Terms and Conditions

1) Interpretation a) Except where the context requires otherwise words importing the masculine shall include the feminine, words importing the singular shall include the plural, words importing natural personage shall be equally applicable to corporate personage and vice versa. b) References to any statutory provision, authority, rule or code of practice shall be deemed to include the amended versions, replacements or successors of such. c) For the purpose of these terms & conditions the following words shall have the following meanings: i) “The Company” shall mean Simon Tobias Heating and Plumbing Ltd. ii) “The Customer” shall mean the person or organisation for whom the Company agrees to carry out works and/or supply materials. iii) “The Operative” or “The Engineer” shall mean the representative appointed by the Company. 2) Company Responsibility a) Where the Company agrees to carry out works for the Customer those works shall be undertaken by the designated Operative of Company at its absolute discretion. b) Where the date and/or time for works to be carried out is agreed by the Company with the Customer, then the Company shall use its best endeavours to ensure that the Operative shall attend on the date and at the time agreed. However, the Company accepts no liability in respect of the non-attendance or late attendance on site of the Operative/Engineer or for the late or non-delivery of materials. c) The Company reserves the right to refuse or decline work at its own discretion. 3) Customer Responsibility a) The Customer will permit the Company access during normal working hours to undertake the works agreed. b) The Customer will obtain all consents, licenses and permissions from landlords, tenants, local authorities and others as appropriate, which are required before the works can commence and in a timely manner so as not to delay the works. c) The Customer shall only access the immediate area of the works with the Company’s express permission. d) If the Customer does access the works they, and any third party under their control, shall observe all relevant health and safety regulations and follow the advice and directions of the Company at all times. e) The Customer shall ensure that the works area is not used until the works are completed. 4) Prices a) HOURLY RATE WORK. The total charge to the Customer shall consist of the cost of materials supplied by the Company, the amount of time spent by the Operative(s) in carrying out works (including all reasonable time spent in obtaining un-stocked materials) charged in accordance with the Company’s current hourly rates and all travelling time to and from the job, calculated from the Company’s Head Office to the Customer’s property. The Customer shall only be charged for the time spent related to the Customer’s work. All charges are subject to VAT at the prevailing rate except in cases where the work carried out is reduce or zero rated. The minimum charge is one hour, charged in increments of 30 minutes thereafter. b) FIXED PRICE WORK shall be given as a firm cost, (manifest errors exempted) including Labour and Materials, and shall be within 10% over and above the equivalent total hourly rate cost. All costs are plus VAT at the prevailing rate. 5) Quotations a) Where a written quotation has been supplied to the Customer, the total charge to the Customer referred to in the quotation should not exceed the actual time taken by more than 20% but may be revised in the following circumstances: – i) if after submission of the quotation the Customer instructs the Company (whether orally or in writing) to carry out additional works not referred to in the quotation. ii) if after submission of the quotation there is an increase in the price of materials. iii) if after submission of the quotation it is discovered that further works need to be carried out which were not anticipated when the quotation was prepared. iv) if after submission of the quotation it is discovered that there was a manifest error when the quotation was prepared. b) All quotations will be valid for a maximum period of 30 days from the date of issue, unless otherwise stated. c) The Company shall not be under any obligation to provide a quotation to the Customer and shall only be bound (subject as hereinafter) by quotations given in writing to the Customer & signed by a duly authorised representative of the Company. The Company shall not be bound by any quotations given orally or in which manifest errors occur. d) should a detailed Insurance Report be required in addition to the Quotation and invoice, then this will incur a nominal charge of £85.00 + VAT. 6) Material Collection a) Collection of non-stock items is chargeable but: i) time must be kept to a minimum and reasonable. ii) the Customer must be informed wherever possible when the Operative leaves the premises. iii) if the collection time is likely to exceed 60 minutes the Customer must be additionally informed of the circumstances. iv) only one engineer is allowed to leave the job to collect parts, although he may be accompanied by an apprentice if it is deemed unsafe to leave the apprentice on site alone. 7) Invoices and Payment a) Upon delivery to the Customer, all final invoices are due for payment within 14 days. b) Any part of that invoice which remains unpaid shall carry interest at the rate of 6.5% above Barclays Bank base rate until payment in full is received by the Company. c) All reasonable charges suffered by the Company in the collection of any outstanding debt will be added to the Customer’s account with prior written notice. d) A partial interim invoice may be issued by the Company to the Customer if the duration of any works exceeds 3 weeks in total and will be due for payment upon delivery to the Customer. e) A deposit invoice may be issued for any materials that need to be ordered in advance of commencing works and will be due for payment within 7 days of delivery to the Customer. f) No retention of payments shall be held by the Customer unless agreed in written prior to the commencement of works. 