in advance, and fees for recurring Services are payable monthly in advance. We do not accept or store card details on the Website.

Banking fraud warning. Our banking details will never change by email. Before making any payment, confirm our banking details by telephone on +27 (0)65 764 3430. To the extent permitted by law, a payment made into an account that is not lawvero’s (for example because of an intercepted or fraudulent email) is not a payment to us.

If an amount due is not paid on time, we may suspend work on the affected engagement until it is paid, after notifying you.

You must:

1. (a)give us accurate, complete and up-to-date information and documents, and tell us promptly of any change;
2. (b)review every draft we send you and tell us of any error or omission before you sign or use it;
3. (c)sign and deal with documents in the way we explain to you (for example in the presence of witnesses or a commissioner of oaths, or by lodging originals), since many documents are only valid if the required formalities are met; and
4. (d)keep original signed documents safe unless we have agreed in writing to keep them for you.

The expected turnaround is stated in the Engagement Confirmation and runs from the date on which we have received payment, completed client verification and received all the information we need. Unless we agree otherwise with you, we will perform an order within 48 days after receiving it.

Registrations, approvals and decisions by the Master of the High Court, CIPC, SARS, the courts and other authorities are made by those authorities, and their timeframes are outside our control. We will follow up with them diligently, but we do not guarantee their outcome or timing.

We deliver documents electronically by email or secure link unless agreed otherwise. Where originals must be delivered physically, courier costs are a Disbursement.

Your Engagement Confirmation, invoices and delivered documents are sent to you by email, and you should keep copies. You may ask us for copies at any time for at least five years after the engagement ends.

Work starts immediately. Our documents are prepared to your instructions and delivered quickly. When you accept an Engagement Confirmation or pay for a Service, you ask us to begin work immediately and consent to the Service starting before the 7-day cooling-off period in section 44 of ECTA ends. Under section 42(2)(d) of ECTA, that cooling-off right therefore does not apply once we have begun work.

Before we begin. If you cancel after accepting but before we have started work (for example, while we are waiting for your verification documents), we will refund everything you paid within 30 days after the date of cancellation.

Documents delivered. Once a document has been delivered to you, the fee for that document is fully earned and is not refundable, because its content has been handed over to you and cannot be returned. This does not affect your right to have any error in our work corrected at no charge.

Cancelling while work is in progress. You may cancel an engagement at any time by written notice to office@lawvero.co.za. We will then refund what you paid, less:

1. (a)the fee for any document already delivered, and the value of other work completed up to the date of cancellation, calculated according to the stages in the Engagement Confirmation or, if none are stated, in reasonable proportion to the work done; and
2. (b)Disbursements already paid to third parties or irrevocably committed on your behalf.

We will send you a statement and pay the refund within 30 days after cancellation.

Recurring Services. You may cancel a recurring Service (for example trust administration or a compliance subscription) on 20 business days’ written notice, without penalty. Fees for the Service delivered up to the date the cancellation takes effect remain payable. Where the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“CPA”) applies to a fixed-term agreement, you also have the rights set out in section 14 of that Act.

Nothing in this clause 9 limits your rights under the CPA, ECTA or any other law that may not lawfully be excluded, including your right to have a Service performed with the care and quality that people are generally entitled to expect.

All content on the Website, including text, graphics, logos, images, audio, video, software, tools and the arrangement of them (“Content”), is owned by or licensed to lawvero and is protected by intellectual property laws. Trade marks on the Website belong to lawvero or to their respective owners.

You may view, download and print Content for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce, republish, distribute, modify or create derivative works from Content without our prior written consent.

Once you have paid for a Service, you may use, copy and adapt the final documents we prepare for you, for the purpose for which they were prepared, and may share them with your advisers and anyone who needs them for that purpose. Our underlying templates, precedents, tools and methods remain ours, and you may not resell or publish them.

The Website may link to third-party websites and resources, including those of government authorities, for your information only. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content or for any loss arising from your use of them. A link does not mean that we endorse the linked site.

The Website and its Content are provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent permitted by law, we do not warrant that the Website will be uninterrupted, error-free or free of harmful components, or that its general Content is complete or current at all times.

Calculators, checklists, health checks and similar tools on the Website give estimates and general guidance based on the information you enter. They are not advice, and their results should not be relied on without appropriate professional input.

We do not guarantee any particular outcome, including acceptance or registration of a document by any authority, the success of any application, or any tax, estate-planning or commercial result.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury, for fraud, dishonesty, wilful misconduct or gross negligence, or for any liability that may not lawfully be limited or excluded, including under the CPA.

Subject to clause 13.1, we are not liable for any indirect, special or consequential loss, or for any loss of profit, revenue, data or goodwill, arising from your use of (or inability to use) the Website or from any Service, whether in contract, delict or otherwise.

Subject to clause 13.1, our total liability arising from or in connection with an engagement is limited to the fees (excluding Disbursements) you paid us for that engagement.

Subject to clause 13.1, we are not liable for loss that results from:

1. (a)information or documents you gave us that were inaccurate, incomplete or late;
2. (b)your failure to review a draft or to comply with the signing or lodging formalities we communicated to you;
3. (c)decisions, delays or errors of any authority or other third party; or
4. (d)Reserved Work performed by an independent legal practitioner.

To the extent permitted by law, you indemnify lawvero against any third-party claim, loss or expense arising from your breach of these Terms, your unlawful use of the Website, or false information you provided to us.

We process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (“POPIA”) and our POPIA Manual and Privacy Notice, which explains what we collect, why, whom we share it with, how long we keep it and how you can exercise your rights. Our PAIA Manual explains how to request access to records we hold. Both are available on the Website.

Our Information Officer may be contacted at office@lawvero.co.za.

You agree that we may communicate with you electronically, and that agreements, notices and other communications sent electronically satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. These Terms are concluded electronically and bind you without a signature when you use the Website or engage us.

An email is regarded as received on the business day after it was sent, unless the sender receives a delivery-failure message.

If you are unhappy with our Service, please email office@lawvero.co.za with “Complaint” in the subject line. We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 business days and aim to resolve it within 10 business days.

If we cannot resolve your complaint, you may refer it to the National Consumer Commission or any other body with jurisdiction. Complaints about the processing of personal information may be lodged with the Information Regulator, and complaints about a legal practitioner who performed Reserved Work may be lodged with the Legal Practice Council.

These Terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. Without limiting any right you have as a consumer to approach any court or forum with jurisdiction, where a dispute falls within the jurisdiction of the High Court, you consent to the jurisdiction of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Pretoria.

lawvero chooses 19 Mirzam Street, Midstream Ridge, Midstream, 1692 as its address for the service of legal documents, and office@lawvero.co.za for notices. Your address for these purposes is the physical and email address stated in your Engagement Confirmation. Either party may change its address by written notice to the other.

These Terms, together with any Engagement Confirmation, are the entire agreement between you and lawvero about their subject matter.

If any provision of these Terms is invalid or unenforceable, it is severed and the rest remain in force.

If we do not enforce a right, or give you extra time, we have not waived that right.

We may cede our rights under these Terms. You may not cede your rights or delegate your obligations without our prior written consent.