Expenses at Cost

InSignLanguage Ltd · Document code ISL-LEG-B10 · Annex to the Terms and Conditions of Service (ISL-LEG-B01) · Governing law: England & Wales

Version 1.0 · Effective 26 August 2026 · Reviewed annually.

Read with: ISL-LEG-B07 Face-to-Face Interpreting · ISL-LEG-B09 Travel

1. What this covers

Some assignments force a cost beyond the journey itself. This document covers those, and only those:

• Parking - where the venue has none and the interpreter has to pay for it

• Congestion and clean-air charges - the London Congestion Charge, ULEZ, and the clean-air zones now operating in several other cities

• Overnight accommodation - where the start time and the distance together make it impossible to arrive on time on the day

• Toll roads, bridges and ferries - where there is no reasonable route avoiding them

The journey itself is not here. That is travel, and it is dealt with in ISL-LEG-B09.

2. The rule, in one line

Charged at cost, agreed in writing before we confirm, never added afterwards.

Each of those three has teeth, so each is set out below.

2.1 At cost

At cost means at cost. We do not mark these up, we do not apply a handling fee, and we do not round them. If a car park costs £14.50, the line on your invoice is £14.50.

Receipts and supporting evidence are provided on request, and we would rather you asked than wondered.

VAT is applied at the prevailing rate where it is chargeable.

2.2 Agreed in writing before we confirm

If an assignment is going to force one of these costs, we tell you before the booking is confirmed, with an estimate. You accept it or you do not. If you do not, the booking does not proceed and you owe nothing.

Where the exact figure cannot be known in advance - a car park whose tariff depends on how long the meeting overruns, for instance - we agree a ceiling with you and charge the actual cost up to it.

2.3 Never added afterwards

An expense that was not agreed before the assignment is not charged after it. If we failed to spot that your venue has no parking, that is our error and we absorb it.

This is the whole point of the clause. An invoice should never contain a surprise.

3. Accommodation, specifically

Accommodation is rare and we treat it as a last resort. It arises where an early start and a long distance make same-day arrival impossible, or where a multi-day assignment makes nightly return journeys absurd.

Where it does arise: standard business accommodation, booked at a reasonable rate, one night per necessary overnight stay. We do not charge for meals, and we do not charge a subsistence allowance.

Before proposing accommodation we will always check whether a later start, a different interpreter or online delivery removes the need for it.

4. Not add-ons

None of this is something you tick at checkout. There is no travel add-on, no parking add-on and no accommodation add-on on any booking page, and there will not be one. Anything beyond the fee is quoted to you and agreed before we confirm, or it does not happen.

There is a practical reason as well as a principled one. On our booking system, an add-on can carry a duration that lengthens the booked slot - which would quietly make the longest bookings of the day unbookable. Expenses have nothing to do with how long an interpreter is needed, so they are not modelled as something you add to a booking.

5. What is never charged

• travel time

• meals or subsistence

• a booking, handling or administration fee on any expense

• anything at all on an online assignment

• any expense you were not told about before the booking was confirmed

6. Online bookings

This document does not apply to online bookings. There is no journey, so there is nothing to charge. See ISL-LEG-B08.

Cross-references: ISL-LEG-B01 · ISL-LEG-B07 Face-to-Face Interpreting · ISL-LEG-B08 Online Interpreting · ISL-LEG-B09 Travel

InSignLanguage Ltd · 26 Domum Road, Portsmouth PO2 0QZ · Company number 10943637 · VAT registration number GB 298 6629 31 · ICO registration ZC163713