Definitions: In these Terms and Conditions of Appointment, "we", "our", “ourselves” and “us" shall mean hhip.co.uk, “CLG” shall mean the Department for Communities and Local Government, “GAAS” shall mean a Government Approved Accreditation Scheme. “Full survey” shall mean completed energy assessment. “You” or “The Surveyor” shall mean the person accepting the commission from us and with which the contract has been entered into. “The Contract shall mean this contract”.
The headings and sub-headings used in these Terms and Conditions are for convenience only and shall not affect the construction of this document.
We may amend these Terms and Conditions from time to time and shall notify you of any changes in writing, before they take effect.
The Agreement
This Contract is offered to carry out energy assessments. We are unable to guarantee a minimum number of appointments or issued addresses since this is likely to vary from area to area.
The all inclusive payment we will make to you for a completed energy survey is £45 + VAT if you are VAT registered.
For your part, you will arrange to undertake any commissions provided in a professional and competent way and in accordance with this contract and all instructions and procedures that have been incorporated within it.
The offer of this contract is subject to you remaining authorised to carry out energy assessments as required under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007. You agree to inform us immediately if your registration is suspended or cancelled.
1 GeneralAny Energy Assessment you carry out for us shall:
1.1 Require a full internal and external inspection, in accordance with surveying procedures specified by the CLG, GAAS and us and notified to the Surveyor in advance.
A “full survey” is: the completion of all relevant sections of the energy assessment form, the uploading of the data and the production of a valid energy performance certificate. Any survey that is not a “full survey”, as described above will, for the purposes of payment and all other matters, be a “non-survey.” No payment will be made for “non-surveys”.
1.2 It will be incumbent on the surveyors to make site notes and take photographs as required to provide a record for future reference and to upload the completed information required to produce the energy certificate. You hereby agree to keep copies of site notes and photographs and to allow audit of these by hhip.co.uk from time to time as required by hhip.co.uk and to give irrevocable authority that these site notes and photographs will be provided to hhip.co.uk as necessary in relation to any claim or dispute arising out of the survey. You also agree to provide any reasonable further assistance required by hhip.co.uk to deal with, manage or defend any claims as a result of carrying out the survey at no cost to hhip.co.uk.
1.3 You will be required to:
1.3.1 Provide us with a schedule of times and dates that you will be available to carry out the required survey allocations. These times and dates will be mutually agreed by you and us and will allow adequate time to carry out the required allocation, to the necessary standard.
1.3.2 Have access to the internet, for the purposes of updating the hhip.co.uk website with details of your work and for downloading and reading any messages and appointments that have been made
1.3.3 Notify us immediately if there is a change in your circumstances which may affect your “availability” or your ability to undertake appointments. This would include changes in your home address or place of work, which would affect the location of your allocated surveys. We would also ask that this notification also extends to any holidays you might intend to take, where these comprise more than 3 consecutive days. This is to allow us to make allowances for your absence and maintain the smooth running of the survey throughout.
1.3.4 Notify us immediately, should you change your e-mail address(es) or contact telephone addresses, to enable us to update our records and ensure that effective communications between us are maintained throughout.
1.3.5 Within the limits you specify, (see 1.5.1, above) attend the survey address at the appointment time provided to you by us, and attend any subsequent visits, where these prove necessary.
1.3.6 In the event of the appointment being broken by the occupant, you will attend a re-arranged appointment when arranged.
1.3.7 Except at the express request of the occupier, you must not call at the survey address, in any attempt to gain access, before 09.00 or after 21.00 each day.
1.3.8 You must not carry out any survey unless with the permission of the occupier and in his or her presence or, where the property is vacant, the owner or his Agent. In the case of vacant premises, the permission of the owner/Agent to view the property, unaccompanied by that owner/Agent will be deemed to satisfy this part of the Contract. No survey may be carried out where the only occupier present is either under the age of 18 or is unable to understand the purpose of your presence.
