Terms and Conditions
THESE ARE THE TERMS (TOGETHER THE “AGREEMENT”) ON WHICH PROPERTY DETECTIVE (“PROPERTY DETECTIVE”, “US”, “WE”, “OUR”) PROVIDE YOU (“YOU” OR “YOUR”) WITH THE ONLINE SERVICES (“SERVICES) PROVIDED VIA WWW.PROPERTYDETECTIVE.COM (THE “WEBSITE”).
IF YOU WISH TO USE THE SERVICE ON THE TERMS SET OUT BELOW, PLEASE CLICK THE “I ACCEPT” BUTTON BELOW TO ACKNOWLEDGE ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS. THESE TERMS WILL THEN GOVERN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND PROPERTY DETECTIVE AND ANY USE WHICH YOU MAKE OF THE SERVICE.
IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS LAID DOWN IN THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MAY NOT USE OR SUBSCRIBE TO THE SERVICE.
1. INFORMATION ABOUT US AND THE SERVICES
1.1 The Website is owned and managed, operated and maintained by Property Detective Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company registration number 07827800, and having its registered address at Property Detective Ltd, 2-4 Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 7QE
1.2 Once You accept this Agreement Property Detective will provide You with access to the Service on a non-exclusive basis. The Service provides location data and other information relevant to a particular property in the UK property market (“Data”) and then gathers and assimilates such data in the form of a document that may be viewed on the Website, downloaded onto compatible devices and/or printed (“Report”).
1.3 You can access the Website as a visitor (“Visitor”), but you will only have limited access to certain features and functionalities of the Website. In order to access all features and functionality of the Website, you shall be required to register your details with us and set up a profile (“Registered User”).
1.4 As a Registered User and subject to payment of the applicable charges set out on the Website from time to time (“Charges”), you may purchase Reports on a one off basis or purchase time based subscription packages, as set out on the Website from time to time (“Subscription”).
1.5 Where You are a company or partnership, the person accepting this Agreement represents that s/he is authorised by You to accept this Agreement for and on Your behalf.
2. PRELIMENARY INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION
2.1 You hereby warrant that:
- 2.1.1 you are at least 18 years old;
- 2.1.2 you have the capacity to agree to this Agreement; and
- 2.1.3 you are not in any way prohibited by the applicable law in the jurisdiction which you are currently located to enter into this Agreement.
2.2 By registering your details and becoming a Registered User you consent to us conducting verification and security procedures in respect of the information provided by you online.
2.3 You hereby warrant that the information provided by you to us is true, accurate and correct. You further warrant that you shall promptly notify us in the event of any changes to such information.
2.4 Upon the completion and submission of the online registration form on the Website, you shall be sent a verification email (“Verification Email”) to the email address you provided on the registration form. This Verification Email will contain details of how to activate your account. Your account will not be accessible until you have activated it in accordance with the instructions in the Verification Email.
2.5 You shall keep your registration details for the Website (“Login Details”) secure. Without prejudice to any other rights and remedies available to us, we reserve the right to promptly disable your Login Details and suspend your access to the Website in the event that we have any reason to believe you have breached any of the provisions set out herein.
3. SERVICE ACCESS AND CONTENT
3.1 Property Detectives will use all reasonable endeavours to keep the Service available 24 hours a day. However, the normal availability of the Service may be varied at the sole discretion of Property Detective. Property Detective reserves the right to suspend the Service temporarily and without notice for any reason.
3.2 We rely on third party providers (such as network providers, data centres and telecommunication providers) to make the Website and the Services available to you. Whilst we take all reasonable steps available to provide you with a good level of service, you acknowledge and agree that we do not warrant that the Service shall be uninterrupted or fault-free at all times. We therefore shall not be liable in any way for any losses you may suffer as a result of delays or failures of the Services and/or the Website as a result of our service providers.
3.3 Property Detective reserves the right from time to time to alter or modify the Service (in whole or in part) as it deems appropriate and to alter or modify the format and content of the information contained therein.
3.4 In accepting this Agreement You undertake not to use any automated software (often referred to as ‘spiders’, ‘scrapers’, etc.) in relation to the Service without receiving written consent from Property Detective and that You will only ever access the Service manually.
4. REPORTS PRESENTED BY THE SERVICE
4.1 All Reports and Data provided by Property Detective are provided “as is”. Reports are not vetted or verified by Property Detective.
4.2 Property Detective has no control over the information gathering or verification process of the third parties from which it obtains certain Data and upon which Reports are based. Property Detective makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness or recency of the Data or the Reports presented via the Service.
