Terms and Conditions
These Terms and Conditions are for the use of our website (www.southmanchesterhips.co.uk)
for our supply of any commissioned Home Information Pack or Energy Performance
Certificate for a residential property specified by you. By using our site or
ordering any of our Home Information Packs, you agree to be bound by these Terms
and Conditions.
1. INFORMATION ABOUT US
1.1 www.southmanchesterhips.co.uk is a site operated by DTMH Ltd registered in
England under company number
3421147. VAT Reg. No. 628 9750 93.
Registered office: 1 Park Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 6SR.
2. ACCESSING OUR SITE
2.1 Whilst we shall use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that our site is
available at all times, we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we
provide on our site without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason our
site is unavailable.
2.2 From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our site, or our
entire site, to users who have registered with us.
3. COMMISSIONING A HOME INFORMATION PACK
3.1 By placing an order to commission a Home Information Pack through our site,
you warrant that: (a) you are legally capable of entering into binding
contracts; and (b) you are at least 18 years old.
4. HOW THE CONTRACT IS FORMED BETWEEN YOU AND US
4.1 Our site allows you to request details of costs for the preparation of a
Home Information Pack or Energy Performance Certificate, for the property
specified. We will respond to you by email or by giving you an online quote
based on the information you have provided to us. All costs quoted by us are
valid for three months only. You can then decide if you wish to place an order
on that costs basis via our website. Our pricing structure is based on freehold
properties registered at the Land Registry and where your property is leasehold
or unregistered additional fees may apply.
4.2 After placing an order to commission a Home Information Park / Energy Performance Certificate,
you will receive an e-mail from us acknowledging that we have received your
order. Your order constitutes an offer by you to us to buy a Home Information
Pack / Energy Performance Certificate. All orders are subject to acceptance by
us, when we will send you an e-mail confirming that we have accepted your order
for a Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate (the Order
Acceptance). The contract between us (Contract) will only be formed when we send
you the Order Acceptance.
4.3 If you have asked us to supply more than one Home Information Pack / Energy
Performance Certificate, the same acceptance procedure will apply to each
individual Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate.
5. PRICE AND PAYMENT
5.1 The price of any Home Information Packs / Energy Performance
Certificate is as quoted on our site/or our specific quote except in cases of
obvious error. These prices include delivery to you of the Home Information Pack
/ Energy Performance Certificate online only and show our prices inclusive of
VAT. Additional charges apply if you require the Home Information Pack to be
sent to you by post or by other means.
5.2 It is possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the Home Information
Pack / Energy Performance Certificate pricing information on our site may be
incorrect, especially where third parties preparing parts of the Pack for you do
not work on a fixed fee basis. We will normally verify prices as part of our
Order Acceptance. We are under no obligation to provide a Home Information Pack
/ Energy Performance Certificate to you at the incorrect (lower) price, even
after we have sent you an Order Acceptance, if the pricing error is obvious and
unmistakeable or where any third parties levy any additional charges.
5.3 Payment for Home Information Packs / Energy Performance Certificates may be
made by the means detailed elsewhere on our site.
5.4 Where we have agreed credit terms, if you fail to pay us any sums when due,
we may: (a) suspend the provision of, or access to, Home Information Packs /
Energy Performance Certificates to you until full payment has been made, where
payment is required before our preparation; of the Home Information Pack
/ Energy Performance Certificate and/or (b) charge you interest on the overdue
sum at a rate of 4% per annum above the base rate of the Bank of England, from
the due date until the date of actual payment (including after any judgment).
Such interest shall accrue on a daily basis and be compounded quarterly. We
reserve the right to claim interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts
(Interest) Act 1998. 6.
YOUR RIGHTS OF CANCELLATION
6.1 Please note that if you are a consumer you have a cooling-off period in
which you can withdraw from the Contract for any reason, subject to the
provisions of clause 6.3 below. This cooling-off period ends seven working days
from the day after the Contract is concluded and you receive our Order
Acceptance in accordance with clause 4.1 above. This provision does not apply to
business to business transactions.
6.2 To cancel a Contract, you must inform us in writing by email or by post
within the prescribed period specified in clause 6.1.
6.3 If you are a consumer, the cooling-off period and the right to cancel a
Contract will not apply where: (a) a Home Information Pack / Energy Performance
Certificate has already been issued to you; and (b) we have begun the
preparation of the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate by
agreement with you before the expiry of the cooling-off period.
