OUR TERMS OF SERVICE
1. THESE TERMS
1.1 What these terms cover. These are the terms and conditions on which we supply services to an intending purchaser of a Lordship or Barony Title.
1.2 Why you should read them. Please read these terms carefully before you seek to instruct us. These terms tell you who we are, the process for purchasing a Title (which we refer to as a “Lot”), how we will provide certain services to you, what to do if there is a problem and other important information. If you think that there is a mistake in these terms or you want to negotiate a change to any of our terms, please contact us as indicated below.
2. INFORMATION ABOUT US AND HOW TO CONTACT US
2.1 Who we are. We are Manorial Services Ltd a company registered in England and Wales. Our company registration number is 12712329 and our registered office is at 426/428 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH8 9AA. Our registered VAT number is 359 6672 44.
2.2 How to contact us. You can contact us by telephone on 07957 444 473, completing the contact form on our website or by writing to us at info@manorialservices.com.
2.3 How we may contact you. If we have to contact you we will do so by telephone or by writing to you at the email address or postal address you provided to us when you engaged us.
2.4 "Writing" includes emails. When we use the words "writing" or "written" in these terms, this includes emails.
3. OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU
3.1 Our services to you. Our services to you will consist of arranging the reservation of, and putting your offer to a vendor to purchase, a Lordship or Barony Title.
3.2 Display of Titles. Available Titles may be viewed in Lots from our catalogues. These are available on request. If you are interested in a Lot then you are invited to apply to us with instructions to put an offer to the vendor for the purchase of that Lot.
3.3 How we will accept your instructions. Our acceptance of your instructions will take place when we write to you (by letter or email) to accept them, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us.
3.4 If we cannot accept your instructions. If we are unable to accept your instructions, we will usually inform you of this by telephone or in writing but if you do not receive our acceptance in writing then no contract is in existence between us.
3.5 Limited to the UK. Our services are limited to Lordship and Barony Titles in the UK. We accept instructions from intending purchasers outside the UK but we cannot reserve or put offers for Titles outside of the UK.
4. PROVIDING THE SERVICE
4.1 When we will provide the service. We will begin the services on the date we accept your instructions.
4.2 Reserving a Title. After you have applied to us for a particular Lot and we have accepted your instructions, we will promptly put an offer to the vendor. Subject always to contract as explained below, the Lot will be reserved on receipt of the Buyer Premium and the deposit from you in accordance with clauses 5.5 and 6.3 below and will stay reserved for a period ending three months from your receipt of the contract for purchase as explained in the next clause (or such longer period as we may confirm in writing after discussing with the vendor; depending on the Title the preparation of the contract for purchase may take longer than any timescale we may have outlined to you when we accepted your instructions).
4.3 Contract for purchase. On the vendor’s acceptance of your offer, we will arrange with the vendor’s solicitor the preparation of a contract for the sale and purchase of the Title between you and the vendor. Such contract will be on terms similar to the purchase of any land or property. Upon receipt of the contract we recommend that you take legal advice and appoint your own solicitor. To proceed with the purchase of the Title you must sign and date the contract and return it to us with the deposit and our fee referred to below.
4.4 We are not responsible for delays outside our control. If our supply of the contract for purchase to you is delayed by an event outside our control then we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay. Provided we do this we will not be liable for delays caused by the event, but if there is a risk of substantial delay of more than six months from our acceptance of your instructions then, as a goodwill guarantee, you may contact us to end your contract with us for our services and receive a refund of the deposit and our fees.
5. OUR FEES
5.1 Our fees (“Buyer Premium”). The fees for our services to you, known as the Buyer's Premium, equate to a stepped percentage of the price of the Lot agreed with the vendor.
(a) You will pay us 20% of the price agreed with the vendor up to £50,000 and 15% of the price agreed above £50,000, plus VAT on the overall sum. For illustration purposes, if the price agreed for the Lot is £55,000, and the prevailing rate of VAT is 20%, the Buyer Premium will be £10,750 (comprising £10,000 for the first £50,000 (at 20%), £750 for the remaining £5,000 (at 15%) and £2,150 for VAT (at the 20% prevailing rate).,
(b) You may also be required to pay a top-up fee too in the circumstances described in clause 6.7 below.
