Terms & Conditions

 06 April 2009

The client (you) or your representative instructs BOURNE HIPs and our appointed sub-contractors to provide the Home Information Pack (HIP) and/or EPC relating to your property on the following terms:

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC): BOURNE HIP Energy Assessors will be instructed to undertake the EPC for inclusion in the HIP - Only accredited, CRB checked, Domestic Energy Assessors (DEA), as required by the Home Information Pack regulations, will carry out the survey. You agree to provide the DEA with full access to the property, at the agreed appointment time, to carry out his/her duty. Should the DEA not have full access to the property, at the agreed appointment time, BOURNE HIPs reserve the right to charge a cancellation fee of £20.00 (No VAT). Should you cancel the EPC or appointment BOURNE HIPs reserve the right to charge a cancellation fee of £10.00 (No VAT).

Cancellation: You agree that, once the HIP has been ordered and a ‘Confirmation of HIP Order’ has been issued to you or the Estate Agent representing you, you are asking us to begin work immediately on the HIP. Therefore, you are expressly requesting that any ‘cooling off’ period does not now apply and you will not be able to cancel the HIP once you, or your representative, have been issued with the ‘Confirmation of HIP Order’. If you decide that you do not require the HIP for whatever reason and we have not yet undertaken the EPC assessment, we will credit back to you the value of the EPC only, less a £10 (No VAT) administration fee. The remaining cost of the HIP will then become due immediately on receipt of our invoice.

Additional Charges: Where you have informed us that your property may incur additional charges due to it being an unregistered property, we will agree the additional charges with you before proceeding with the HIP.

If you, or your Estate Agent, have received the ‘Confirmation Of HIP Order’ for the HIP on a freehold basis and it subsequently becomes known that it is a leasehold or common hold property, you agree to pay any additional charge(s), to cover the additional costs to provide the HIP in accordance with the Home Information Pack regulations.

If you have received the ‘Confirmation of HIP Order’ for the HIP on a ‘registered property’ basis and it subsequently becomes known that it is an unregistered property, you agree to pay the reasonable additional charges to provide the HIP in accordance with the Home Information pack regulations.

Payment Terms: Payment for the HIP is due upon BOURNE HIPs accepting your instruction and prior to issuing a ‘Confirmation of HIP Order’. Payment for the EPC is to be made at the time of the survey.

Payment by cheque, made payable to: BOURNE HIPs or by a credit/debit card.

For payment by credit card, there is an additional fee of £8.00 (No VAT).

No searches/documentation or EPC will be commissioned until payment is made.

By making payment to BOURNE HIPs you are confirming that you have read and agree to these Terms and Conditions.

Leasehold/Commonhold: You agree that we can contact the landlord, managing agent or your lender (whoever is appropriate) in order to request the leasehold information required to be included in the HIP.

If the required leasehold/commonhold documents are supplied by you, you may request that we reduce the fee for the leasehold HIP. The amount we can reduce the fee by is dependent on the subsequent work involved to incorporate the documents within your HIP. We will advise you as to the best way to provide the documentation at the time.

The fee reduction must be ‘agreed in principal’ before you place your order and receive the ‘Confirmation of HIP Order’ you agree that you then become responsible and liable for the accuracy of the content of the leasehold/commonhold documents.

We will finalise the actual reduction in cost of your HIP once we have received the leasehold/commonhold documents and can confirm that all the documents are present. We will then scan and create the PDF files which will be incorporated into the HIP.

Unregistered property: if your property is an ‘unregistered’ property, evidence of title will need to be ascertained and there will be reasonable additional charges payable by you. These can be agreed before the ‘Confirmation of HIP Order’ is issued if you let us know that the property is unregistered on the order form.

Viewing the HIP: Upon payment of the HIP, you will be given a unique PIN to access the electronic version online at www.bournehips.uk.com. Documents will be added as they become available so you can track the progress in real time online.

Insurance: We carry £2m professional indemnity insurance to protect you against both negligence and loss should we fail to perform our duties when providing the HIP. We also carry separate professional indemnity and public liability insurance for the EPC itself.

Complaints: In the unlikely event of a complaint about your HIP, you should initially refer to BOURNE HIPs. 

General: If any provision of these terms is or becomes invalid or unenforceable, it will be taken to be removed and no other provision of these terms shall be affected.

These terms shall be governed by English law and all parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Nothing in this notice shall in any way restrict the customer or clients statutory or any other rights of access to the information contained in the HIP.