6.4 Subject to clause 6.7, contracts cancelled by you within the seven-day
cooling-off period will be refunded in full, excluding any credit card or debit
card processing charges incurred by us.
6.5 We will usually refund any money received from you using the same method
originally used by you for pay for your purchase. We will usually process the
refund due to you as soon as possible and, in any case, within 30 days of the
day we received your cancellation.
6.6 Any cancellations of or refunds for Home Information Packs / Energy
Performance Certificates other than in accordance with the cooling-off period
referred to above will be at our sole discretion.
6.7 If you cancel the Contract you will remain liable for the costs of any Third
Party Reports already ordered or obtained by us on your behalf in accordance
with the provisions of clause 11.
6.8 This clause 6 does not affect your statutory rights.
7 INFORMATION PROVIDED THE CUSTOMER AND OUR HOME INFORMATION PACKS / ENERGY
PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATE
7.1 We will provide you with access to such online property questionnaires and
other materials as we deem necessary for you to complete the information
required for us to prepare a Home Information Pack / Energy Performance
Certificate for you once we have accepted your order.
7.2 You will be required to complete such information and return it to us by
email or fax in order for us to prepare a Home Information Pack / Energy
Performance Certificate for you.
7.3 You may incur additional costs in providing information to us for our
inclusion in the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate. An
example of such costs 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.
7.4 Unless there are exceptional circumstances, your Contract for a Home
Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate will normally be fulfilled by
us making the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate available
to you online within ten working days of our receipt of your completed Customer
Information Form as sent to us by email.
7.5 Such timescale is for guidance only and we shall not be responsible for
delays owing to holiday periods or other causes outside our reasonable control.
The costs of making the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate
available to you online is included in your fee, but additional charges may be
payable if you require the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance
Certificate by any other means, such as by CD Rom, post or in the form of a
memory stick.
7.6 We shall not be liable for any losses of any Customer Information Forms sent
to us and you are recommended to take copies of all items prior to sending them.
8. ACCURACY OF INFORMATION PROVIDED BY YOU
8.1 It is important to note that the information you provide to us will form
part of the publicly-available Home Information Pack / Energy Performance
Certificate upon which reliance may be made by potential or actual buyers,
mortgage lenders and other parties. It is imperative that all information
provided by you is as accurate and complete as possible. If the information you
give about your property is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading in any way you
risk legal claims against you, including for compensation.
8.2 You warrant that the information supplied by you when completing and
submitting the Customer Information Form is current, true, accurate and
complete. You agree to notify us immediately if you become aware that any such
information is inaccurate or incomplete and forward to us any updated
information. If you provide us with an incorrect address or other information in
your Customer Information Form, you will still be liable to pay our fees once
the Contract has been made between us.
8.3 You must ensure that any materials submitted to us do not infringe any
applicable laws, regulations or any third party right.
9. YOUR REGISTRATION
9.1 Each registration provided when you commission a Home Information Pack /
Energy Performance Certificate is for a single user only. Responsibility for the
security of any passwords or user names allocated to you rests with you. If you
suspect that someone else knows your password, you should contact us
immediately. Once the Home Information Pack is complete, passwords may be issued
to third parties, such as prospective buyers, who wish to view it online.
9.2 We may suspend or cancel your registration immediately at our reasonable
discretion or if you breach any of these Terms and Conditions.
10. OUR RIGHTS OF CANCELLATION
10.1 We reserve the right to refuse to accept your order for a Home Information
Pack / Energy Performance Certificate or suspend provision of a Home Information
Pack / Energy Performance Certificate immediately if you fail to comply with any
of these Terms and Conditions or your previous actions give us reasonable
grounds to believe that you may fail to do so in the future. If we exercise this
right we shall notify you via email.
11. OBTAINING REPORTS FROM THIRD PARTIES
11.1 You acknowledge and agree that during our preparation of a Home Information
Pack / Energy Performance Certificate for you, it will be necessary for us to
obtain reports from third parties on your behalf in relation to the Sale
Property (Third Party Reports). These may include, but are not limited to:
(a) Energy performance certificates prepared by external government-licensed
'Home Inspectors' or 'Domestic Energy Assessors';
(b) Home condition reports prepared by external government-licensed 'Home
Inspectors';
(c) Copies of records relating to the Sale Property held at the Land Registry;
(d) Local enquiries, local land charges register searches, and drainage and
water enquiries;
(e) Any other specialist reports required.