4.3 By accepting this Agreement You expressly acknowledge that You have sole responsibility for checking the accuracy of any Report provided by the Service. Accordingly, You will not rely on the Data or the Reports accessed via the Service to make any decision and will use other independent sources of information and appropriate qualified professional advice (e.g. from a Solicitor and/or Surveyor) before engaging in any transaction concerning the sale or purchase of real estate. Any Report should not be viewed as a replacement for the usual searches and investigations performed by prospective buyers of property.
4.4 By accepting this Agreement You expressly acknowledge that any reliance on the Data or the Report offered by the Service are at Your own risk and that Property Detective is not responsible for the consequences of any actions that You may take, or refrain from taking, as a result of the Report made available through the Service.
4.5 You further acknowledge that You understand that the Reports offered by the Service include Data gathered from third parties and, unless otherwise stated, does not represent the views, advice, or opinions of Property Detective or any of its staff. Any views or opinions offered by Property Detective are that of Property Detective alone, but are not in relation to any specific property listed on the Website. Property Detective has no control over Data published by third parties and Your reliance on such information, as offered via the Service, is at Your own risk.
4.6 You accept that Property Detective has no obligation to provide specific information to You at any given time and You therefore agree that Property Detective has no liability to You if for any reason any aspect of the Service, including specific categories of information or data, is temporarily unavailable to You or is removed from the Service permanently.
5. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
5.1 By accepting this Agreement You expressly accept that You are prohibited from using the Service in any way that is unlawful, that is prohibited by this Agreement, or for any other purpose that is not foreseeable by Property Detective.
5.2 You undertake that any information that You provide to Property Detective, to other users of the Service, or more generally via the Service, will be true and accurate to the best of Your knowledge.
5.3 You further undertake that You will not use the Service for any purpose (or cause to appear on the Website any comments, images, links or other material);
- 5.3.1 that involves impersonating any other person, or representing Yourself as belonging to a member of a class of persons to which You do not belong;
- 5.3.2 that is unlawful, threatening, intimidating, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience;
- 5.3.3 that is intended dishonestly to manipulate or influence a market (including but not limited to the housing market in any given area);
- 5.3.4 for which You have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals;
- 5.3.5 which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, would give rise to civil liability; or would otherwise be contrary to the law (specifically including, but not limited to, copyright law) or would infringe the rights of any third party, in an country in the world;
- 5.3.6 which is technologically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data); or
- 5.3.7 that is designed to copy the Data made available via the Service, or to reverse engineer any of the processes underpinning the Service.
5.4 You may not misuse the Service, including without limitation, by hacking, attempting to take any action that might interfere with or modify the proper working of the Service, or attempt to bypass or circumvent any measures which prevent or restrict access to the Service.
5.5 You may not use the Service in any way that is designed to obtain password, account, or private information from any other user of the Service, to submit unwanted communications (material that might be described as ‘spam’) to other users of the Service, to submit content which links to affiliate programs, marketing schemes, or sites which repurpose existing content.
5.6 You may not use the Service in a way that imposes, or may impose, an unreasonable load on the Service’s infrastructure. Property Detective has sole discretion in deciding what activity may be regarded as unreasonable in this regard.
5.7 If You breach any aspect of Clauses 5.1 through 5.6, Property Detective shall be entitled immediately to terminate Your access to and use of the Service, for which it shall incur no liability to You and shall not be liable to make any kind of payment or refund to You in order to compensate You for loss of access or any other reason.
6. PAYMENT OF CHARGES
6.1 Reports and Subscriptions are subject to the payment of Charges. You shall pay for such Reports and Subscriptions in advance using your credit card, debit card, or any other acceptable method of payment, as set out on the Website. We reserve the right to withhold or cease provision of the Service where payment has not been received. Save as otherwise expressly stated in this Agreement, all Charges are non-refundable.
6.2 Where you have purchased a Subscription, the Subscription shall automatically renew at the end of the relevant period for which you have paid. In order to automatically renew your Subscription, Property Detective shall automatically charge you for the relevant Charges by using the details of your debit or credit card or other payment method which you used to pay for the first period. If your payment method has changed since your last use on the Website, Property Detective may not be able to automatically renew your Subscription.
6.3 As a consumer, you have a legal right to cancel a Subscription under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013) within fourteen (14) days after the day the contract for the Subscription is formed (“Cancellation Period”). You can notify us of your decision to cancel the Subscription by writing to us by email, or by completing the cancellation form made available to you on the Website. Valid cancellation by you will be effective from the date you sent us the e-mail or form. Advice about your legal right to cancel a contract is available from your local Citizens’ Advice Bureau or Trading Standards office.
