As you will know the final deadline for submission is Sunday 27/3/22. Today is however the last day we are able to assist firms with this. We are not available this weekend.
Currently there are significant delays in the LAAs response to sent messages and you are very much not alone if you have not had any communication within the last 7 days.
By way of a final check we advise ALL firms who have not received a verification confirmation message via the e-portal to undertake the following:
Logon to the portal and go to “Sent” messages.
Check that you have sent a verification message and that the attachments cover all items mentioned in Annex B, Table 2 of your notification letter. Dependant upon the legal status of your firm this will include:
- A single Supervisor declaration
- Current Lexcel/SQM certificate
- Personal Guarantee and Indemnity form (Limited companies and LLPs only)
If the expiry of you Lexcel certificate is before 1/10/22 you need to send a letter from your accreditation body confirming an audit date which is in advance of that expiry date
New firms and those opening new offices will be asked for:
- AC1 form for each new office with supporting VAT and PII certificates (a quote is insufficient for the latter)
The LAA has confirmed to TLS that AC1s do not have to be sent within the verification deadline however you should seek to do this asap to risk delay in the issue of contract documentation.
New firms may also be asked to supply:
- Confirmation of SRA authorisation
- Confirmation of office address (some existing firms may also receive this request)
The LAA have not confirmed their proposals for dealing with the backlog post deadline we however expect that similarly to previous verification rounds LAA requested amendments to verification documentation will be allowed after the deadline.
It is essential however that all required information is supplied before it.
All the best
JRS
