GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS HOUSE CHECK

Article 1 – Application

1.1 These general terms and conditions apply to all agreements and offers for the provision of services with VOF House Check and VZW House Check, with the same registered office at 1740 Ternat, Marktplein 1 / 3 and registered with the CBE under number 0681.840.318 and under number 0684.943.922 respectively.

1.2 By accepting the quotation, the agreement, the invoices, a telephone agreement or any other document, the customer also declares that they accept the present conditions.

1.3 Departures from these conditions must be accepted expressly and in writing by VOF House Check. Conflicting clauses in the customer’s conditions are always deemed not to exist and are subordinate to the present conditions.

Article 2 – Agreement

2.1 If a customer cancels or terminates an agreement, they will owe compensation equal to all costs already incurred and services already provided, increased by an amount equal to 30% of the price of the services not yet provided as compensation for the loss of profit suffered, without prejudice to the right of VOF House Check to claim additional compensation if the full loss would not thereby be compensated.

2.2 If circumstances mean you want to move or cancel the appointment, you must notify us at least 2 working days before the appointment. You can do so during our office hours at planning@housecheck.be or by telephone on 02 582 62 32. (An appointment on Monday must therefore be cancelled by Thursday before 16:30.) In the event of late cancellation the following cancellation charges apply:

• Cancellation 2 working days before the appointment: no cancellation charge.
• Cancellation 1 working day before the appointment: 75% of the performance price with a minimum of €85 excl. VAT.
• Cancellation on the same working day: 85% of the performance price with a minimum of €85 excl. VAT.
• Cancellation on site: 85% of the performance price.
• Wasted journey: 100% of the performance price.

Where the conditions described in these general terms and conditions have not been met, the assignment may be treated as a wasted journey.

2.3 In any case of payment difficulties, concurrence of creditors, bankruptcy, judicial reorganisation and/or other similar situations showing that the customer is in financial difficulty, VOF House Check will be entitled to suspend its services and, if the situation turns out to persist, will be entitled to dissolve the agreement at the customer’s expense.

2.4 All order forms, quotations and contract proposals of VOF House Check are without obligation and do not bind it as such. Unless agreed otherwise, any price quotation is valid until 3 months after the date of the quotation.

2.5 An agreement (hereinafter the “Agreement”) between VOF House Check and the customer only comes about at the moment of: an order by the Customer on terms acceptable to VOF House Check, or an order confirmation signed by a duly authorised representative, or the signing of a written agreement by VOF House Check and the Customer, or the delivery and invoicing of the services by House Check, or an order through the online platform at www.housecheck.be

2.6 After reporting on site, the client undertakes to give VOF House Check access to the installations to be examined and to the rooms in which those installations are located, and to make the installations, tools, appliances and objects to be examined available. The client makes all necessary means, documents, information and any particulars relating to the installation to be examined available to the inspector, so that the inspector can carry out the examination safely and in the best working conditions with their equipment. Unless expressly agreed otherwise, VOF House Check may gain access to the installation to be examined and carry out the examination without the presence of the client, their appointee or a person deemed authorised. In cases where VOF House Check is not put in a position to carry out the examination, the related costs will be charged by VOF House Check.

2.7 To carry out the assignment correctly it may be necessary to switch off the entire installation electrically. If that is not possible, the customer informs VOF House Check before it starts the assignment.

2.8 VOF House Check will only operate or handle appliances that are needed to carry out the assignment, and will do so in accordance with the customer’s instructions.

2.9 The customer or their client is responsible for making the request to VOF House Check correctly. Where the assignment cannot be carried out because of an incorrect request, a wasted journey will be charged.

2.10 If the client submits a request on behalf of or for the benefit of a third party, the client declares that they are expressly authorised to do so by that third party and that the third party is aware of and agrees with the request. House Check reserves the right at all times to ask the client, on first request, for written proof of that consent. In the absence of such proof, House Check reserves the right to suspend or cancel the performance of its services, without any liability.

2.11 Without prejudice to any written special agreement to the contrary, all logos and intellectual property rights relating to the Assignment carried out by VOF House Check remain the property of VOF House Check or of the existing rightholders and are in no case transferred to the Customer, nor is any reproduction right, right of use or licence thereto granted to the Customer. The reports or certificates drawn up by VOF House Check for the Customer may, however, be photocopied or scanned in their entirety with a view to storing them or passing the report on to third parties.

2.12 Where the address is not available in the building register, this is entirely at the expense of the owner of the property. If the owner does not take the necessary steps to declare the correct change of use*, the full balance remains due. *change of use: this has to be done where the use is not known to the municipality or where the use has changed.

2.13 The House Check privacy note applies to the processing of personal data.

Article 3 – Liability

3.1 Any complaints or appeals must always be reported by registered letter or by e-mail, and at the latest within 8 days of the services. After that period the services will be deemed to have been accepted. The complaints and appeals forms found at www.housecheck.be, or available on request, are used for this.

3.2 In any case where VOF House Check would turn out to be liable, that liability will remain limited to the direct loss caused and it will in no case be held liable for indirect or consequential damage. In any case of liability, VOF House Check can only be held liable up to a maximum of the amount of the price of the service concerned.

