I would suggest being very careful if you are doing in excess of the legal hours as stipulated by the CAA. It is all fine to sweep it under the wing until an "incident" or worse occurs. The CAA look at your log book and bingo, find that you have gone over your maximum hours. It is ALWAYS the pilots responsibility to fly within the legal requirements. I believe saying you did not know about them is no defence in law. Even though I work for an airline and they keep track of our hours worked and flown, there are cock ups on a regular occurence, causing the possibility of flying/ working illegally. You cannot tell the CAA that it was their responsibility. It is yours and yours only...so all I will say is be very careful. The CAA have queried hours in the past, and I believe someone lost their licence over it - is it worth the risk? Maybe.