11.2 Our fee for the Home Information Pack includes our costs of procuring
certain specified Third Party Reports on your behalf. We will specify in our
cost structure exactly what Third Party Reports will be included in your own
Home Information Pack fee.
11.3 Our fees are based upon estimated costs of obtaining the Third Party
Reports specified in our costs structure. In exceptional circumstances, the
actual costs of procuring specific Third Party Reports may be higher than
initially envisaged. In such circumstances we shall notify you by email of any
additional fees you will incur prior to ordering such Third Party Reports on
your behalf and will only proceed with your approval.
11.4 In the event that you delay any approval of increased Third Party Reports
costs as referred to in clause 11.3 you acknowledge that it is likely to delay
our preparation of your Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate
and that the non-inclusion of all necessary Third Party Reports may render your
Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate incomplete which may mean
that you do not comply with your legal obligations in this respect.
11.5 Where we obtain Third Party Reports on your behalf, you acknowledge and
agree that we do so as your agent and we shall be permitted to disclose to the
relevant party from whom we obtain any Third Party 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 Report and we are not a party to any such contract we make as your agent
and we cannot sue or be sued upon it.
11.6 Whilst we shall use all reasonable endeavours to obtain any required Third
Party Reports for you from suitably qualified and experienced third parties whom
we reasonably believe to have the relevant degree of expertise and appropriate
professional standing, you acknowledge that we are not liable for the contents
of any Third Party Reports and/or any delay, errors or omissions by any third
party providing such Third Party Reports.
11.7 As we will be obtaining Third Party Reports only as your agent, if you
would like to see copies of any contract from third parties preparing such Third
Party Reports in order to assess your rights and liabilities, we will forward
these to you upon request, wherever reasonably practicable. You acknowledge,
however, that this may result in slight delays in the preparation of your Home
Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate.
11.8 You agree to indemnify us against all costs, claims, damages, losses and
expenses arising as a result of any claim or action suffered by us in the event
that we are deemed to be acting as your agent in obtaining any Third Party
Reports for you or performing our other obligations under a Contract.
11.9 In the event that you exercise your right to cancel a Contract in
accordance with the provisions of clause 6, we reserve the right to charge you
for any costs incurred by us in ordering or obtaining Third Party Reports on
your behalf prior to the date of cancellation of the Contract.
12. OUR LIABILITY
12.1 We are not responsible to you for any data that you lose as a result of
accessing our site or the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance
Certificate, although we may make available to you again any lost Home
Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate by re-issuing you with a
password at our discretion. You must ensure that you save and back up all your
data used for completing the Customer Information Form.
12.2 We shall not be liable for any use made of your Home Information Pack /
Energy Performance Certificate or any information contained in it by third
parties (whether fraudulently or otherwise) once your Pack has been made
available to the public, whether via our website or otherwise.
12.3 We may make changes to the material on this site, or to the products,
services and prices described in it, at any time without notice. The material on
this site may be out of date.
12.4 The material on this website is provided “as is” without any conditions,
warranties or other terms of any kind. Accordingly, to the maximum extent
permitted by law, we exclude all representations, warranties, conditions and
other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of
satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and
skill) which but for these terms and conditions might have effect in relation to
this site.
12.5 Subject to clause 12.6, our entire liability to you in respect of these
terms and conditions or any Contract (whether in contract or tort, including
negligence, or otherwise) 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 insurance of any excess loss, if required.
12.6 Clause 12.5 does not include or limit in any way our liability: (a) for
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.
12.7 We accept no liability for any loss of income or revenue, loss of business,
loss of profits or contracts, loss of anticipated savings, loss of data, waste
of management or office time or for any indirect or consequential loss or damage
of any kind however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence),
breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.
12.8 You agree to indemnify us fully, defend and hold us, and our officers,
directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against all claims,
liability, damages, losses, costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising out
of any breach of these terms and conditions or any Contract by you, or your use
of this site, or the use by any other person using your registration details or
in any circumstances where we are held to be your agent.
13. INTELECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
13.1 We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our
site, in the material published on it, and in our Home Information Packs /
Energy Performance Certificate. Those works are protected by copyright laws and
treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
13.2 In consideration of your Home Information Pack / Energy Performance
Certificate fee, we grant to you a non-exclusive, licence for you to use the
Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate solely for the purposes
contemplated by the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate
Regulations. You are not permitted to resell your Home Information Pack / Energy
Performance Certificate.
