TERMS & CONDITIONS
1 These terms may have changed since you last reviewed them
For a list of changes and when they were made, please contact us.
2 Where to find information about us and our services
You can find everything you need to know about us, Eight Design, and our services on our website or from our personnel before you instruct us.
3 We don't give business customers all the same rights as consumers
For example, business customers can't cancel their orders, they have different rights where there is a problem with a service and we don't compensate them in the same way for losses caused by us or our services. Where a term applies just to businesses or just to consumers, this is clearly stated. You are a business customer if you are buying products or services wholly or mainly for use in connection with your trade, business, craft or profession, even if you are an individual.
4 If you are a business customer this is our entire agreement with you
If you are a business customer these terms constitute the entire agreement between us in relation to your purchase. You acknowledge that you have not relied on any statement, promise, representation, assurance or warranty made or given by us or on our behalf which is not set out in these terms and that you have no claim for innocent or negligent misrepresentation or negligent misstatement based on any statement in this agreement.
5 Our contract with you
5.1 Our acceptance of your request or order will take place when we email or call you to accept it, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us.
5.2 If we are unable to accept your request or order, we will inform you of this in writing and will not charge you. This might be because of unexpected limits on our resources which we could not reasonably plan for, because we have identified an error in the price or description on our website, or because we are unable to meet a timescale / deadline you have specified.
6 Services
6.1 We will perform an initial consultation as to your requirements before preparing a fee proposal and design brief. As part of the initial consultation, we will examine the project and your requirements.
6.2 Our services will consist of the following:
a) Design Brief. Following the initial design consultation, we will prepare a substantive fee proposal and detailed design brief for your approval before undertaking the further services listed in this clause 6.2. Once you have had time to consider the design brief, we can consult further (in person, by phone or in writing) to discuss any changes you require and we shall produce a revised fee proposal. Once you are happy with the fee proposal, we will then issue you with an accompanying invoice. By making requested payment, you are indicating your agreement to the fee proposal and design brief.
b) Spatial Review. We will prepare a spatial review of the scaled architectural drawings supplied by you for all areas of the project. We will prepare hand drawn conceptual plans and functional requirements for space, furniture and joinery (unless this is not needed as documented in the design brief).
c) Style Guide. We will prepare a conceptual mood board in the most appropriate presentation format, tailored to your specific requirements as documented in the design brief. We will choose a number of key elements, e.g. furniture, materials, paint colours, lighting, window treatments, accessories, art and so on, to illustrate each area which may use images, hand-drawn sketches or samples. As this guide will be prepared to the design brief, any revisions required will not be included within the agreed pricing and such revisions will be additional services (see below under (d)).
d) Additional services. If revisions are required to the above noted services, or if any additional projects or services are needed by you above and beyond those covered above, we will agree a new fee proposal and design brief.
6.3 Unless otherwise agreed in the design brief, we will need the following items from you to perform the services:
a) Sufficient information to prepare the design brief. We will request this information at the initial design consultation.
b) Scaled architectural plans and elevations (scale 1:50 or 1:100) for the project.
c) Existing project photos, where available.
d) Conceptual style images that you may think are relevant.
e) A detailed inventory, including dimensions and, where available, photos of any existing items to be incorporated in the scheme. If this is not available, this can be produced by Eight Design as part of our services.
f) Your plans and measurements. We will perform our services to the plans and measurements you have given us. You are responsible for ensuring that these plans and measurements are correct.
6.4 We will require that you:
a) ensure that any premises we visit is safe and that we and any of our representatives have unimpeded access to them at the times arranged between you and us; and
b) are available either in person or by telephone at reasonable times to answer any queries that may arise during the carrying out of the services.
7 Standard
7.1 Our aim is to provide our services using reasonable care and skill and in compliance with the commonly accepted practices and standards of an interior design consultancy practice. Whilst our hope is that the outcome of the services will give you pleasure for many years to come, no interior design practice can guarantee this and you acknowledge that:
a) all decisions are yours, even if they are recommended by us;
b) our services are conceptual only and should be verified with relevant third party suppliers engaged by you to implement the design (if any). Unless agreed in the design brief, we will not liaise with any of the third party suppliers you engage. We will have no liability for any dissatisfaction you may experience because of the way in which the design is implemented by the third party suppliers; and
c) our services will not be suitable or fit for construction purposes (including planning or building regulation consent). You will need to submit all conceptual drawings and materials to relevant third parties (e.g. Architects, structural engineers, builders, local council) for technical interpretation and verification and who will be responsible for the review of all applicable laws, regulations, permissions and compatibility; and
d) where we recommend third party suppliers for your scheme, we may provide you with links to access such suppliers’ websites or other contact details for you to be able to correspond with or purchase products or services from them. This information is provided for your information only if you decide to purchase any products or services from those third parties you do so solely at your own risk. We cannot make any representation or commitment, and accordingly we cannot be liable, for any third party products or services or your use of them, or your correspondence with any such third party suppliers or any transactions completed, or any contract entered into, by you with any such third party suppliers. Any contract entered into and any transaction completed with any third party is between you and the relevant third party and not us.
