Terms and Conditions

 

Heir Line Ltd is based at 6 Denhale Avenue, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF2 9EF, which is also our registered office. Principal email: mike@heir-line.co.uk | Telephone: 01924 314363

 

Commissioning Family History Research

 

When you commission family history research — whether as a package or on an hourly basis — you enter into a binding agreement with Heir Line Ltd to pay the full agreed price in return for the service described on this website or confirmed in correspondence. This agreement may be made in writing (email or letter), by telephone, or in person. You have 14 days from the point of entering into the agreement to change your mind and cancel. After this period, there is no right to cancel except as set out below. For avoidance of doubt, please refer to the Consumer Rights Act 2015. If you cancel after 14 days, we will not refund any money already paid. In some circumstances, we may issue a credit note to the value of payments received, less the value of any work already carried out. Credit notes may only be used towards another research package or hourly work. Where partial research has been undertaken, we will provide partial results by email.

 

Payment and Instalments

 

We request the first instalment before work begins. Once we receive your payment, we immediately start preparatory work - we send you our Information Request Form, create space for you in our research queue, set up a file, begin planning the stages of your research and once you return the Information Request Form we check that we have everything we need and begin preparatory research.  If we have any queries at this stage we let you know well in advance of start of your first full research stage. Research is invoiced in four instalments as your project progresses. By commissioning a package, you agree to the full package price, but you’ll only be invoiced as each stage is reached. Instalments are non-refundable, except during your 14-day cooling-off period. The final instalment is requested once the stage covering the recipient's great-great grandparents has been completed. It covers that stage together with the final phase of research, into the three-times-great-grandparents and the preparation of the written report.

 

VAT and Overseas Clients

 

All published package prices are quoted on a flat worldwide basis. For UK clients, all instalments and package fees are VAT-inclusive. For clients outside the UK, the same fees apply but are treated as outside the scope of UK VAT. If physical goods (such as hand-bound printed reports) are delivered to a UK address, the supply is treated as UK-based and VAT-inclusive, regardless of where the client is based.

 

Beginning Work

 

Once we receive your Information Request Form and initial payment, we start preparatory work and place your project in our research queue. We’ll provide an estimated start date for the main research and keep you and/or the recipient updated as the project progresses. The main research proceeds in successive stages:

 

• researching the recipient's grandparents and identifying their great-grandparents;

• researching the great-grandparents and identifying the great-great grandparents;

• researching the great-great grandparents and identifying the three-times-great-grandparents;

• finally researching those three-times-great-grandparents and compiling a full written report once all research is complete.

 

Payment timing

 

Payments are requested at four key points: the first before preparatory work begins; the second once research on the grandparents has been completed; the third once research on the great-grandparents has been completed; and the final once research on the great-great-grandparents has been completed and the research continues to the concluding stage.

 

 

Hourly Work

 

We also offer research on an hourly basis in blocks of 2, 5 or 10 hours (or another amount agreed with you). Hourly work is paid for in advance, and we’ll keep you updated as the research progresses. If extending an existing research package, you’ll receive a short report or summary once each block of hours is complete, with the option to commission further research. While we can’t guarantee specific outcomes, we always work carefully with the records available at the time. Additional costs, such as certificates or specialist documents, will only be incurred with your agreement and must be paid in advance. Sometimes we use trusted third-party researchers to assist us. While we always endeavour to hire high-quality researchers, we cannot accept liability if they provide false or inaccurate information.

Our hourly charges include the time required to write a report of our findings.

 

V6 – 28th October 2025 © Heir Line Ltd

 

Heir Line Ltd Privacy Policy

 

In compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), applicable from 25 May 2018 (updated 28 October 2025).

 

Heir Line Ltd is henceforth referred to as “the company,” further referred to as we, us or our. You means the individual user using our website and services.

 

Website Analytics and Cookies

 

We use Google Analytics tracking on our website. Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. Google may use the collected data to contextualise and personalise advertising within its own network.  You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. For more information on Google’s privacy practices, visit: https://policies.google.com/privacy.  We also use cookies on our website to track activity and improve our service. Tracking technologies may include cookies, tags, and scripts.  You can set your browser to refuse cookies or alert you when cookies are being sent, though some parts of our website may not function properly if cookies are disabled.

 

Information You Provide

 

You may use the contact form on our website to get in touch with us. In doing so, you may share:

 

• Your email address
• Your name
• Your telephone number
• Information included in the message box

When commissioning family history research, we ask you to complete a Family History Information Form. This form requests:

• Full name at birth, date and place of birth of the recipient (the person for whom research is undertaken)
• Names of spouses and children
• Similar information for parents and grandparents of the recipient
• Your name, email address, telephone number and postal address as the client commissioning the work.

It is the responsibility of the person commissioning the research to obtain permission from any living person whose details are included. We will assume permission has been granted. The paper form is securely stored once the project is completed.

 

How We Use and Store Your Data

 

The data provided is used solely to carry out your commissioned research. We enter names, dates and places into Ancestry.co.uk under maximum privacy settings. Living individuals are automatically hidden from public view by Ancestry, and we never upload personal contact details of any kind. Your family tree is created as a private tree and is never shared with other users. Once your project is completed, the research data is removed from Ancestry and stored securely on our internal system so we can provide duplicate or updated reports if required. If you ask us in writing, we will permanently delete this data from our system. We use commercially acceptable means to protect all personal data, but no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work hard to protect your data to a high standard.

 

Third Parties

 

On occasion, we may use carefully chosen third-party researchers to assist us in specific aspects of a project. We only use trusted professionals and do not share your contact information with them — only the research details relevant to the task.

Your Rights

 

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of any inaccuracies
• Request that we delete your data after completion of your project

Requests should be made in writing to our registered office.

 

Contact

Heir Line Ltd

6 Denhale Avenue

Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF2 9EF

Email: mike@heir-line.co.uk

Telephone: 01924 314363

 

© Heir Line Ltd, October 2025. All rights reserved.