14. RELIANCE ON HOME INFORMATION PACKS / ENERGY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATE
14.1 We stress that the information you provide to us about your property will
form part of the publicly-available Home Information Pack / Energy Performance
Certificate upon which reliance may be made by potential or actual buyers,
mortgage lenders and other parties, regardless of who paid for the preparation
of the Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate. If the
information you give about your property is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading
in any way you risk legal claims against you from third parties, including for
compensation.
14.2 Where you are unsure what information to include, how to answer any
particular questions or where there are complex issues relating to your property
you should seek specialist advice from a solicitor.
15 OUR SITE CHANGES REGULARLY
15.1 We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the content at any
time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it
indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given
time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.
16. INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AND YOUR VISITS TO OUR SITE
16.1 We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By
using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data
provided by you is accurate.
17. PROHIBITED USE
17.1 Other than personally identifiable information, any material you send to us
will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. We will have no
obligations with respect to such material. We and our nominees will be free to
copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such material and all
data, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all
commercial or non-commercial purposes.
18. LINKING TO AND FROM OUR SITE
18.1 Links to third party websites on this site are provided solely for your
convenience. If you use these links, you leave this site. We have not reviewed
all of these third party websites and do not control and are not responsible for
these websites or their content or availability and you use such third party
websites entirely at your own risk.
19. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
19.1 Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications we
send to you should be in writing. When using our site, you accept that
communication with us will be mainly electronic. We will contact you by e-mail
or provide you with information by posting notices on our site. For contractual
purposes, you agree to this electronic means of communication and you
acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications
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.
21. TRANSFER OF RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
21.1 The Contract between you and us is binding on you and us and on our
respective successors and assigns.
21.2 You may not transfer, assign, charge or otherwise dispose of a Contract, or
any of your rights or obligations arising under it, or any Home Information Pack
/ Energy Performance Certificate, without our prior written consent.
21.3 Only the parties to a Contract may seek to enforce its terms.
22. EVENTS OUTSIDE OUR CONTROL
22.1 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
outside our reasonable control (Force Majeure Event).
22.2 A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-happening, omission or
accident beyond our reasonable control and includes in particular (without
limitation) the following: any industrial dispute affecting any third party,
governmental regulations, fire, flood, disaster, power outage or electrical
failure, theft of computers or related equipment, hostile computer act,
telecommunications or internet failures, non-availability of third party data
centres, acts of terrorism, civil riot or war).
23. WAIVER
23.1 If we fail, at any time during the term of a Contract, to insist upon
strict performance of any of your obligations under these terms and conditions,
or if we fail to exercise any of the rights or remedies to which we are
entitled, this shall not constitute a waiver of such rights or remedies and
shall not relieve you from compliance with such obligations.
24. SEVERABILITY
24.1 If any of these Terms and Conditions or any provisions of a Contract are
deemed by any competent authority to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, such
term, condition or provision will to that extent be severed from the remaining
terms and conditions, which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent
permitted by law.
25. ENTIRE DOCUMENT
25.1 These terms and conditions and any document referred to in them set out the
entire agreement between us in relation to any Contract. They supersede any
prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between us, whether oral or in
writing.
25.2 We each acknowledge that, in entering into a Contract, neither of us has
relied on any representation, undertaking or promise given by the other or
implied from negotiations between us prior to such Contract, except as expressly
stated in these Terms and Conditions.
25.3 Neither of us shall have any remedy in respect of any untrue statement made
by the other prior to the date of any Contract (unless such untrue statement was
made fraudulently) and the other party's only remedy shall be for breach of
contract as provided in these Terms and Conditions.
26. OUR RIGHT TO VARY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS
26.1 We have the right to revise and amend these Terms and Conditions from time
to time.
26.2 You will be subject to the policies and terms and conditions in force when
you order a Home Information Pack / Energy Performance Certificate from us,
unless we are required to make any change to comply with any laws (in which case
it will apply to orders previously placed by you), or if we notify you of the
change to those policies or these Terms and Conditions before we send you the
Order Acceptance (where we shall assume that you have accepted the change,
unless you notify us by email that you do not wish to proceed with the Contract.
27. LAW AND JURISDICTION
27.1 These Terms and Conditions and any Contracts for the purchase of Home
Information Packs / Energy Performance Certificates (which are provided only for
properties in England and Wales) through our site will be governed 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
England and Wales, although we retain the right
to bring proceedings against you for breach in your country of residence or any
other relevant country.
27.2 If you access this site from locations outside the United Kingdom, you do
so at your own risk and you are responsible for compliance with local laws.