Terms & Conditions
Unless otherwise agreed, the following terms shall be the terms under which NPAS Devon Limited performs their services:
Company services
NPAS Devon Limited (hereinafter referred to as NPAS) shall:
Exercise reasonable skill and care in performing the services in accordance with the normal standards of the Architectural profession.
Act as the Client’s representative and act fairly when dealing between Client and any other party.
Provide advice on compliance with statutory requirements.
Co-operate with other persons appointed, co-ordinate and integrate their work and pass relevant information to them.
Make no material alteration to the Services or the approved design without the consent of the Client, except in an emergency or where required to do so by statutory bodies.
Advise on progress in the performance of the Services and of any issue that may affect the programme, the cost or quality of the project.
Not guarantee that any programme will be fully adhered to where external forces, consultants, Local Authority, Regulatory Bodies, Specialists, manufactures etc are required to feed into this programme.
Not guarantee that any external/budget costing, or delivery timetable will be met, particularly where approvals from other parties, such as planning permission, building regulation approval, listed building and conservation consent are required.
Client responsibilities
The client shall:
Establish project budget with reasonable contingencies.
Ensure they read and understand their own responsibilities under Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the following link refers clients to the HSE website to provide guidance.
A quick guide for clients on the CDM Regulations 2015
Advise NPAS of the requirements and of any subsequent changes required.
Supply to NPAS in a timely fashion, without charge, all necessary and relevant information in the possession of the Client, e.g., such as known buried utility services, asbestos.
Give decisions and all necessary instructions, consents, or approvals necessary for the performance of the Services.
Have authority to issue instructions to NPAS, subject to NPAS right of reasonable objection.
Appoint and pay any consultants, or contractors required under separate agreements.
Hold the contractor or contractors responsible, and not NPAS, for the proper carrying out and completion of construction works and for health and safety provisions on the site. It is expected that contractors/builders appointed will be competent members of their profession.
Fees and expenses
NPAS fees shall be calculated and charged as set out in the Fee Proposal.
The Client shall pay NPAS the fee stated in the Fee Proposal for the performance of the services.
The Client shall pay NPAS accounts, including any additional fees, expenses, disbursements or VAT in accordance with payment terms of 14 days, calculated from the date of issue. The payment terms will be clearly stated on any invoice.
VAT will be charged at the standard rate at the time of invoice and is applicable to all our fees. VAT is not added to Disbursement expenses.
Disbursements
Disbursements to be charged additionally, include such items as:
Planning and Building Control Submission fees. Alternatively at the time applications are made, we may arrange for a payment request to be made by you to the Local Authority/Inspector when we submit the application(s).
Expenses incurred such as OS maps, historic mapping, sewer mapping, promotional material, brochure’s, visual presentation images, mounted presentations, models etc.
Fees for consultants – e.g., Structural Engineers, Quantity Surveyors, Planning Consultants etc.
Fees for specialist advisers and reports e.g., arboriculture reports, protected species survey, energy efficiency calculations, EPC certificates, Pressure testing. SAP calculations, Simplified Building Energy Modelling (SBEM) calculations etc; which may be requested by the local authority during the application process.
We will advise you of the requirements for these during the scheme design and detail design stages of the project.
We will obtain fee proposal quotes on your behalf and forward these to you for approval. However, we would expect that the appointment of any consultant is an agreement between the Consultant and Client direct.
We will submit an invoice for the fees and any expenses/disbursements due at completion of each work stage.
There are occasions where a client’s specific requirements are at variance with planning or design policy in a particular area, and subsequent amendments have been necessary following the submission of the scheme to the Local Authority, or indeed another application may need to be submitted. We would use our best endeavours to avoid this at design stage and would try to advise when difficulties could be anticipated. We do, however, reserve the right to charge for our time amending or redrawing the proposal should it ultimately prove a necessity and/or additional requirements requested from the local authority or the client.
Our hourly rate is currently £125.00 per hour, plus VAT, which is reviewed annually on 2nd January.
Should the project be delayed or on hold, an invoice will be issued on account for the proportion of works incurred to date or NPAS shall be entitled to payment of any part of the fee for services satisfactorily performed, together with any other amounts due at the date of any notice suspending or ending performance of any or all of the Services.