1.3.9 You will act in a professional way at all times and will dress and otherwise conduct yourself in a manner commensurate with the importance of the commission. You will also faithfully represent the aims and objectives of the Energy Assessment, and shall not seek to misrepresent the survey in any way.
1.3.10 If, during the course of a survey, you detect a defect or situation which, in your professional opinion, is of IMMEDIATE risk to the Health and Safety of the occupier(s) or to others who may have cause to visit the premises, you must immediately draw the matter to the attention of the occupier, with the strongest possible recommendation that the occupier engages a competent person/persons to fully identify the cause and determine the remedy to the defect or situation. You must be careful not to pass any opinion as to the cause or remedy of such situations or defects.
Examples of “immediate risk” would be: a gas leak, dangerously exposed live electrical conductors, structural components that are in imminent danger of collapse etc.
You must then e-mail a report to us so that we can arrange for written confirmation of your verbal notification to be sent to the occupier in question.
NB. You must ensure that you do not breach the confidentiality that we have promised the occupiers: if, in your opinion, the occupier is not able to comprehend the nature and seriousness of the problem, you must, without delay, report the circumstances to the hhip.co.uk Helpline, who will then determine what action to take.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you report any such matter to any third party, other than to the persons stipulated in the requirements of this paragraph.
2 Insurance
2.1 You must confirm that you hold Professional Indemnity (PI) and Public Liability Insurance (PL) for undertaking Energy Performance Certificates. The cover provided must meet CLG requirements.
3 Issuing Instructions/Allocations/Equipment
3.1 We may from time to time accompany you on a survey in order to ensure standards are being maintained.
3.2 All surveys we offer are specific to you, as the surveyor named in this Contract, and under no circumstances are surveys to be offered or otherwise sub-contracted by you to any other party, including other surveyors with whom you may associated or who may be in your employ. In the case of you being temporarily or permanently unable to carry out our instructions within the time prescribed by this Contract, you must immediately notify us of this fact. In these cases, we reserve the right, as we see fit, to reallocate to other surveyors all outstanding surveys you still have, without any further liability to you on our part.
3.3 Fees for undertaking Surveys are payable strictly in accordance with your agreed remuneration rate per rate including all disbursements.
3.4 We undertake to pay you for all completed and invoiced survey work at the end of the month in which the invoice was received. Invoices should be emailed to invoice@hhip.co.uk.
4 Non-Disclosure
4.1 You must not disclose details of the findings of your inspection of the property and/or the contents of your report to any third party and, in this respect, your attention is drawn to the provisions of Appendix 1.
4.2 During the course of your work for us, you must NOT give any advice to any third party on any matter (with the exception of where you, in your professional opinion, believe this may pose an imminent danger to life or limb e.g. a gas leak (see also the detail of paragraph 1.5.12, above)). If your advice or opinion is requested by a third party, you must tell that person to commission their own report from an appropriately qualified professional, this not being a person or organisation associated with you. You may not seek or accept any work with any third party, arising from your duties for us.
5 Commercial Confidentiality
5.1 Hhip.co.uk have had to develop training, forms, systems, procedures and Information Technology specifically for the Survey and you must maintain this in the strictest confidence. In furtherance of this, you will not disclose, pass on to any other persons (either verbally, electronically or in written form), or allow them to access, any of the systems, material or information that you use or observe whilst working on the survey.
User-names and passwords to the hhip.co.uk website and DEA software shall not be disclosed to any other person.
5.2 In the event that the requirement for strict confidentiality, contained in paragraph 5.1 is breached, hhip.co.uk will immediately terminate the Contract and reserve the right to take legal proceedings against offender(s) for breach of confidentiality, which may include a claim for damages against that person(s) and/or organisation involved.
5.3 You may not use or duplicate for any purposes other than during your work for hhip.co.uk as an energy assessor, any forms, systems, procedures, Information Technology programs or any other materials (whether in an amended format or not), that have been produced by hhip.co.uk, and to which you may have had access whilst working for us as an energy assessor.