5.2 Guide price for the Lots. The guide price of each Lot is set out on our website and in the catalogue. All Lots are zero-rated for VAT which will not be payable on the price you pay a vendor. Your instructions to us may be to offer the vendor less that the guide price but we may refuse to accept your instructions, and no contract for services will be in place between us, if we believe the vendor will not entertain that offer. Our business depends on good relations with the vendors and derisory offers therefore will not be actioned.
5.3 We will pass on changes in the rate of VAT. If the rate of VAT changes between your instruction and the date the vendor agrees the price of the Lot with you, we will adjust the rate of VAT that you pay.
5.4 Currency conversion. If we agree to accept foreign monies, these will be credited at the prevailing rate on the day that they are converted into sterling. Any shortfall shall be paid to us promptly on demand and any excess will be applied to the price payable to the vendor on completion which we will send to the vendor’s solicitor.
5.5 When you must pay and how you must pay. We prefer BACS payments but we do accept payment by all major debit and credit cards subject to a surcharge of 1.5% (UK/EU) or 3% (non-UK/EU). You must pay the Buyer Premium on receipt of our invoice which we will issue at the same time as we confirm the vendor’s acceptance of your offer. You must pay our invoice at the latest within seven calendar days after the date of the invoice.
5.6 We can charge interest if you pay late. If you do not make any payment to us by the due date we may charge interest to you on the overdue amount at the rate of 2% a year above the base lending rate of the Bank of England from time to time. This interest shall accrue on a daily basis from the due date until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgment. You must pay us interest together with any overdue amount.
5.7 What to do if you think an invoice is wrong. If you think an invoice is wrong please contact us promptly to let us know. You will not have to pay any interest until the dispute is resolved. Once the dispute is resolved we will charge you interest on correctly invoiced sums from the original due date.
5.8 Right to a refund of our fees. Your rights to the refund of our fees are as follows
(a) Even if we are not at fault but you end the contract under our goodwill guarantee set out in clause 4.4, you will receive a full refund of our fees.
(b) If, pre-contract with the vendor, your solicitors discover a defective title during their investigations which affects the vendor’s ownership of the Lot, you will receive a full refund of our fees (as well as the deposit paid in accordance with clause 6.5). You will need to provide us with satisfactory evidence of the defect (usually via a letter from you solicitor) before we refund our fees.
6. THE DEPOSIT
6.1 Reasons for the deposit. There are two reasons why we take a deposit:
(a) Protection for the vendor. As any vendor requires when selling a residential property, a deposit will be payable on the entry into of the contract for the sale and purchase of a Lot too with the vendor (see clause 4.3). The deposit will form part payment of the purchase price you agree with the vendor should you proceed to complete the purchase of the Lot.
(b) Protection for us too. Our business depends on good relations with the vendors and it is imperative that you will go on to honour the purchase if your offer is accepted by a vendor. As the Lot will be reserved to you and withdrawn from sale, our opportunity to sell the Lot to a genuine buyer may be lost if you unreasonably pull out of the transaction. Accordingly, should you pull out of the purchase pre-contract with the vendor for any reason other than as explained in clause 6.5(c) below, you will forfeit the deposit which will be charged to you as a reservation fee.
6.2 Amount of the deposit. The deposit payable to reserve any Lot will equate to 25% of the price of the Lot agreed with the vendor.
6.3 When you must pay the deposit and how you must pay it. As with our fees, we prefer BACS payments but we do accept payment by all major debit and credit cards subject to a surcharge of 1.5% (UK/EU) or 3% (non-UK/EU). You must pay the deposit at the same time as you pay our Buyer Premium – on receipt of the invoice for our fees (which we will issue at the same time as we confirm the vendor’s acceptance of your offer). It must be paid at the latest within seven calendar days after the date of the invoice for our fees.
6.4 Holding and release of the deposit. We will hold the deposit as stakeholder for the vendor until completion of the purchase at which point it will be released to the vendor (or until it may otherwise be released to the vendor in accordance with the terms of the contract for the sale and purchase of the Lot between you and the vendor). If you pull out of the purchase pre-contract with the vendor for any reason other than as explained in clause 6.5(c) below, you will forfeit the deposit as explained above and, by way of set off, it will be released to us in payment of the reservation fee.
