General Terms & Conditions
1. Cherryfield Ecology 1.1. Cherryfield Ecology is a Private Limited business Reg no 10216752, owned and operated by Martin and Tanya O’Connor. 1.2. We are registered for Value Added Tax at this time VAT no 244631908 .
2. Registered Office 2.1. 8 Crancott Close, Bedfordshire, MK45 3ND
3. Our Aim 3.1. We aim to offer efficient ecological survey(s) and consultancy service at a reasonable cost. The surveys are undertaken from an independent view point with no bias.
4. Terms of business 4.1. The following terms and conditions of business (“Terms”) give details of the way we will provide our services and should be read in conjunction with any accompanying correspondence e.g. quote. 4.2. Any dispute or legal issue arising from them will be determined by the law of England and Wales and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh Courts. 4.3. Unless agreed in writing, or unless super-seeded by a later edition of these Terms, these Terms shall apply to all current and any future works undertaken. 4.4. By accepting our quote you accept these Terms. 4.5. By agreeing to the Terms you acknowledge that the results and recommendations of the survey(s) is based on national good practice guidelines. These guidelines set-out the way in which survey(s) and recommendations are undertaken and reported.
5. Hours of business 5.1. The normal hours of opening are between 9.00am and 5.00pm on weekdays. Saturday and Sunday Closed.
6. Responsibility for work 6.1. When confirming your instructions, you will be given a time and date of your survey. We will try to avoid changing the time and date but occasionally this may be unavoidable, due to unforeseen circumstances e.g. accidents and traffic jams. 6.2. We do not store your files and our work for you, including any communications, in hard or digital copies. If your files and our work is stored it is on the clear understanding that we can delete the files and work after a period, usually 12 months.
7. Fees and expenses 7.1. All of our fees and expenses (“Fees”) are quoted as a fixed fee/stage of work. We are VAT registered at this time and do include VAT in quotes. 7.2. Fixed Fees are based on information available to us at the time and assumes that our work will not be more complex, require more resources e.g. time than is normal for that survey. We reserve the right to update our fixed quote. Further work is quoted at the stage it is required e.g. stage 2 surveys once they are known to be needed. If we have to carry out additional work; have problems undertaking the work because the project is changed by you; because additional works are undertaken by agreement with you; because of any time delay in providing your plans etc.; in taking any steps necessary for the work; because we are delayed by others (or by events which were not foreseeable e.g. accidents); then you shall agree to an additional payment for additional time employed. 7.3. In most cases our Fees will be worked-out by the amount of time actually spent by the consultant (and any additional work e.g. admin). This will include time spent travelling to and from the base office. meetings, reading and working on documents and drawings; e-mail and receiving phone calls; Hourly and daily rates for Fees are charged on the basis that a full day will be required including travel time. 7.4. Our Fees are based on mileage, records data and time spent travelling and writing reports. Mileage is charged at 0.45p/mile, data varies from location to location and will be included in the quote. 7.5. If your instructions do not come to completion, then unless we have agreed otherwise in writing, we will be entitled to charge you for our work done, our minimum Fees in those circumstances is one hundred pounds Sterling. 7.6. At the time of booking a 50% deposit of the total fixed fee will be paid to cover expenses and time spent working on your project. 7.7. If we have started works for you e.g. ordered biological records data and you cancel your survey after this point, you will still be required to pay for works undertaken up until that point.
8. Disbursements (e.g. biological records data) 8.1. When undertaking your work, we may need to pay for items that are called disbursements e.g. Ordnance Survey plan or obtaining biological data from a wildlife trust or local authority records centre for your survey report. this will be detailed in the Fees and forms part of the quote. Fees may change based on the formal quote provided by the centre and Cherryfield reserves the right to update quotes when changes are made by the third party.
9. Instructions/approval of the quote 9.1. Work must be instructed in writing which is seen as agreement to these Terms. 9.2. If invoicing details are incorrectly provided by the instructing person an admin fee of £50 +VAT will be incurred for each and every change required.
10. Limited companies 10.1. When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company, we may require a authorized person e.g. MD to sign for our Fees. If the request is refused we will stop working on your behalf and will charge for the time worked thus far.
11. Agents 11.1. An Agent is someone instructing us on behalf of another party (“Agent”). E.g. the Agent might be an architect/planner or person authorized to act on behalf of the client (family member, for instance). 11.2 In the event that the client will not or can not pay for the works, the instructing Agent agrees to pay for the works in full and recover the monies from the client directly.
12.Billing and payment 12.1. Unless otherwise agreed in writing 50% payment in full is due on the day of the survey. The remaining 50% is due on completion. 12.2. Once instruction/approval is received we will normally contact you to arrange the survey. 12.3. If you are an overseas client, payment in full is required before works are undertaken. 12.4. We will issue our work to you once we are in receipt of your payment, which must be within 15 days of the date of our invoice. 12.5 Accepted payment methods include – bank transfer (details will be provided on the invoice) 12.6. We are entitled to charge you interest on the amount of our bill until the date of payment. Payment of the bill should be made within 15 days of your invoice date. Interest is charged at 8% over the HSBC Bank PLC base lending rate. Payment by instalments unless agreed in writing before works start is not accepted. 12.7. You are liable for any costs (including but not limited to interest; compensation; etc.) involved in recovering Fees including those levied by us in accordance with The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 as amended and those levied by third parties e.g. courts. 12.8 Our nominated bank account details are available upon request and included on the invoice. . 12.9. Receipt of your payment does not mean we will work on your behalf. We reserve the right to return the payment and decline to accept your instructions. 12.10. Title to the intellectual property and copyright covering all work issued by us (whether hard copy or digital) remains in our ownership until paid for in full). We reserve the right to withdraw the works from either public or private domain if our payment terms are exceeded or criminal activities are found to have been undertaken. If continued use of the works is found to have taken place this will be considered a breach of the Terms.