6.4 If you cancel a Subscription during the Cancellation Period as described in clause 6.3 above:
- 6.4.1 before we start providing the Service subject to the Subscription to you, you will receive a full refund of the price you paid for that Subscription (“Price”); or
- 6.4.2 after we start providing the Service subject to the Subscription to you, you will receive a refund of the Price less a pro rata proportion of the Price decided at Property Detective’s sole discretion representing the provision of the Service up to and including the date you cancel the Subscription in accordance with clause 6.3.
6.5 We will process the refund due to you as soon as possible and, in any case, within fourteen (14) calendar days of the day on which you gave us notice of cancellation as described in clause 6.3.
6.6 You cannot cancel your purchase of a Report once delivery has started, which includes Property Detective making the Report available on the Website to view. By purchasing a Report, you acknowledge and agree to this.
6.7 On payment of the relevant Charges for the Report or Subscription (as applicable), you hereby acknowledge and agree that payment constitutes an express request for the immediate commencement of the performance of the Service by Property Detective, which for the avoidance of doubt shall commence before the end of the Cancellation Period, such that on payment of such relevant Charges, you can immediately access the Report or Subscription using the Website.
7. INDEMNITY
7.1 You hereby indemnify and hold Property Detective harmless from and against any and all losses, costs, actions, proceedings, claims, damages, expenses, including reasonable legal costs and expenses, or liabilities whatsoever suffered or incurred directly by Property Detective in consequence of Your breach or non-observance of these terms and conditions.
8. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
8.1 The copyright and all other intellectual property rights subsisting in, relating to or arising out of the Service and the Website (including, but not limited to all database rights, trade marks, text, graphics, and program code) is owned by Property Detective and/or its licensors.
8.2 You are expressly prohibited from:
- 8.2.1 reproducing, copying, editing, transmitting, uploading or incorporating into any other materials, any of the Services or Website, including without limitation, any Data or other material made available to you through your use of the Website and/or the Services.
- 8.2.2 removing, modifying, altering or using any registered or unregistered marks/logos/designs owned by us and/or our licensors, and doing anything which may be seen to take unfair advantage of our reputation and goodwill or could be considered an infringement of any of the rights in the Intellectual Property Rights owned by and/or licensed to is.
8.3 Property Detective and its licensors retain all title, ownership of, and intellectual property in the Data and the Report comprised by the Service and in all copies of that may be made thereto. Nothing contained in this Agreement, nor any use of the Service by You, shall be construed as granting or otherwise transferring to You any ownership, interest or intellectual property whatsoever in the Service.
8.4 Property Detective hereby grants to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence (without the right to sub-licence to any third party) to access and view the Data and the Reports via the Website for the term of this Agreement, for Your own private, personal and non-commercial use and in accordance with any Property Detective fair use policy (“Policy”) available on the Website from time to time.
8.5 You may download and print a reasonable number of copies of any Report obtained through the Service, subject to our Policy. Property Detective hereby grants to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence (without the right to sub-licence to any third party) to use and store (online or offline) any electronic or paper copies of Reports downloaded or otherwise obtained by You through the Services for the term of this Agreement and for your own private, personal and non commercial purposes. Such downloaded electronic copies of your Reports may be viewed up to a limited number of devices (which may include PC’s, laptops, tablets and mobile phones, together the “Devices”), as specified in the Property Detective Policy from time to time. You may share extracts from Your physical paper copy of the Report to third party individuals for personal, non-commercial research purposes.
8.6 Except as expressly permitted in this Agreement, You shall not, and shall not permit others to (i) modify, translate, create derivative copies of or copy the Report in whole or in part; (ii) distribute, sub-licence, assign, share, timeshare, sell, rent, lease, grant a security interest in, use for service bureau purposes, or otherwise transfer the Report or your right to use the Report (which includes uploading to or sharing copies of the Report (or any part thereof) on third party websites); (iv) remove or modify any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices belonging to Property Detectives or its licensors contained within the Report; or (v) use the Report in any manner not expressly authorised by this Agreement.
8.7 By submitting or uploading material to the Website, You acknowledge that You are granting Property Detective a perpetual, non–exclusive, royalty free, worldwide licence to use, modify, edit and redistribute that material, and all proprietary marks, designs, and other allied rights contained within it. Property Detective shall have no obligations with respect to such material and your submission or uploading does not guarantee that such material will appear on the Website. You agree that Property Detective may, at its sole discretion, choose to display or remove any material submitted or uploaded by you or any part of the same that you make on the Website. Property Detective and its designees shall 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. No fee will be due from Property Detective for any material that You upload to the Service. Property Detective may at any time remove Your content for any reason.
9. LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES
9.1 The Service and the Website is supplied to You on an “as is” basis and no aspect of it has been written to meet Your individual requirements. It is Your sole responsibility to satisfy Yourself prior to entering this Agreement that the Service will meet Your requirements and be compatible with Your hardware/software configuration. Property Detective makes no warranty or representation in that respect and no failure of any part or the whole of the Service to be suitable for Your requirements shall give rise to any right or claim against Property Detective.
9.2 Property Detective will have no liability of any kind for interruptions to the Service and/or Website arising directly or indirectly from:-
- interruptions to the flow of data to or from the Service and/or Website and other portions of the internet;
- changes to the server hosting the Service and/or Website (including the implementation of any necessary upgrades and operating system patches) and other housekeeping tasks which need to be carried out;
- changes, updates or repairs to the network or software which Property Detective uses as a platform to provide the Service;
- the effects of the failure or interruption of services provided by an Internet Service Provider or any other third parties;
- factors outside of Property Detective’s reasonable control;
- Your actions or omissions (including, without limitation, breach of Your obligations set out in this Agreement) or the actions or omissions of any third parties;
- Your equipment and/or third party equipment.
9.3 Whilst Property Detective makes all reasonable attempts to exclude viruses from the Website, it cannot ensure such exclusion and no liability is accepted for viruses or similar harmful software.
9.4 If We fail to comply with this Agreement, We are responsible for loss or damage You suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breach of this Agreement and such amount that we may pay to You for such loss or damage you suffer under or arising out of your Agreement shall be limited in the aggregate to two million pounds sterling (£2,000,000).
9.5 We are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if it is an obvious consequence of our breach or if it was contemplated by You and us at the time we entered into this contract.
9.6 We only supply the Services and the Website for your own private use. You agree not to use the Services and/or Website for any commercial, business or re-sale purpose, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of data, loss of business, business interruption, anticipated savings or loss of business opportunity.
9.7 Property Detective will have no liability to You for any liability which You may have to any third party resulting from failure of or deficiencies in the Service and/or Website.
9.8 In no event shall Property Detective’s third party licensors of Data be liable for an losses, damages, claims costs or expenses, whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise arising out of or in connection with the use or reliance on such Data.
9.9 None of the clauses above shall apply so as to restrict liability:
- for death or personal injury caused by Property Detective’s negligence;
- for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
- for any matter for which it would be illegal for Property Detective to exclude, or attempt to exclude liability.
9.10 Throughout the provision of the Service, Property Detective shall maintain in force professional indemnity insurance in respect of Property Detective’s obligations under the Agreement with a limit of not less than two million pounds sterling (£2,000,000) in respect of any one occurrence or claim.
Our insurance policy is with Hiscox Ltd, 1 Great St Helen’s, London EC3A 6HX.
10. PRIVACY AND COOKIES
10.1 We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the performance of our obligations under this Agreement. Please click here to view our privacy and cookies policy (Privacy Policy). The terms of the Privacy Policy form part of these Terms and you agree to be bound by them.
11. ASSIGNMENT
11.1 Neither this Agreement nor any of Your rights and obligations hereunder may be assigned, transferred, charged, sub-licensed, delegated or disposed of in whole or in part on a temporary or a permanent basis without the prior written consent of Property Detective.
11.2 Property Detective reserves the right to assign this Agreement at any time and without notice.
12. TERM AND TERMINATION
12.1 This Agreement will commence:
- 12.1.1 where you are a Visitor, upon your visit to the Website and continue for the duration of your visit to the Website;
- 12.1.2 where you are a Registered User, at such time as you activate your registration through the link provided in your Verification Email and continue for the duration in which you continue to use the Service.
12.2 Property Detective may terminate or suspend Your access to the Service at its discretion. Property Detective is under no obligation to give prior notice of terminations or suspensions of Your use of the Service.
12.3 The terms of this Agreement which can be construed to have lasting effect (including, but not limited to, those concerning intellectual property rights, disclaimers and limitations of liability) will continue to have effect after termination of this Agreement or usage of the Service.
12.4 In the event of termination of this Agreement for any reason, (a) You shall cease to have access to or any rights or licence in respect of any part of the Service, (b) You shall cease use of the Reports and © within thirty (30) days of the effective date of termination delete or destroy all electronic and paper copies of any Reports in Your possession and where requested by Property Detectives, certify in writing that you have complied with the foregoing.
12.5 Termination of this Agreement shall be without prejudice to the parties’ other rights or remedies.
13. AFFILIATIONS AND LINKS
13.1 The Website provides links to and content from third party websites. Such third party websites are not our responsibility and accordingly we accept no responsibility for the availability, suitability, reliability or content of such third party websites and do not endorse the views expressed therein.