6 Quality Control
6.1 We shall monitor the standard of reports that you prepare and the quality of service you provide to us. We will periodically feed back this information to you, to enable us to continuously raise the quality of assessments. In the case of serious and persistently low standards, the matter will be the subject of the procedures laid down in section 1 of the Contract, above. Every surveyor’s work will be subjected to a quality check, whereby a number of householders will be contacted by hhip.co.uk, by telephone, to verify the surveyor’s attendance at that address, their conduct and thoroughness of their work.
6.2 At some point in the year you may be sent a written Questionnaire. This is to afford feedback to us of your experiences of the year’s surveying. You will be required to fill-in the questionnaire in a legible manner, complete all questions to the best of your ability and return it to us promptly.
7 Confidentiality and Data Protection
7.1 You shall keep confidential and shall not disclose to any other person, company or body any information about us, which we have provided to you to enable you to undertake any survey for us.
7.2 You shall at all times comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and all future amendments and re-enactments thereof.
7.3 In undertaking Surveys on our behalf you acknowledge that you will have access to Personal Data as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 and are acting as a “Data Processor” in carrying out Surveys.
You agree that:
7.4 You will only process the Personal Data for the purpose of complying with your obligations under this Agreement.
7.5 You will not retain any copy, abstract, summary or précis of the whole or any part of such Personal Data or disclose to any person such Personal Data.
7.6 You also agree to put in place appropriate technical and organisational security measures to safeguard the Personal Data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to data. When implementing and updating security measures, you shall have regard to the sensitive nature of the personal data contained within the Personal Data and the substantial harm which would result from unauthorised or unlawful processing or accidental loss of or destruction of or damage to such Personal Data; and the state of technological development and the cost of implementing such measures.
7.7 You will on demand deliver to us all documents and digital media which may be in your possession (including documents prepared by us) which may include Personal Data.
7.8 You will indemnify us in respect of any and all claims or proceedings in respect of any breach of clauses 7.1 – 7.6, inclusive, of this Agreement provided that such breach was due to your act or omission.
7.9 The provisions set out above, relating to Confidentiality and Data Protection will survive any termination of your appointment to our surveyors’ panel.
8 Complaints
8.1 We require you to notify us immediately of any complaint from any party, which you receive whilst carrying out or attempting to carry out our instructions.
8.2 Having notified us of the complaint, you shall co-operate with us in any way we may reasonably require, in order to resolve the complaint.
8.3 All complaints will be investigated in accordance with our Complaints Procedure, which is incorporated in this contract under Appendix 3.
8.4 In the case of a serious complaint made against you, we may suspend your appointment, at any time, ending investigation of any complaint or alleged misconduct, in accordance with our Complaints Procedure. If this happens, you will be immediately notified of the suspension under this section of the Contract, but not necessarily the reasons for it, until such time that the investigation by us is completed.
9 Disputes
9.1 If any dispute arises out of these Terms and Conditions, both parties will endeavor to resolve the dispute within 21 days. In the event that we are unable to resolve the dispute within this period both parties agree to pay an equal proportion of the costs and to refer the issue to the Surveyors and Valuers’ Arbitration Scheme operated by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, 24 Angel Gate, City Road, London EC1V 2RS from whom details of the scheme may be obtained.
9.2 These Terms and Conditions of Appointment are between you and us only and are not intended to give any rights or benefits to any other person(s) and the provisions of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 are excluded.
10 TerminationThis agreement can be terminated if you
10.1 Commit a breach of any of your obligations under this Agreement;
10.2 Become bankrupt, or make a composition or arrangement with your creditors for the voluntary arrangements for a composition of debt
10.3 If your appointment is terminated as provided for in 10.1 or 10.2, hhip.co.uk shall:
10.3.1 Cease to be under any obligation to make further payment until the amount of the costs, loss and/or damage resulting from or arising out of the termination of the appointment have been calculated;
10.3.2 Be entitled to employ and pay other persons to provide and complete provision of the Services or any part thereof;
10.3.3 Following the reconciliation in 10.3.1, pay to you any balance shown as due to you, after deduction of any sums included within 10.3.1 and/or 10.3.2
11 Health and Safety
11.1 You shall comply, at all times, with instructions and guidance, either written or verbal, given by hhip.co.uk and intended to ensure either your own safety or the safety of others with whom you may come into contact during your duties as an energy assessor. You must also take cognisance of the Risk Assessment, and Health and Safety instructions and guidance given in Appendix 4 to this document. Failure to comply with these requirements may render you liable to instant dismissal, legal proceedings, or both.