8) Cancellations and Satisfaction a) If the Customer cancels their instructions prior to any work being carried out or materials supplied then the Customer shall be liable for any related expenditure together with the profit that would have been made by the Company had the work been carried out and/or materials supplied in accordance with such instructions. b) If the Customer cancels an appointment giving less than one working days’ notice, the Customer shall be invoiced an aborted visit charge to cover any expenditure together with the profit that would have been made by the Company, no less than 1 hours labour charge. c) The Customer agrees to waiver cancellation rights on engaging the Company to undertake emergency work. In such cases the Customer agrees to pay the Company the full amount of the invoice. c) If, after the Company shall have carried out the works, the Customer is not wholly satisfied with the works then the Customer shall give notice in writing within 12 months to the Company & shall afford the Company, and its insurers, the opportunity of both inspecting such works, and carrying out any necessary remedial works if appropriate. The Customer accepts that if he fails to notify the Company as aforesaid then the Company shall not be liable in respect of any defects in the works carried out. 9) Guarantees a) The Guarantee shall be for labour and otherwise un-warrantied materials in respect of faulty workmanship for 24 months from the date of completion with the manufacturer’s warranty in force. The Guarantee will become null and void if the work/appliance completed/supplied by the Company is: i) Subject to misuse or negligence. ii) Repaired, modified or tampered with by anyone other than a Company operative. The Company will accept no liability for, or guarantee suitability, materials supplied by the Customer and will accept no liability for any consequential damage or fault. b) The company will not guarantee any work in respect of blockages in waste and drainage systems etc. c) The company will not guarantee any work undertaken on instruction from the customer & against the written or verbal advice of the operative/engineer. d) Work is guaranteed only in respect of work directly undertaken by the company and payment in full has been made. Any non-related faults arising from recommended work which has not been undertaken by the company will not be guaranteed. 10) Liabilities a) The Customer shall accept sole liability to discharge the Company’s account unless he/she discloses to the Company when initially instructing the Company to carry out work and/or supply materials that he/she is acting on behalf of a third party (including, but not limited to, a Limited Company or partnership) and receiving a written quotation, the name of the third party appears on the written quotation. b) The Customer shall be solely liable for any hazardous situation in respect of Gas Safe Regulations or Gas Warning Notice issued. c) The Company shall not be held liable or responsible for any damage or defect resulting from work not fully guaranteed or where recommended work has not been carried out. Work will not carry a guarantee where the Customer has been notified by the operative either verbally or indicated in ticked boxes or in Comments/ Recommendations of any other related work which requires attention. d) Where the Company agrees to carry out works on installations of inferior quality or over ten years old at that date no warranty is given in respect of such works & the Company accepts no liability in respect of the effectiveness of such works or otherwise. e) Engineers operate under their own Gas Safe Registration number in conjunction with The Company’s Gas Safe Registration and as such are jointly responsible for any Gas related work and subsequent liability. f) The Company shall be entitled to fully recover costs or damages via an insurance claim from any operative/engineer/contractor whose negligence or faulty workmanship results in the Company being made liable for those damages or rectification of the work. g) The Company shall only be liable for rectifying works completed by the Company and shall not be held responsible for ensuing damage or claims resulting from this or other work overlooked or subsequently requested and not undertaken at that time. h) Prior to commencement of work involving gas appliances, the existing gas supply will be subject to a Tightness test to check for compliance with Gas Safety Regulations. Any faults found will be advised to the Customer and any rectification works required may be subject to additional charges. i) Should the works include a Power-flush of the existing heating system, it must be pointed out that, whilst this treatment is generally harmless, depending on the condition of the existing components the process may find weaknesses in the system. Should any such problems be encountered then any rectification works required may be charged at extra cost. j) Should the works include a new boiler / water heater unit connected to an existing heating system, the Customer should be aware that the higher pressures used by this new type of boiler may find weaknesses in the existing system. Any repairs required in this respect are not included in any Quotation. 11) Goods & Materials a) Title to any goods, supplied by the Company to the Customer shall not pass to the Customer but shall be retained by the Company until payment in full for such goods has been made by the Customer to the Company. b) Until such time as title in the said goods has passed to the Customer: i) the Company shall have absolute authority to repossess, sell or otherwise deal with or dispose of all any or part of such goods in which title remains vested in the Company. ii) for the purpose specified in (i) above, the Company or any of its agents or authorised representatives shall be entitled at any time and without notice to enter any premises in which goods or any part thereof is installed, stored or kept, or is reasonably believed so to be. iii) the Company shall be entitled to seek a court injunction to prevent the Customer from selling, transferred or otherwise disposing of such goods. c) Notwithstanding the foregoing, risk in such goods shall pass on delivery of the same to the Customer, and until such time as title in such goods has passed to the Customer, the Customer shall insure such goods to their replacement value and the Customer shall forthwith, upon request, provide the Company with a certificate or other evidence of such Insurance. 12) Force Majeure Neither the Company nor the Customer shall be liable for any delay or for the consequences of any delay in performing any of its obligations if such a delay is due to any cause whatsoever beyond its reasonable control, and the Company shall be entitled to a reasonable extension of the time for performing such obligations. 13) Governing Law a) These terms & conditions may not be released, discharged, supplemented, interpreted, varied or modified in any manner except by an instrument in writing signed by a duly authorised representative of the Company and by the Customer. Further, these terms & conditions shall prevail over any terms & conditions used by the Customer or contained or set out or referred to in any documentation sent by the Customer to the Company, by entering into a contract with the Company the Customer agrees irrevocably to waive the application of any such terms & conditions. b) These terms & conditions and all contacts awarded between the Company and Customer shall be governed and construed in accordance with English law and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English law.