13.2 Third party websites operate under their own terms and conditions, and you are advised to read such terms and conditions prior to making use of such third party websites. Further, where you access any third party website through a link on our Website, you acknowledge and agree to abide by the terms and conditions of such third party website.
14. GENERAL
14.1 If Property Detective fails, at any time during the term of this Agreement, to insist upon strict performance of any of Your obligations under this Agreement, or if Property Detective fails to exercise any of its rights or remedies under this Agreement, this shall not constitute a waiver of such rights or remedies and shall not relieve You from compliance with such obligations. A waiver by Property Detective of any default shall not constitute a waiver of any subsequent default. No waiver by Property Detective of any of these terms and conditions shall be effective unless it is expressly stated to be a waiver and is communicated to You in writing.
14.2 If any term of this Agreement is determined by any competent authority to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, such term, condition or provision will to that extent be severed from the remaining terms, conditions and provisions which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.
14.3 These terms and conditions and any document expressly referred to in them represent the entire agreement between Property Detective and You in relation to Your use of the Service and supersede any prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between You and Property Detective whether oral or in writing. Property Detective and You each acknowledge that, in entering into this Agreement, neither party has relied on any prior representation, undertaking or promise given by the other or implied from anything said or written in negotiations prior to such Agreement except as expressly stated in this Agreement. Neither party shall have any remedy in respect of any untrue statement made by the other, whether orally or in writing, prior to the date of this Agreement (unless such untrue statement was made fraudulently).
14.4 Property Detective may alter or amend these terms and conditions by giving reasonable notice on the Website. By continuing to use the Service after expiry of the notice period, you will be deemed to have accepted any amendment to this Agreement. If, on receipt of such notice, you wish to terminate your agreement with Property Detective, you may do so by giving Property Detective notice of termination, such termination to take effect on the date upon which the amended terms and conditions would otherwise have come into effect.
14.5 You acknowledge that the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, acting through Ordnance Survey, may enforce the terms of this Agreement subject to and in accordance with this Agreement. Subject to the foregoing, this Agreement does not create any rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 (“Act”) which are enforceable by any person who is either not a party to them or who is not a provider of the relevant goods and/or services.
14.6 Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) will be governed by English law. Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or its formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. If you live outside the United Kingdom, English law shall apply only to the extent that English law shall not deprive you of any legal protection accorded in accordance with the law of the place where you are habitually resident (“Local Law”). In the event English law deprives you of any legal protection which is accorded to you under Local Law, then these terms shall be governed by Local Law and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts where you are habitually resident.
15. IMPORTANT CONSUMER PROTECTION INFORMATION
15.1 The searches are produced by
Property Detective Ltd
2-4 Packhorse Road
Gerrards Cross
Buckinghamshire
SL9 7QE
[email protected]
(+44) 0330 122 4336
15.2 COMPLAINTS
If you have a query or complaint about your search, you should raise it directly with the search firm, and if appropriate ask for any complaint to be considered under their formal internal complaints procedure. If you remain dissatisfied with the firm’s final response, after your complaint has been formally considered, or if the firm has exceeded the response timescales, you may refer your complaint for consideration under The Property Ombudsman scheme (TPOs). The Ombudsman can award up to £5,000 to you if the Ombudsman finds that you have suffered actual financial loss and/or aggravation, distress or inconvenience as a result of your search provider failing to keep to the Code.
Please note that all queries or complaints regarding your search should be directed to your search provider in the first instance, not to TPOs.
TPOs Contact Details
The Property Ombudsman scheme
Milford House
43-55 Milford Street
Salisbury
Wiltshire SP1 2BP
Tel: 01722 333306
Fax: 01722 332296
Web site: www.tpos.co.uk
Email: [email protected]
15.3 COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
If you want to make a complaint, we will:
- Acknowledge it within 5 working days of receipt.
- Normally deal with it fully and provide a final response, in writing, within 20 working days of receipt.
- Keep you informed by letter, telephone or e-mail, as you prefer, if we need more time.
- Provide a final response, in writing, at the latest within 40 working days of receipt.
- Liaise, at your request, with anyone acting formally on your behalf.
Complaints should be sent to: Property Detective Ltd, 2-4 Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 7QE, [email protected].
If you are not satisfied with our final response, or if we exceed the response timescales, you may refer the complaint to The Property Ombudsman scheme (TPOs): Tel: 01722 333306, E-mail: Email: [email protected].
We will co-operate fully with the Ombudsman during an investigation and comply with his final decision.