Terms and Conditions
These are the terms and conditions for the supply of any commissioned Home Information Pack or Energy Performance Certificate for the residential property specified by you. By ordering any Home Information Pack or Energy Performance Certificate you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.
1 Definitions and Interpretation
1.1 In these Conditions the following words shall have the meanings set opposite them: "HIP" means Home Information Pack. "EPC" means Energy Performance Certificate "In writing" means by e-mail or in a letter by post "You", "Your" means the person, firm or company who instructs me to provide them with a Hip or EPC either on their own behalf or as agent of the client. "Us, "We", "Our" means D Brookes Ltd. Headings used in these Conditions are for convenience only and shall not affect their interpretation.
2. Commissioning a Home Information Pack or Energy Performance Certificate.
2.1 By commissioning a Hip or EPC you warrant that: (a) you are legally capable of entering into binding contracts; and (b) you are at least 18 years old.
3. Formation of the Contract between us.
3.1 You may request details of costs for the preparation of a HIP or EPC for the property specified by telephone, or in writing. We will respond to you in writing giving you a quote based on the information you have provided to us. All costs quoted by us are valid for 30 days only. You can then decide if you wish to place an order on that basis in writing.
3.2 After you have placed an order to commission a HIP or EPC you will receive in writing our acknowledgement that we have received your order. Your order constitutes an offer by you to us to purchase a HIP or EPC. All orders are subject to acceptance by us when we will send you confirmation in writing that we have accepted your order (the Order of Acceptance). The contract between us will only be formed when we send you the Order of Acceptance.
3.3 If you have asked us to supply more than on HIP or EPC the same acceptance procedure will apply to each individual HIP or EPC.
4. Charges and Payment
4.1 The charge of any HIP or EPC is as quoted to you by us in writing. These charges include electronic delivery to you via e-mail only. Additional charges apply if you require the HIP or EPC to be sent to you by any other means.
4.2 If you have been quoted an incorrect charge by us in error for a HIP or EPC we are by no means obligated to supply you with a HIP or EPC at the incorrect quoted charge.
4.3 Payment for the HIP or EPC will always be made by you to us in advance of any HIP or EPC being delivered to you by us unless it has been agreed that the payment can be deferred. If there is an exception to this you will be notified by us in writing.
5. Rights of Cancellation
5.1 As a consumer you have a cooling–off period in which you can withdraw from the contract for any reason, subject to the provisions in 5.2 below. This cooling–off period ends seven working days from the day after the contract was concluded and you receive our Order of Acceptance in accordance with 3.1 above. If you wish to cancel your order you must notify us in writing within the prescribed time period. This provision does not apply to business to business transactions.
5.2 If you are a consumer, the cooling–off period and the right to cancel will not apply where; (a) a HIP has already been issued to you and (b) you have already opened any e–mails or sealed envelope containing a HIP or (c) we begin the preparation of a HIP by agreement with you before the cooling–off period ends.
5.3 Subject to clause 5.6 contracts cancelled by you within the seven day cooling–off period will be refunded in full, excluding any costs of posting the HIP to you. However, you will be responsible for the cost of returning any HIP to us.
5.4 Any refund from any money received from you will usually be refunded to you using the same method originally used by you to pay for your purchase. The refund will usually be processed as soon as possible and in any case within 30 days of the day we receive your cancellation.
5.5 Any cancellations or refunds for HIP's or EPC's other than in accordance with the cooling–off period referred to above will be at our sole discretion.
5.6 If you cancel the contract you will remain liable for the cost of any third party reports already ordered or obtained by us on your behalf in accordance with the provisions of clause 7.
5.7 This clause 5 does not affect your statutory rights.
6. Information provided by you to us.
6.1 You agree to ensure that the information that you supply to us in the Order including without limitation details of the Property is complete, accurate and up to–date. We will ask for this information in writing or in person.
6.2 You will be required to provide the information in writing or in person.
6.3 You may incur additional charges in obtaining the information to send to us for our inclusion in the HIP. An example of such costs (but not limited to) might be Landlords or Managing Agents charges for providing a copy of a lease and other leasehold information. Any such costs are not included in our charges.
6.4 Unless there are exceptional circumstances your contract for a Hip or EPC will normally be fulfilled by delivering to you by e–mail a HIP or EPC within ten days of you receiving from us an Order of Acceptance form.
6.5 The timescale in 6.4 is for guidance only and we shall not be responsible for delays owing to holiday periods or other causes outside our reasonable control.
6.6 We shall not be liable for any losses of any customer information forms sent to us and you are advised to take copies of all items prior to sending them to us.
6.7 Information provided by you to us will form part of the public–available Hip or EPC upon which reliance may be made by potential or actual buyers, mortgage lenders and other interested parties. It is imperative that all information provided by you to us is as accurate and complete as possible. You may be held liable for any false, misleading, inaccurate or incomplete information you provide.
6.8 You agree to notify us immediately if you become aware of any information that you have provided to us is incorrect, inaccurate, false or misleading.
6.9 If you provide us with an incorrect address for the Hip or EPC you will still be liable to pay our fees once a contract has been made between us.
