Terms and Conditions

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1. About us

These terms apply to all work carried out by Technical Heating Services Ltd, trading as Dorrington Plumbing & Heating, Hove, East Sussex ("we", "us", "our").

• Company number: 04981150

• Registered office: 37 Boundary Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 4EF

• VAT number: 684 7411 10

• Phone: 01273 417004 / 01903 629483

• Email: dorringtonplumbing@gmail.com

"You" means the person or business booking the work. "Work" means any attendance, labour, diagnosis, installation, repair or service we provide.

2. Acceptance of these terms

By continuing with your booking and allowing us to attend your property, you accept these terms. They form the contract between you and us, together with any written quote or job confirmation we send you.

If anything in a written quote conflicts with these terms, the quote applies for that job. Any change to these terms must be agreed in writing (email is fine).

3. Our charges

Unless you have accepted a fixed written quote, our labour is charged at £90 per hour + VAT at the current rate.

• Materials are charged in addition to labour. This includes parts, fittings, consumables and any items we buy for your job.

• Additional fees: some jobs justify an additional fee, for example specialist equipment, out-of-hours attendance, waste disposal or unusually difficult access. We will tell you about any additional fee before work starts, and will not charge it unless you agree to go ahead.

• Estimates are our best guide based on what we can see. If we find something that will significantly increase the cost, we will stop and speak to you before continuing.

• Fixed quotes cover only the work described in them. Extra work you ask for, or work needed because of hidden problems, is charged at our hourly rate plus materials unless we agree a separate price.

4. How we record time

We use a GPS time-logging system on our vehicles and devices. Its records are used to calculate the time charged on your invoice.

• Minimum charge: every visit is charged a minimum of 1 hour. After the first hour, time is charged in 20-minute increments.

• Time starts when we arrive at your job, meaning when our vehicle reaches your street or address.

• Parking: if parking is difficult, the time taken to find legal parking is charged as job time.

• Getting to your door: time spent getting from our vehicle to your property, including carrying tools and materials, is charged as job time.

• Time on site includes diagnosis, the work itself, testing, clearing up, and any trips to collect parts needed for your job during the visit.

• Parking charges (pay-and-display, permits, congestion or similar) are added to your invoice at cost. We will not pay or pass on fines from parking illegally.

• No access: if we arrive and cannot get in or start work through no fault of ours, we may charge for the time spent.

5. Payment

Our invoice is issued after attendance and is payable in full on receipt, unless we have agreed different terms with you in writing.

• For larger jobs we may ask for a deposit or stage payments. We will agree these with you before work starts.

• Business customers: we may claim interest and fixed compensation on late payments under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

• Domestic customers: we may charge interest on overdue amounts at 4% a year above the Bank of England base rate, calculated daily from the due date until paid.

• We may pass unpaid invoices to a debt recovery agency or the small claims court, and claim reasonable recovery costs where the law allows.

• If you dispute part of an invoice, please tell us within 14 days and pay the undisputed amount.

6. Your responsibilities

• Give us safe, clear access to the work area, and access to water, electricity and toilet facilities.

• Tell us about anything that affects the work or our safety, such as known leaks, asbestos, pets, or shared or listed buildings.

• Move furniture, valuables and fragile items away from the work area. We take reasonable care of your home but are not responsible for items left in the way.

• Get any permission needed from a landlord, freeholder or managing agent before we start.

• Keep children and pets away from the work area while we are working.

7. Changing or cancelling an appointment

Please give us as much notice as possible if you need to change or cancel. If you cancel once we have arrived, or we cannot gain access when we arrive, we may charge for time already incurred under section 4.

8. Your right to cancel

If you are a domestic customer and the contract was made away from our premises (at your home, by phone, email or online), you normally have 14 days to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

• If you ask us to start work within those 14 days and then cancel, you must pay for the work done and materials used up to that point.

• Once the work is fully completed at your request, the right to cancel ends.

• The right to cancel does not apply where you asked us to visit to carry out urgent repairs or maintenance.

• To cancel, contact us by phone or email using the details in section 1.

9. Materials and ownership

Materials stay our property until your invoice is paid in full. If you do not pay, we may recover materials we supplied where this can be done without damage. Items you supply yourself carry only the manufacturer's warranty. We are not liable for their quality, fitness or any failure caused by them, and labour to diagnose or replace them is charged at our normal rates unless the manufacturer covers it.

10. Guarantees

We guarantee our workmanship for 12 months from completion.

• Materials are guaranteed by the manufacturer of the item, not by us.

• If a part fails because of a manufacturer fault, we may charge labour to diagnose and replace it, whether this happens inside or outside our 12-month workmanship guarantee.

• Our guarantee does not cover faults caused by misuse, lack of servicing, existing defects in your system, or work by others.

Your legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are not affected.

11. Our liability

We carry out all work with reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for:

• problems caused by the existing condition of your property or system, such as corroded pipework, seized valves or hidden defects, which can fail when disturbed;

• making good decoration, tiling, flooring or plaster where we need to access pipes or fittings, unless agreed in the quote;

• losses we could not reasonably foresee, or business losses for domestic jobs.

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.

12. Complaints

If you are unhappy with our work, tell us as soon as possible and give us a reasonable chance to put it right. Please do not ask another contractor to repair it before contacting us, as we may not be able to accept responsibility afterwards.

13. Your information

We use your details only to manage your booking, carry out the work, invoice you and meet our legal obligations. Our GPS system records the location of our vehicles and staff, not you. We handle all personal data in line with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

14. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales deal with any dispute.