3.3 The inspection of an installation, material or appliance is carried out on the visible and accessible parts at the time of the inspection by VOF House Check. No permanent removal will be carried out by VOF House Check, subject to what is laid down with regard to asbestos inventories.

3.4 VOF House Check cannot be held liable for damage if:

• nobody is present during the site visit;
• appliances were operated or handled by VOF House Check that should in fact have been operated by the customer;
• damage occurs during insulation measurements and other measurements or tests on low-voltage installations where the electrical installations and additional appliances were not fully switched off during the inspection;
• damage is caused by carrying out the necessary tests (for example the test button of a residual-current device).

Article 4 – Payment

4.1 The price of our services is the price applying to the agreed services at the time of the order.

4.2 Prices include VAT and travel costs, unless stated otherwise.

4.3 The price of our services is invoiced according to the rates found at www.housecheck.be.

4.4 The prices stated may always be adjusted. The services and the necessary costs may, for whatever reason, be greater than foreseen. That is the case in particular for the additional examinations that would become necessary, by way of departure from the agreed programme or where the customer had provided incomplete or incorrect information, on the basis of the findings made on site during the performance of the services.

4.5 The customer may, at their own choice and in accordance with the arrangements provided at www.housecheck.be, pay their order in one of the following ways:

• (1) Payment by bank transfer before the assignment is carried out.
• (2) Payment by bank transfer after receipt of the invoice.

House Check may postpone, suspend or limit the availability of some payment methods without giving a reason. This will be indicated for the order on the www.housecheck.be website.

4.6 All our invoices are payable on the due date at the latest, being 30 days after the invoice date for companies and 10 days for private individuals.

4.7 Invoices must be paid exclusively and personally to House Check or to the seller. It can therefore never be the case that House Check has to claim payment from third parties.

4.8 The reports are sent to the customer digitally as soon as House Check has received payment.

4.9 If we ask for an advance payment, we will only start our activities after receipt of that advance.

4.10 Any refusal to pay, for whatever reason, must be communicated before the start of the assignment at the latest.

4.11 If the contract provides for payment of the assignment after receipt of the invoice, any dispute about the invoice must be made known to VOF House Check by registered letter within 8 working days of receipt of the invoice, on pain of inadmissibility. Any amount (in whole or in part) unpaid on the due date will automatically, by operation of law and without prior notice of default, be increased by:

• a) a collection charge of 10% of the amount due;
• b) late payment interest equal to 10%, calculated from the due date of the invoice until payment in full;
• c) a charge of EUR 7.50 per registered letter, as well as a charge of EUR 50.00 per notice of default;
• d) an additional charge amounting to 10% of the invoice amount.

4.12 In the event of non-payment or late payment, all unpaid invoices will be immediately and fully due and payable, even if their due date has not yet passed, and any deferral of payment granted earlier will end in that case.

4.13 In the event of outstanding amounts, even partially, VOF House Check also reserves the right to suspend further services until payment in full of the principal, interest and penalty clause, unless the customer states otherwise. In that case the customer cannot claim any compensation for this. In certain cases the regulations oblige the suspension of services to be reported to the supervisory authorities.

4.14 Any change in the customer’s situation, such as the sale or contribution of all or part of their assets, death, legal incapacity, payment difficulties or suspension of payments, liquidation of assets, judicial settlement, provisional suspension of proceedings, composition, bankruptcy or any other similar procedure, dissolution or change of legal form, even after partial performance of the contracts or orders, leads to the application of the same measures as those provided above for non-payment or late payment.

Article 5 – Force majeure

5.1 If VOF House Check were prevented from carrying out or completing one of the services for which the agreement was concluded because of any event beyond its control, including – without this list being exhaustive – natural disasters, war, terrorist activities, civil unrest, the impossibility of obtaining permits, licences or registrations, illness, death or resignation of the employee charged with the assignment, or the customer failing to meet its contractual obligations, VOF House Check will contact the customer immediately in order to make a new appointment.

5.2 Performance of the agreement will be suspended until the date of the new appointment.

Article 6 – Applicable law and settlement of disputes

For any dispute about the validity, the interpretation or the performance of this document, an amicable settlement will be sought. If the conflict persists, it will be resolved under Belgian law, exclusively before the courts of Brussels, before which the matter will be brought by the most diligent party; the parties hereby choose Dutch as the language of the proceedings.

Article 7 – Miscellaneous

Should one or more provisions of these general terms and conditions be declared invalid, unlawful or inapplicable, this will not affect or reduce the validity, lawfulness or enforceability of the other provisions. For changes or complaints concerning the order, the customer can call 02 582 62 32 (Monday to Thursday from 9:00 to 17:00 and Friday from 9:00 to 15:00) or get in touch through www.housecheck.be

Article 8 – Customer feedback

Could we kindly ask you to spend 5 minutes of your time filling in our customer satisfaction survey? Your answers matter a great deal to us, because they help us improve our service and meet your expectations. You can find the survey through the link below.

Give your feedback here

FSAL001 General terms of sale v7