7. Third Party Reports
7.1 You acknowledge and agree that during our preparation of a HIP for you it will be necessary for us to obtain reports from third parties on your behalf in relation to the property for sale.
7.2 The fee that we charge you for preparing a Hip includes our costs of obtaining specified Third Party Reports on your behalf.
7.3 We will tell you what Third Party reports will be included in your Hip fee.
7.4 Our fees for preparing a Hip or EPC are based on information you have supplied to us. There may be additional costs if you have supplied us with incorrect information or incomplete information. An example of this could be where you have told us that the land is registered, but in fact the land is not registered.
7.5 In the event that we need to obtain further Third Party reports on your behalf in preparation of a Hip we will notify you in writing informing you of any additional costs. We will not seek to obtain any additional Third Party Reports unless you confirm that you require us to do so. Confirmation from you will be in writing.
7.6 Any delay by you to approve any additional requests of Third Party reports may Result in a delay of our preparation of a Hip. Any missing Third Party Report from a Hip may render the Hip incomplete and may mean you do not comply with your legal obligations because of this.
7.7 Where we obtain Third Party Reports on your behalf you acknowledge that we do so as your agent and we shall be permitted to disclose to the relevant party from whom we obtain any Third Part Report that we are acting on your behalf. As such, the contract for the provision of such Third Party Reports will be between you as the disclosed principal and the provider of the Third Party Reports and we are not a party to any such contract that we make as agent and we can not sue or be sued upon it.
7.8 We will at all times endeavour to obtain any required Third Part Reports for you from suitable parties whom we believe to have a suitable level of competence and professional standing. You acknowledge that we are not liable for the contents of any Third Party Reports or any errors or omissions within any such Report or any delay by any Third Party in providing any such Report.
7.9 If you exercise your right to cancel a contract in accordance of the provisions in Clause 5, we reserve the right to charge you for any costs incurred by us in obtaining Third Party Reports on your behalf prior to the date of cancellation of the contract.
8. My Liability
8.1 We will not be responsible to you for any Data that you lose from any e–mail we have sent to you although we will where possible re–submit any such Data to you by e–mail free of charge. You acknowledge that you have the means to back up and save any Data sent by us to you by e–mail and you acknowledge that you have saved any Data that you sent to us by e–mail.
8.2 We shall not be liable for any use made of your Hip or any information contained in it by third parties once you're Hip has been made available to the public by any means.
8.3 Subject to clause 8.4 entire liability to you in respect of these terms and conditions or any contract shall be limited to £2,000,000 which represents the level of our insurance cover and you are responsible for making your own arrangements for the excess of any excess if required.
8.4 Clause 8.3 does not include or limit in any way our liability for (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence, (b) for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation by us or (c) for any matter for which it would be illegal for us to exclude or attempt to exclude our liability.
8.5 We accept no liability for any loss of income or revenue, loss of business, loss of profits, loss of contracts, loss of data, loss of time or any consequential loss or damage of any kind whether caused by breach of contract, negligence or otherwise.
9. Communications
9.1 Certain applicable laws require that some of the information we send to you should be in writing, you accept that our communications with you from time to time be electronic. For contractual purposes you agree to this electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, information and notices that we provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.
10. Cancellation by us
10.1 We reserve the right to refuse to accept your order for a Hip or EPC for any reason and we do not have to give you a reason why we have refused your order for a HIP or EPC.
10.2 We reserve the right to cancel our contract with you at any time if you give us reasonable grounds to believe that you have supplied us with incorrect, false or misleading information or if we believe you may do so in the future. If we cancel our contract with you we will notify you in writing.
11. Force Majeure
11.1 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform or delay in performance of any of our obligations under a contract caused by events that are outside of our reasonable control. If our performance is delayed due to an event beyond our reasonable control, we will promptly notify you of the reason for such a delay and you agree to give us such an extension as is reasonable in the circumstances.
12. Notices
12.1 All notices given by you to us must be given to D Brookes Ltd at Hallbrooke House, Ash Lane, Down Hatherley, Gloucestershire, GL2 9PS or e–mail to mail@dbrookes.com.
12.2 We will give any notices to you from us in writing.
12.3 We will deem any notices given by us as received and served 24 hours after an e–mail is sent or 3 working days after a letter has been posted by us.
13. Severability
13.1 If at any time any one or more of these Terms and Conditions are held to be unenforceable, illegal, or otherwise invalid in any respect, such enforceability, illegality or invalidity shall not affect the remaining Terms and Conditions, which shall remain in full force and effect to the fullest extent permitted by law
14. General
14.1 These terms and conditions and any document referred to in them set out the entire agreement between us in relation to any contract. These terms and conditions and any document referred to in them supersede any prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between us whether orally or in writing.
14.2 I have the right to revise these terms and conditions from time to time.
14.3 You will be subject to the policies, terms and conditions in force when you ordered a Hip or EPC from us, unless we are required by law to make any changes to comply with any laws.
15. These terms and conditions and any contracts for the purchase of a Hip or EPC through us will be covered by English law. Any dispute arising from or related to, such terms and conditions or contracts shall be subject to the non exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the courts of England and Wales, although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach in your country of residence or any other country.