Any delay in payment of fees can and is likely to result in a delay to the flow of information on projects. We reserve the right not to move onto a subsequent stage of a project where fees for previous work stages are outstanding. NPAS also reserves the right not to proceed with work on a separate project, where the fees/or proportion of same for another project with the same Client remain unpaid.
Printing
We include within our fee all reasonable A4 and A3 printing costs and allow for a single set of plans of produced drawings.
In addition to the above printing will be chargeable at the following rates:
- A4 20p a copy
- A3 60p a copy
- A2 £3.00 a plan
- A1 £4.00 a plan
Mileage
We include travelling costs for our initial visit and measured survey.
Mileage will be charged for all travel and additional meetings, site visits, over and above the initial meeting. Mileage over and above the fee agreement will be charged a mileage rate of 0.50p per mile. Such mileage rate will change if fuel costs/published fuel rates rise beyond this rate.
Late Payment Interest
We reserve the right to charge customers interest on overdue amounts over 30 days. Late payment interest charges of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate is applicable and will be applied at the discretion of the directors.
We would also reserve the right to place any debt into the hands of a debt recovery agency following failure to pay within the specified period and to claim interest and expenses in relation to the debt.
Copyright and licence
NPAS owns the copyright in the drawings and documents (including material in electronic format) produced in performing the Approved Services. These shall remain vested to NPAS.
The Client shall have a licence to copy and use the drawings only for purposes related to this Project providing that all fees and/or other amounts due are paid in full. This licence is not transferable to another party without prior approval by NPAS.
The Client will only have a licence to use drawings for their intended purpose, i.e. drawings prepared for a Planning Application would only be valid for this purpose and should not be used for construction, as it will be necessary to add additional information to the drawings for the purposes of Building Regulation Approval, other Regulatory Approvals and Construction information.
In the event of the Client being in default of payment of any fees or other amounts due, NPAS will revoke the licence herein granted.
Liability
Insurance – NPAS shall maintain Professional Liability Insurance throughout the period of this Agreement. The maximum limit of our liability to the client in contract, tort, or statutory duty for any one claim or series of claims arising from one event on this project is limited to the amount of your target cost for the building work and in any case limited to a total of £2,000,000. Any such liability will expire after six years from completion of the services. Professional Indemnity Insurance cover shall be maintained for this amount until the expiry of our liability.
Certificates of insurance are available on request.
NPAS and the Client waive consequential damage for claims, disputes and other matters in question arising out of, or relating to this agreement.
NPAS shall not be responsible for the identification, removal, testing and/or certification of removal for any hazardous substance including, but not limited to, PCB, petroleum, mould infestation, hazardous waste, asbestos, lead, and any other similar substances. NPAS and the Client acknowledge that the Scope of Services and Fee Proposal does not include any items related to Hazardous Environmental Conditions.
Consumer’s right to cancel
The Client (domestic client procuring works exclusively for their own use and not for commercial gain) has the right to cancel this agreement for any reason by delivering or sending (including by electronic mail) a cancellation notice to NPAS at any time, within the period of 14 days, starting from the date when this agreement was made.
The notice of cancellation is deemed to be served as soon as it is posted or sent to NPAS, or in the case of an electronic communication, on the day it is sent to NPAS.
If NPAS was instructed to perform any services before the agreement was made or before the end of the 14-day period and the instruction or instructions were confirmed in writing, NPAS is entitled to any fees and expenses due before NPAS receives the notice of cancellation.
Suspension or termination
The Client may suspend or end performance of the services and other obligations by giving at least 7 days’ written notice and stating the reason for doing so.
NPAS may suspend or end performance of the services and other obligations by giving at least 7 days’ written notice and stating the reason for doing so. Such reasons include, but are not limited to, the Client’s failure to pay any fees or other amounts due by the date when payment is due.
If the reason for a notice of suspension arises from a default:
- Once remedied, NPAS shall resume performance of the services and other obligations within a reasonable period; or
- Is not remedied by the defaulting party, the agreement will end by giving at least 7 days’ further written notice.