6.5 Return of the deposit. Your rights to the return of the deposit paid are as follows:
(a) Even if we are not at fault but you end the contract under our goodwill guarantee set out in clause 4.4, you will receive the deposit back from us.
(b) Once you have entered into a contract for the sale and purchase of the Lot with the vendor, the deposit may be returnable by the vendor under the terms of the purchase contract (for example if the contract is rescinded) but you will need to take this up directly with the vendor and enforce your contractual rights against the vendor.
(c) If, pre-contract with the vendor, your solicitors discover a defective title during their investigations which affects the vendor’s ownership of the Lot, you will receive the deposit back from us (as well as a refund of our fees in accordance with clause 5.8). You will need to provide us with satisfactory evidence of the defect (usually via a letter from you solicitors) before we return the deposit to you.
6.6 Deposit is also a reservation fee. As explained above, the deposit also acts as a reservation fee if, and only if, you pull out of the purchase pre-contract with the vendor for any reason other than as explained in clause 6.5. If this occurs, we will charge you a reservation fee equal to the amount of the deposit inclusive of VAT at the prevailing rate. We may issue you with an invoice at any time after you have pulled out and we will set off your liability for the payment of our invoice by retaining the deposit.
6.7 Election to re-use the deposit (and top-up fee). Rather than incur the reservation fee should you decide to pull out of the purchase pre-contract, you may elect to use the deposit to make an offer on another Lot for an equal or lesser value so long as you make such an offer within six months (or longer as agreed with us) of you pulling out of your previous Lot. If the amount agreed for the new Lot is less than the previous reserved Lot then the deposit will still stand as the deposit under your contract with the new vendor (albeit for more than 25% of the purchase price) but if the amount agreed for the new Lot is more than the previous reserved Lot then you will need to increase the deposit to 25% of the price accepted by the new vendor. We also reserve the right to charge you an additional “top-up” fee for the new Lot on the same basis as clause 5.1(a) above, save that the additional fee will be reduced by the amount already charged for the previous reserved lot (ignoring the VAT charged when calculating the reduced fee).
7. YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS
7.1 Ending your contract with us. Your rights to end the contract you have with us are limited:
(a) If you want to end the contract because of something we have done or have told you we are going to do, please see clause 7.2;
(b) In all other cases, please see clause 7.3.
7.2 Ending the contract because of something we have not been able to do. If you are ending your contract with us because you are legally entitled to after we have done something wrong (i.e. broken the contract) or you want to exercise our goodwill guarantee in clause 4.4 above your contract with us will end immediately. We will refund you in full the deposit and the payment of our fees if you exercise our goodwill guarantee. You may be entitled to compensation if you have a legal right to end the contract because of something we have done wrong but please note our responsibility in respect of your losses in clause 11.
7.3 You are unlikely to have the right to change your mind. As we are providing services to you, you will not have a right to change your mind once we have accepted your instructions and contacted the vendor with your offer. At that point, we feel that our services to you are complete and you cannot then change your mind. Notwithstanding this position, this does not affect your rights to a refund of our fees and the return of the deposit in accordance with clause 5.8 and clause 6.5 which are more generous than your legal rights under consumer laws and, of course, we will only charge you fees in the first place if the vendor accepts your offer (or indeed any revised offer). If you wish to end the contract in what is likely to be a small window before we contact the vendor then you will need to do this as soon as possible after we have accepted your instructions (you have 14 days from our acceptance but only if we have not contacted the vendor; if we already have then our services are complete and you cannot cancel).
8. HOW TO END THE CONTRACT WITH US
8.1 Tell us you want to end the contract. If you are entitled to end the contract with us, please let us know by doing one of the following:
(a) Phone or email. Call us on 07957 444 473 or email us at info@manorialservices.com.
(b) Online. Complete our contact form on our website.
(c) By post. Write to us at 113 Bellenden road, London SE15 4HY, United Kingdom.
8.2 How we will refund you if a refund is due. We will refund you by the method you used for payment.
8.3 When your refund will be made if due. We will make any refunds due to you as soon as possible and in any event within 14 days of notifying you that you are due one.
9. OUR RIGHTS TO END OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU
9.1 We may end the contract if you break it. We may end our contract with you at any time by writing to you if you do not make any payment to us when it is due and you still do not make payment within seven days of us reminding you that payment is due.