13. CIS Scheme 13.1. There will be no CIS deductions on our invoices, as we are exempt from the scheme.
14. Consumer protection and refunds 14.1. The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 regulates internet selling and you have seven working days to inform us of a required cancellation, which must be in writing. If you meet these criteria you will be refunded any monies paid, (minus any work that has been undertaken on your behalf e.g. ordering of biological records data, our requirement see next section). 14.2. The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, state you are not entitled to any refund: when work commences or is due to commence within seven working days of work starting. 14.3. We will decide to stop working for you if there is a conflict of interest, a potential criminal act, a criminal activity has taken place or where there is another good reason (e.g. not paying an invoice as per these Terms or a crime or potential crime is committed). We will notify this in writing (e-mail) if we stop working for you. If you or we decide that this is the best of course of action, you will pay our Fees incurred to that point.
15. Complaints 15.1. It is our aim to offer an effective service. However, if there is any part of our service you are not happy with please raise your concern in the first instance, by writing, so it can be checked and an outcome can be drawn.
16. Data protection 16.1. We will use the information you supply to provide you with our services and for updating and enhancing client information; legal and regulatory compliance. The use of this information is subject to your agreement to the T&C’s, along with the Data Protection Act 1998/GDPR 2018. We may sometimes have to give your information to third parties e.g. professional advisors, local authorities and public bodies.
17. Limitation of liability 17.1. Professional indemnity and Public Liability insurance policies are maintained by us for working purposes. 17.2. Our maximum liability will be limited to the equivalent of no more than four times our Fees, or forty thousand Pounds Sterling. We will have no further liability to you or third parties in connection with our work. You agree not to pursue any claim or other legal proceedings against any individual of Cherryfield Ecology thereafter. 17.3. We will not be liable for any losses, damages, costs or expenses (“Losses”), if Losses are due to the provision of false and misleading or incomplete documentation, potential criminal acts or criminal acts. Finally due to the acts of any person other than a member of permanently employed staff at Cherryfield Ecology. 17.4. Details of our professional indemnity and pubic liability insurance cover are available should they be required.
18. Are way of working 18.1. You will be provided with an estimated timeframe for works either in our quotation or soon after accepting the quote. We will not be liable for any delays in work timeframes caused by circumstances beyond our control and will be entitled to a time extension if required. We may have to subcontract the works to a competent third party. All requests for information e.g. plans are due in a timely manner.
19. Hard copies (printed) 19.1. Digital copies of our work (e.g. PDF’s) will be provided for all works and communications, these are issued when works are complete.. We do not provide hard/wet (printed) copies of reports for ethical reasons.
20. Reliance on others data 20.1. Information provided to us from third parties will be relied upon. It will not be checked by us. We cannot guarantee the survey data is correct when provided by others.
21. Site access 21.1. You are responsible for making all necessary arrangements to grant us access to your site, for some surveys internal and external access is required. Access must always be arranged in good time and not less than two working days before we are due to visit. We cannot pick up keys, post them or be held accountable for the loss or damage of keys for a site.
22. Site plans and drawings 22.1. Sometimes the type of survey you are instructing will require a mapping exercise, we need to be supplied with a PDF site plan, both existing and proposed showing the extent of the works.
23. Use of images 23.1 During the course of undertaking surveys – photos, images and plans will be taken, drawn or created. Cherryfield reserves the right to use these images for marketing, social media and promotional purposes. All images and photos used on this website are the property of Cherryfield Ecology and exclusive rights for their use are at the owners discretion. Images that do not belong to Cherryfield Ecology are used with the owners permission and are acknowledged as such.
24. Letters of reliance 24.1 Letters of reliance are charged for, the fee will be in line with the work involved and a minimum fee of £179 +VAT will be charged. The clause within the letter is not subject of this term and the fee is for the admin time to write/change or amend anything within the letter. No wet/hard copies are provided as we don’t have the facilities to do this. If this is required it will be charged for at the postage rate and time required to undertake this work
25. Plans 25.1 Plans will need to be provided for our work, these must be the most up to date and any amends to this e.g. reports requiring changes will be charged for the standard fee for this is currently £129 +VAT (we reserve the right to amend this fee as and when necessary). Plans for biodiversity net gain, must be the final plans and amends for this will be charged for the quoted figure must be agreed on instruction.
26. Use of Technology 26.1 Infra Red Camera/Thermal and other visual aids are used for surveying. These are not designed to replace the surveyor (although on occasion they may be used in place of a surveyor, if deemed appropriate). Cameras may not always pick up bats emerging due to field of view, lighting creating feedback etc. and when this happens the surveyor using skill and judgement will be relied upon.