8 Our rights to make changes
8.1 We may change the services you order:
a) to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements; and
b) to implement minor technical adjustments and improvements. These changes will not affect the performed services.
8.2 In addition, we may make changes to these terms but if we do so we will notify you and you may then contact us to end the contract before the changes take effect and receive a refund for any services paid for but not received.
9 Providing the services
9.1 We will begin the services on the date we accept your request for our services by email or telephone. The estimated completion date for the services will be outlined in the agreed fee proposal.
9.2 If our supply of the services is delayed by an event outside our control then we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay. Provided we do this we will not be liable for delays caused by the event, but if there is a risk of substantial delay you may contact us to end the contract and receive a refund for any services you have paid for but not received.
9.3 We can suspend the supply of a service. We do this to:
a) deal with technical problems or make minor technical changes;
b) update how we provide services to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements and industry best practice; or
c) make changes to our services.
9.4 We will contact you in advance to tell you we're suspending supply, unless the problem is urgent or an emergency. If we suspend supply for so long as to deprive you of the benefit of the contract then you can contact our us to end the contract and we'll refund any sums you've paid in advance for services you won't receive.
9.5 If we agree at the design brief stage that we need access to your property to perform the services, if you do not allow us such access as arranged (and you do not have a good reason for this) we may charge you additional costs incurred by us as a result. If, despite our reasonable efforts, we are unable to contact you or re-arrange access to your property we may end the contract and clause 15.2 will apply.
10 Suspension of Services
10.1 We may have to suspend the supply of our services to:
a) deal with technical problems or make minor technical changes;
b) update the services to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements;
c) make changes to the services as requested by you or notified by us to you.
10.2 We will contact you in advance to tell you we will be suspending the supply of our services, unless the problem is urgent or an emergency. You may contact us to end the contract for services if we suspend it, or tell you we are going to suspend it, in each case for a period of more than one month and we will refund any sums you have paid in advance for the services in respect of the period after you end the contract.
10.3 If you do not pay us for services when you are supposed to and you still do not make payment within three days of us reminding you that payment is due, we may suspend supply of the services until you have paid us the outstanding amounts. We will contact you to tell you we are suspending supply of our services. We will not suspend our services where you in good faith dispute any unpaid invoice. As well as suspending our services we can also charge you interest on your overdue payments.
11 Your rights to end the contract
11.1 You can always end your contract with us. Your rights when you end the contract will depend on what you have bought, whether there is anything wrong with it, how we are performing and when you decide to end the contract:
a) if we have not provided services to the required standard (or to get a service re-performed or to get some or all of your money back);
b) if you want to end the contract because of something we have done or have told you we are going to do, see clause 11.2;
c) if you have just changed your mind about services, see clause 11.3. You may be able to get a refund if you are within the cooling-off period, but this may be subject to deductions;
d) in all other cases (if we are not at fault and there is no right to change your mind), see clause 11.5.
11.2 If you are ending a contract for a reason set out at (a) to (e) below the contract will end immediately and we will refund you in full for any services which have not been provided and you may also be entitled to compensation. The reasons are:
a) we have told you about an upcoming change to services or these terms which you do not agree to;
b) we have told you about an error in the price or description of the services you have requested or ordered and you do not wish to proceed;
c) there is a risk that the supply of the services may be significantly delayed because of events outside our control;
d) we have suspended the supply of services for technical reasons, or notify you we are going to suspend them for technical reasons; or
e) you have a legal right to end the contract because of something we have done wrong.
11.3 For most products and services bought online or off-premises you have a legal right to change your mind within 14 days and receive a refund. These rights, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, are explained in more detail in these terms.
11.4 For services you have 14 days after the day we email or call you to confirm we accept your request for our services. However, once we have completed the services you cannot change your mind, even if the period is still running. If you cancel after we have started the services, you must pay us for the services provided up until the time you tell us that you have changed your mind.
