Email script

Giving notice to end an engagement

Notice wording that follows the terms of your contract: the clause, the date and the handover. Check the contract and take advice before you send it.

This wording is a starting point, not legal advice. Check your contract before you send it, and take advice if you are unsure.

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Subject: Notice to end our engagement

Dear [adviser name], In accordance with clause [number] of our engagement letter dated [date], we give notice to end our engagement. On our reading of the clause the engagement will end on [date]. If you read the notice period differently, please let us know. [If a claim is in progress: Our claim for [accounting period] is currently in progress. We would like [to complete it with you before the engagement ends / to take it over ourselves / to pause it], and would be grateful for your proposal for the work completed to date.] Please let us know what is payable up to the end date and send a final invoice for work completed. We will write separately about the return of our records under clause [number]. Thank you for your work for us. Kind regards, [your name] [your role] [business name]

Replace the highlighted [placeholders] with your own details before you send it.

Before you send

Do not send this email without doing two things first. Read the termination and renewal clauses in your own letter: the notice period, how notice must be given, the date it must be given by, and what is owed on ending. Then take advice from a lawyer or your accountant, because the wording and timing of notice can matter and this page cannot know your contract.

This email does not withhold any fee, and does not say why you are leaving. Keep it that way. Any disagreement about what is owed is a separate conversation, and the fee disputes page covers it. If a claim is in progress, say what you want to happen to it.

Before you send

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