Where services are suspended by the Client and not resumed within 3 months, NPAS has the right to treat performance of the services affected as ended, on giving at least 7 days’ further written notice to the Client.
Email policy
Unless you withdraw your consent, we will communicate with you and others, where appropriate, by email, but cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence sent by these means.
It is your responsibility to check that an incoming email and attachments (if any) do not contain viruses.
Storage of paper and documents
Clients should keep any Planning, Listed Building and Building Regulation Approval documents and Completion certificates safely as these will be required as part of the sale of any property/land for which they relate.
This office operates a paperless policy. We will only keep paper copies of documents whilst the stage of the project to which they relate is in progress. After this, documents are stored electronically until all fees are paid and the limit of our liability has expired.
We keep drawings and documents for two years after completion of the Contract Limitation, which is 6 years where a contract is executed under standard terms, and twelve years where a contract is executed as a deed. After this period has expired, we have the right to destroy them.
Should you request copies of any documents a charge will be made for any retrieval from archive, printing and copying.
Local authority dealings
NPAS cannot guarantee that, Planning, Listed Building, Conservation Area Consent/ approval will be achieved on any project.
We would draw your attention to the fact that Local Authorities now request an increasing number of supporting documents to be submitted with Planning Applications, the exact extent of this information is subject to both National and Local requirements; but is also subject to the demands of Planning Authorities and officers. What one Local Authority may demand is not necessarily what an adjacent authority would equally demand.
NPAS cannot therefore guarantee that all supporting documents or information requirements will be known at the time an application is submitted.
NPAS cannot be held responsible for changes to planning policy between the fee proposal and the submission of your planning application.
NPAS will liaise with other consultants to assist in obtaining supporting documentation but cannot be held responsible for the time and extent that gathering such information may entail. The Client should note that the Planning Authority will not register a planning application until all supporting documentation is received.
Where it becomes necessary to Appeal a Planning or Listed Building Consent Decision, we will advise you of the implications and would need to charge for the time to prepare any appeal and the supporting documents and statements necessary to submit the Appeal. In this event, we would discuss estimated costs.
This may include recommending the appointment of a Planning Consultant to deal with specific Planning Policy issues, there are projects where policy issues would warrant this additional service.
Building regulation and other statutory approvals
Our compliance drawings package provides enough information (subject to some updates), to enable approval by a Building Control Body and can be used for construction purposes by a competent, experienced builder.
NPAS cannot guarantee that Building Regulation Approval will be achieved on any project; it should be noted that additional costs may be incurred. NPAS has experience designing buildings in many sectors and working with and anticipating the likely difficulties a project may attract. However, the Building Regulations and other Statutory Regulations are open to interpretation by each officer. Policy and regulation changes can affect the outcome of a project, as well as the constraints of the Building, Environment, Site Conditions, Services, Other Consultants input.
It should be noted where dealing with the refurbishment, extension, and alteration of existing buildings, that there can be many factors which can develop during a project which would require additional detailing, or changes to the specification and detailing initially envisaged. This can be because of many factors such as cost, specification, manufacturer’s requirements, local authority requirements, site conditions, unforeseen elements, building condition or construction uncovered during the works, and interpretation of the regulations.
Governing law
The law applicable to this Agreement shall be the law of England.
Dispute resolution
In the event of a dispute or difference arising under this Appointment, this should be in writing. We hope we shall be able to settle the matter by negotiation or mediation. Alternatively, either of us can start court proceedings to settle the dispute at any time.
The parties shall attempt in good faith to settle any dispute of mediation.
GDPR privacy policy
Privacy is important to us. Our Privacy Policy covers what data we collect and how we use, disclose, transfer, and store your information. Please ask if you wish to see a copy of our Policy.
Photography and publicity
NPAS shall have the right to publish photographs and images relating to the Client’s project on the NPAS website, social media platforms and in any other marketing publications or magazines. The Client shall give NPAS reasonable access for this purpose for two years after practical completion of the Project.
Contacting us
If there are any questions about our Privacy Policy or the Services we provide, you may contact NPAS at:
1 Enterprise Road, Barnstaple EX31 3YB or by emailing info@npasltd.co.uk, or by phone 01271 324515.