11.5 If you cancel after expiry of the 14 day period, we will refund any money you have paid in advance for services we have not provided but we may deduct or charge you reasonable compensation for the net costs we will incur as a result of your breaking the contract..
12 How to end the contract with us (including if you have changed your mind)
12.1 To end the contract with us, please let us know either calling or emailing your design lead.
12.2 We will refund you the price you paid for the services, however, we may deduct from any refund an amount for the supply of the service for the period for which it was supplied, ending with the time when you told us you had changed your mind. The amount will be in proportion to what has been supplied, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.
12.3 We will make any refunds due to you as soon as possible. If you are exercising your right to change your mind then, your refund will be made within 14 days of your telling us you have changed your mind.
13 Our rights to end the contract
13.1 We may end the contract if you break it. We may end the contract at any time by writing to you if:
a) You do not make any payment to us when it is due and you still do not make payment within 28 days of us reminding you that payment is due;
b) You do not, within a reasonable time of us asking for it, provide us with information that is necessary for us to provide the services for example, dimensions, plans as agreed in the design brief etc.;
c) You do not, within a reasonable time, allow us access to your premises to supply the services as agreed in the design brief.
13.2 If we end the contract in the situations set out above we will refund any money you have paid in advance for services we have not provided but we may deduct or charge you reasonable compensation for the net costs we will incur as a result of your breaking the contract.
13.3 We may write to you to let you know that we are going to stop providing our services. We will let you know at least seven days in advance of our stopping the supply of the services and will refund any sums you have paid in advance for the services which will not be provided.
14 If there is a problem with the services
14.1 If you have any questions or complaints about our services, please contact us.
Consumers
14.2 If you are a consumer, we honour our legal duty to provide you with services that are as described to you and that meet all the requirements imposed by law. Your legal rights are summarised below. These are subject to certain exceptions. For detailed information please visit the Citizens Advice website www.citizensadvice.org.uk.
14.3 If you are a consumer, when purchasing services, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says:
i. You can ask us to repeat or fix a service if it's not carried out with reasonable care and skill, or get some money back if we can't fix it.
ii. If a price hasn't been agreed upfront, what you're asked to pay must be reasonable.
iii. If a time hasn't been agreed upfront, it must be carried out within a reasonable time.
Businesses
14.4 If you are a business:
a) any services shall:
i. conform with any specification that we provide in writing;
ii. be free from material defects in terms of workmanship;
iii. be performed in accordance with reasonable care and skill (within the meaning of s.14 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982,
and if
b) you give us notice in writing within a reasonable time of discovery that the services does not comply with the contract;
c) we are given a reasonable opportunity of investigating the same,
then we shall, at our option, re-perform the services, or refund the price of the defective part of the services and this will be your only remedy for any non-conformity. These terms shall apply to any services re-performed by us.
15 Price and payment
15.1 After the initial design consultation, if we are willing to offer to perform the design services that you require, we shall provide you with a written fee proposal for carrying out our full services at the same time as we deliver the design brief to you. This quotation will be valid for one month from its date. Any changes agreed to the design brief may result in a change to the fee proposal. Once the design brief and the fee proposal are agreed, we will issue you with an invoice and all prices will be fixed (and will include VAT where applicable) but please note that fees for additional services will be chargeable as above if you want us to go above and beyond the agreed design brief.
15.2 All of our fee proposals for our services (including additional services) are based upon the day rates (which includes VAT where applicable) of our designers which we will advise you of but which may change from time-to-time. We may, in our discretion, depart from this for some elements of our services but this is generally the basis of how we calculate the fees for our services.
15.3 If the rate of VAT changes or becomes applicable between your request or order date and the date we supply the services, we will adjust the rate of VAT that you pay, unless you have already paid for the services in full before the change in the rate of VAT takes effect.
15.4 It is always possible that, despite our efforts, some of our offerings may be incorrectly priced. We will normally check prices before accepting your request or order so that, where the correct price at your request or order date is less than our stated price at your request or order date, we will charge the lower amount. If the correct price at your request or order date is higher than the price stated to you, we will contact you for your instructions before we accept your request or order. If we accept and process your request or order where a pricing error is obvious and unmistakeable and could reasonably have been recognised by you as a mispricing, we may end the contract and refund you any sums you have paid.
15.5 We only accept payment directly into our bank account, and you must make the payments in accordance with the issued invoice. You must pay each invoice within seven calendar days after the date of the invoice.