12 Control of Surveyors
12.1 Our Manager shall, monitor your performance and the quality of your work. In these matters, they shall contact you and, if necessary, direct you accordingly.
12.2 If at any stage, your manager has reason to believe that you need to be suspended for serious acts or omissions or gross breaches of the provisions of this Contract, they shall be entitled to do so with immediate effect, pending further investigations under the provisions detailed elsewhere in this Contract.
12.3 For your part, you shall inform your manager, promptly and in writing, any instances of activity or omission on the part of hhip.co.uk, which prevent or hinder you from complying with this Agreement.
12.4 Individual identification, specific to work carried out as an energy assessor, will be supplied to you by hhip.co.uk and you shall ensure that you wear this at all times whilst engaged on the survey. You must not wear any other form of identification, either corporate or personal, whilst engaged in the provision of services to hhip.co.uk. You must not use this identification for any other purpose, other than when engaged on your legitimate duties under this Contract.
12.5 You shall be properly and presentably dressed at all times whilst engaged in the provision of services under this Contract.
13 Payment Procedure
13.1 All DEAs should send an invoice to our accounts department stating the number of properties where an EPC has been undertaken and report completed. You should list separately the address of each property and the date the EPC was undertaken and the report sent. You should invoice us on the last day of the month and we will pay you within 28 days of the last day of the month. i.e. if the last day of the month was the 30th then we will pay you by the 28th of the following month.
13.2 Where to send invoices:
HHIP Finance Department
32 Hall Plain
Great Yarmouth
Norfolk
NR30 2QD
14 Your Confirmation
14.1 We would ask you to sign where indicated below, to confirm:
14.1.1 Your acceptance of this contract and the terms and conditions and Appendices therein;
14.1.2 Your acceptance of the price
14.1.3 Your acceptance of the Confidentiality Conditions (Appendix 3);
14.1.4 That in all work you undertake for us you will comply with these Terms and Conditions (as amended from time to time), which shall govern how business between us is conducted;
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Appendix 1
Complaints Procedure
This procedure sets out the RICS procedure for complaints, which we will follow:
1 A person has been appointed in this office to deal with complaints, and you should not hesitate to contact the relevant person. Details are set out below:
Chris Mitchell,
Managing Director
Hhip.co.uk
32 Hall Plain
GREAT YARMOUTH
NR30 2QD
Tel. 01493 855278
2 Where your complaint is initially made orally, you will be requested to send a written summary of your complaint to the person dealing with it.
3 Once we have received your written summary of the complaint, we will contact you in writing within 7 days to inform you of our understanding of the circumstances leading to your complaint. You will be invited to make any comments that you may have in relation to this.
4 Within 21 days of receipt of your written summary, the person dealing with your complaint will write to you, in order to inform you of the outcome of the investigation into your complaint and to let you know what actions have been or will be taken.
5 If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaint, you should contact:
Ian C. Miller
Chairman
Hhip.co.uk
32 Hall Plain
GREAT YARMOUTH
NR30 2QD.
Tel. 01493 855278
who will personally conduct a separate review of your complaint and contact you within 14 days to inform you of the conclusion of this review.
6 If you remain dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaints, then we will attempt to resolve this promptly through negotiations, and otherwise agree to enter into mediation with you in accordance with the Centre for Dispute Resolution (CEDR) Model Mediation Procedure or the mediation process operated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
If the complaint has still not been resolved to your satisfaction, we agree to the referral of your complaint to the Surveyors and Valuers Arbitration Scheme operated by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, 24 Angel Gate, City Road, London EC1V 2RS from whom details of the scheme may be obtained.
