Our Standard Terms & Conditions

1. Company & Contract Acceptance

1.1 Young Building Design is a limited company registered in England under registration number 12313030 and whose registered office is at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.

1.2 References within this document to Young Building Design as a business include ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘us’.

1.3 The instructions you give us create a contract between you and Young Building Design for the provision of services to you.

1.4 Our contract with you is personal with all design work to be carried out by Young Building Design unless otherwise stated or agreed prior to instruction of any third-party company.

1.5 Written acceptance of our quotation via post or electronic mail forms contract between you the client and us which accepts in full the terms and conditions herby listed. Our quotes are valid for two calendar months.
Thereafter it shall be subject to review.

1.6 Third party services and fees are advisory only and will be confirmed if requested at the required procurement time to you the client before instruction to the third-party company is made. Young Building Design will only issue relevant instruction to proceed once the client has confirmed acceptance of the quotation.

2. Company Commitment

2.1 Young Building Design shall exercise reasonable skill, care and diligence in commencing and completing services that have been accepted in writing by our clients.

2.2 We shall advise on the progress of a project within reasonable time frames and notify of any issue that may significantly affect the delivery, cost or quality of the project when brought to our attention.

2.3 We shall collaborate with third party companies as required (and in accordance with 1.6) to obtain information required for the project and pass any documentation obtained onto the client on settlement of the associated fees.

2.4 With regard to projects requiring local authority approval in the form of planning permission we will not make material alterations to the approved design without the consent of the client, except in the case of an emergency.

2.5 We have the right to publish photographs of the project and the client shall offer reasonable access to the project for this purpose for 2 years after practical completion of the construction works.

2.6 We reserve the right to review the quoted costs for services if the client instructs additional works or if the brief described within the initial quotation is deviated from on the basis of reimbursement for additional time expended plus any expenses incurred.

2.7 We reserve the right to charge for further meetings if required during the design process on the basis of reimbursement for additional time expended plus any expenses incurred. Guidance on these fees can be found below (5.8)

3. Client Commitment

3.1 The client shall advise of the requirements sought as a result of the development and any changes required during the design and construction phases.

3.2 The client will provide, free of charge to us any information in his/her possession or of which is reasonably obtainable any documentation that would benefit the project.

3.3 The client will give written approval of drawings and documentation before their submission to local authorities or third-party companies and give decisions to assist the performance of services.

3.4 The client acknowledges that we will advise to best of our knowledge at the time of delivering services and with the information made available to us as to whether a proposed development requires planning permission based on the General Permitted Development Order 2015 and accepts that Young Building Design takes no responsibility for this advice without formal enquiries being made to the local authority.

3.5 It is the client’s responsibility to make us aware and ensure themselves that any relevant development approvals are in place in line with their deeds or planning conditions on the existing building or land, including but not exhaustive of ‘right of ways’ (shared drives), covenants, Developer restrictions, S106 conditions, Water authority approvals, etc.

3.6 The client acknowledges that although we use our best endeavours to prepare a design solution that in our opinion has a good chance of obtaining approval, we will not guarantee local authority approval will be granted nor can we guarantee the time scales of an application.

and

3.7 If subsequent to making a planning application we are instructed by the local authority to make amendments to the design that results in either modified drawings or submission of a new application, further design work will be subject to the payment of additional fees that will be calculated based on our hourly rates as specified in 5.8 unless otherwise agreed.

3.8 The client acknowledges that Young Building Design does not warrant the competence, performance, work, services, products or solvency of any other persons that may be instructed during the project.

4. Site boards

4.1 The client shall allow Young Building Design to display professional signboards on the site in appropriate locations for the duration of the works on site.

5. Fees

5.1 The fees and terms set out within the quotation will be involved due on receipt, Young Building Design reserve the right to suspend services if payment is not made promptly within ten days of invoice. If after reminder the client has not made payment within thirty days of invoice date, we reserve the right to add an administrative charge and where necessary pass the matter to our debt recovery.

5.2 Deposits required are detailed on our quotations and you will be invoiced on formal acceptance (see 1.5)

5.3 The balance of fees for each phase will be due after producing the relevant drawings and prior to submission of applications unless otherwise stated. We reserve the right to delay the submission of an application until payment has been made.

5.4 The client is responsible for settling fees from third party companies which have been appointed on the client’s behalf and to make payment in accordance with their terms and conditions. Where we issue an invoice for third-party involvement in the project, we reserve the right to include an administration fee for sourcing the information.

5.5 The service of documents and invoices shall be sufficient if sent by post to the client’s postal address or by electronic mail to the client’s e-mail address.

5.6 If further design works have been necessary as set out in 2.6 these will be invoiced prior to submission where possible and at our discretion in all other instances.

5.7 All other disbursements including attendance at additional meetings, etc will be invoiced as separate items.

5.8 Any additional meetings, design work or consultations are charged at £75.00 per hour (plus VAT where applicable) in 1/4 hour increments to include travel time plus mileage expenses where applicable @ HMRC rates.

5.9 The quotation is exclusive of VAT and where applicable will be itemised separately and added to each invoice at the current rate in force.

5.10 Any invoice or item on an invoice which is disputed shall be brought to our attention in writing within seven days of the date of the invoice, failing which it shall be assumed no item is disputed.

5.11 We understand and will exercise our statutory right to claim interest and compensation for debt recovery costs under the UK late pay legislation if we are not paid according to our agreed terms of business. Any legal costs incurred whilst pursuing a debt will also be payable by the debtor. Interest is charged at 8% above the Bank of England base rate.

5.12 We will issue two full tender packs (includes two sets of drawings and associated documents) to the client and these are included in our fee.
Additional printing/plotting fees (further to quoted allowance):

A1 – £6.00
A2 – £5.00
A3 – £3.00
A4 – £0.15

Plus postage where required.

6. Copyright

6.1 Young Building Design shall own the copyright to all drawings and documentation produced in performing the services and we assert our moral right to be identified as the author of such work.

6.2 On the proviso that all fees are settled the client shall have a license to copy, use and allow other persons providing services to the project to copy and use hard and soft copies (excluding DWG or similar digital files) of all drawings and documentation produced.

6.3 No drawing or document produced by Young Building Design may be submitted to a local authority or any institution without our expressed written consent.

7. Liability

7.1 Young Building Design are committed to offering a high standard of services to our clients, however if you are dissatisfied you must register this by electronic mail and letter posted to our registered address within thirty days.

7.2 Our maximum liability of any claim shall not exceed our quoted fee sum for the services offered and accepted. This is limited to Young Building Design fees only.

7.3 The works may require compliance with the Party Wall etc Act 1996 and the client should carry out enquiries to satisfy himself in respect of this prior to instructing us.

7.4 The client is responsible for agreements made between the water authority to permit building over or close to existing drains and sewers and should carry out enquiries to ascertain the precise location of services.

8. Dispute resolution

8.1 The client and designer may attempt to settle any dispute or difference arising under the contractual agreement by negotiation or mediation, if suitable, or either party may refer the matter to adjudication, arbitration or legal proceedings. The RICS Dispute Resolution Toolkit will be used.

9. Right to Cancel

9.1 Either the client or Young Building Design has the right to cancel the contract before works have commenced at no cost by sending a cancellation notice within seven days from the date the contractual agreement was made.

9.2 Should the client wish to cancel once services have commenced, they will be invoiced for the time and expenses spent up until the day of cancellation plus an administrative fee of £50.

9.3 Cancellation must be done in writing (post or electronic mail) and will terminate the contract on the day we receive the correspondence.

Revised Jan 2021.