15.6 We can charge interest if you pay late. If you do not make any payment to us by the due date we may charge interest to you on the overdue amount at the rate of 6% a year above the base lending rate of the Bank of England from time to time. This interest shall accrue on a daily basis from the due date until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgment. You must pay us interest together with any overdue amount.
15.7 If you think an invoice is wrong please contact us promptly to let us know. You will not have to pay any interest until the dispute is resolved. Once the dispute is resolved we will charge you interest on correctly invoiced sums from the original due date.
15.8 If we let you know, we may adjust the price from time-to-time to reflect changes in the rates of our personnel. If you are a consumer and you do not agree to this then we may allow you to terminate our engagement.
16 Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY
Our liability to consumers
16.1 We're responsible for losses you suffer caused by us breaking this contract unless the loss is:
a) Unexpected – i.e. it was not obvious that it would happen and nothing you said to us before we accepted your order meant we should have expected it (so, in the law, the loss was unforeseeable).
b) Caused by a delaying event outside our control - As long as we have taken the steps set out in the section We're not responsible for delays outside our control.
c) Avoidable - i.e. something you could have avoided by taking reasonable action.
d) A business loss - our liability for any loss you suffer in connection with your trade, business, craft or profession is limited, as described below.
Our liability to businesses
16.2 If you're a business, then, except in respect of the losses described in clause 16.3:
a) we shall not be liable to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, for any loss of profit, or any indirect or consequential loss arising under or in connection with any contract between us; and
b) our total liability to you for all other losses arising under or in connection with any contract between us, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, shall be limited to100% of the total sums paid by you for services under such contract.
16.3 Nothing in these terms shall limit or exclude our liability for:
a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors (as applicable);
b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
c) breach of the terms implied by section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 or section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982;
d) any matter in respect of which it would be unlawful for us to exclude or restrict liability.
16.4 Except to the extent expressly stated in clause 16.2, we exclude all terms implied by sections 13 to 15 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and sections 3 to 5 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.
17 Confidentiality and publicity
17.1 We shall treat all personal and business information supplied by you as confidential. We shall not disclose such information to any third party without your prior permission, except where required by law or where action might be necessary to protect you or someone else.
17.2 You permit us to photograph our design work and finished project on completion and to use those photographs in our publicity material (including, but not limited to; on our website and social media accounts), provided that we do not disclose details of you (or your family) or your location without your prior written consent.
18 Intellectual property
18.1 The copyright and all other intellectual property rights in all designs and artwork drawn up by us as part of our services shall belong to us. You are granted a non-exclusive personal licence to use and permit third party supplier engaged by you to use such intellectual property rights to implement our designs for you but your third party suppliers may not use, and are not permitted, to use such rights for any other person other than you.
18.2 You shall ensure that we have all rights to use the materials supplied by you to perform our services and that they will not infringe any applicable laws, regulations or third party rights (e.g. The copyright of any other person). You will be responsible for any losses, expenses and other costs incurred by us which arise as a result of you failing to obtain the necessary permissions to allow us to use such materials.
19 How we may use your personal information
19.1 How we will use your personal information. We will use the personal information you provide to us:
a) to supply the services to you;
b) to process your payment; and
c) if you agreed to this during the request or order process, to give you information about similar services that we provide, but you may stop receiving this at any time by contacting us.
19.2 Where we extend credit to you, we may pass your personal information to credit reference agencies and they may keep a record of any search that they do.
19.3 We will only give your personal information to other third parties where the law either requires or allows us to do so.
20 Other important terms
20.1 We may transfer this agreement to someone else. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation.
20.2 You need our consent to transfer your rights to someone else. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these terms to another person if we agree to this in writing..
20.3 Nobody else has any rights under this contract. This contract is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms. Neither of us will need to get the agreement of any other person in order to end the contract or make any changes to these terms.
20.4 If a court finds part of this contract illegal, the rest will continue in force. Each of the paragraphs of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.
20.5 Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date. For example, if you miss a payment and we do not chase you but we continue to provide the services, we can still require you to make the payment at a later date.
20.6 Which laws apply to this contract and where you may bring legal proceedings. These terms are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in the English courts. If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Northern Irish or the English courts. If you are not a British citizen, or if you do not reside in the UK, these terms are still governed by English law and you must bring legal proceedings in the English courts unless the laws of your usual place of residence prohibit this or give you other rights in respect of governing law and/or jurisdiction/forum, in which applicable case the governing law shall be the laws of your usual place of residence and/or you can bring proceedings in the courts of your usual place of residence.