Appendix 2
Risk Assessment & Health & Safety Information and Instructions to Surveyors
1 General
1.1 In carrying out a risk assessment and pointing out potential hazards and the ways in which these may be minimised, hhip.co.uk nevertheless expect all surveyors to treat each survey building and its occupiers as unknown quantities and to exercise due professional caution and vigilance when carrying out surveys. If in doubt about the safety or stability of any part of a building, you should first elicit more information from the occupier. However, you should still treat the answers you receive with some caution. If there is any doubt about the safety or stability of any property or part of any property, you should not carry out the survey or the part of the survey, which would otherwise require you to enter that part of the building.
1.2 It is a requirement of the contract that all surveyors act in a professional manner and have due regard for their own safety and the safety of others at all times. The following paragraphs contain general guidance, and are intended to act as a prompt for surveyors to consider the various aspects of the survey procedure. Any specific concerns should be immediately raised with your manager.
1.3 Should the survey require you to enter a building which is undergoing restoration or repair, you must comply with all safety requirements that the contractor has put in place or which, in your professional judgment, the contractor should have in place, commensurate with the scale and nature of those repairs.
2 Surveyors’ Working Routines
2.1 Surveyors should leave details of their proposed visits and timescales/route with another person, and have the means to remain in contact with that person by mobile phone etc., if necessary, whilst in the field. Your Manager will assume that you will be attending all appointments listed for you on the DEA Schedule software unless you amend the software accordingly. Any concerns the surveyor may have about his/her personal safety whilst in the field shall at once be notified to his/her Manager who will advise that surveyor on how to proceed.
3 Contact with Occupiers
3.1 If surveyors become concerned about safety or security once a survey has started, they should immediately leave the premises. They should then notify their Manager who will, if necessary, make arrangements for an accompanied visit.
3.2 Surveyors should consider at all times the welfare of occupiers and must not undertake surveys where a vulnerable person is alone in the property, even if the occupant consents; this includes young children, and adults who appear confused or distressed. In such instances, a further appointment should be made when another member of the household can be present. If the surveyor is in any doubt in the matter they should contact their Manager for advice and guidance.
3.3 Occupiers’ dogs and other potentially dangerous pets should be treated with suspicion and the occupier specifically asked to restrain the animal if the surveyor has any reason to believe that the pet may pose a hazard to his/her personal safety. Most occupiers will readily comply with this type of request.
4 Internal Surveys
4.1 Due care should be exercised in all properties, but especially in those which are in poor repair and/or vacant, where elements of the fabric may be in a weakened or unstable condition, and surveyors are expected to use their professional judgment in this respect. All surveys are visual in nature and it is not necessary to take risks to gather the information required. Surveyors are reminded to consider the risks before, for example, opening old or defective windows, using cellar or attic stairs or stepping onto balconies and should not automatically assume that all elements of a property are necessarily in a safe condition.
5 Lofts
5.1 Under no circumstances are surveyors to enter loft spaces, unless these have been permanently converted into living accommodation; information from viewing the roof space through the access hatch and taking measurements of insulation, from an appropriate point on a ladder is all that is required.
5.2 Surveyors should exercise appropriate care when positioning and securing ladders to access lofts. Surveyors are required to provide their own ladders and should satisfy themselves as to the condition and suitability of these, each time they use them. Should, for any reason, an occupier’s ladders be used, the surveyor must examine the condition and suitability of these before they are used and, if in any doubt, decline to use them.
6 External Surveys
6.1 When walking around the plot to the survey premises, surveyors should be alert to all potential hazards, such as uneven surfaces, changes in levels and unguarded steps and terraces. When viewing a property from an overgrown garden, a surveyor must be aware that there may be hidden hazards and proceed accordingly.
6.2 Surveyors must not take any risks in attempting to gain a vantage point where, for example, this would require climbing onto a high wall or low roof or leaning over an unsecured drop.
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