9.2 You may have to compensate us if you break the contract. If we end the contract we may charge you reasonable compensation for the net costs we will incur as a result of your breaking the contract.
10. IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE SERVICES
10.1 How to tell us about problems. If you have any questions or complaints about our services, please contact us. You can telephone us at 07957 444 473 or write to us at info@manorialservices.com or at 113 Bellenden road, London SE15 4HY, United Kingdom.
10.2 Problem with the Title. After you have entered into a contract for the sale and purchase of a Lot with the vendor (see clause 4.3), any questions or complaints about the Title should be referred directly to the vendor and you should enforce all your rights against the vendor under that contract.
11. OUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE SUFFERED BY YOU
11.1 Particulars may vary slightly from the catalogue. Please note that all catalogue particulars are given as a general outline only. Although we have made every effort to display accurate particulars, these are for guidance only and are not intended to amount to amount to advice on which you should rely. Intending purchasers will need to satisfy themselves by their own investigations, inspections, searches as to the correctness of the particulars before entering into a contract with the vendor. In particular, any references in the particulars as to the geographical extent of a Lot is given for historical interest. Any rights referred to in the particulars being part of or any rights which may be associated with Lordships, Baronies, and Seignories are to be taken as historical and the operable historic rights associated with their purchase must be legally established by each new owner.
11.2 Manorial rules. The Lots in our catalogues are offered for sale subject to the Manorial Document Rules 1959 (No I 399); the Manorial Documents (Amendment) Rules 1963 (No 976); and the Manorial Documents (Amendment) Rules 1967 (No 963), copies of which may be applied for from the Auctioneers. These rules are mainly concerned with the safe custody of the documents. Where documents are associated with Lots, their location and where they may be inspected by appointment, are given after the particulars for further historical research. Intending purchasers should consider consulting with a solicitor before instructing us to make an offer to the vendor.
11.3 Recourse against the vendor. We recommend that all intending purchasers consult with a solicitor in respect of investigating the Title and agreeing the contract with the vendor. If you do not use a solicitor regularly or would like to consult a solicitor well-versed in the law as it applies to Lordships of the Manor and Manorial Rights, we can make a recommendation. We do not accept a duty of care to you in respect of your contract with the vendor and once you have entered into a contract with the vendor, your only recourse in respect of the Title is a claim against the vendor under that contract and we are not responsible for any loss or damage under that contract, whether that relates to the Title to the Lot you have purchased or otherwise.
11.4 What we are responsible to you for. We are responsible though for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking our contract with you, particularly our failing to use reasonable care and skill in arranging and reserving a Lot for you with a vendor. If we are responsible for foreseeable loss or damage then, nonetheless, in no circumstance will we be responsible for more than the fees you paid to us for our services.
11.5 We are not liable for business losses. We only provide services to individuals. We will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
12. HOW WE MAY USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
How we may use your personal information. We will only use your personal information as set out in our privacy policy which is available on our website.
13. HOW YOU MAY USE OUR MATERIALS
13.1 Ownership of materials. We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our materials, including our catalogues of Lots and the content on our website. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
13.2 Permitted acts.
(a) You may print off one copy of our current catalogue, and may download extracts of any page(s) from that catalogue or generally on our website, for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others to content posted on our website.
(b) You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
13.3 Acknowledgment of our rights. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content in our catalogues or on our website must always be acknowledged.
13.4 Prohibitions. You must not use any part of our catalogues or the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors. If you print off, copy, download, share or repost any part of our materials in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our materials will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies you have made.
14. OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS
14.1 We may transfer this agreement to someone else. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under our contract.
14.2 You need our consent to transfer your rights to someone else. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these terms to another person if we agree to this in writing.
14.3 Nobody else has any rights under this contract. This contract is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.
14.4 If a court finds part of this contract illegal, the rest will continue in force. Each of the clauses of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining clauses will remain in full force and effect.
14.5 We are not your partner or agent. Nothing in this contract is intended to establish any partnership between us or constitute either of us as the agent of the other.
14.6 Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.
14.7 Which laws apply to this contract and where you may bring legal proceedings. These terms are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in the English courts. If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.
1. THESE TERMS
1.1 What these terms cover. These are the terms and conditions on which we supply services to an intending purchaser of a Lordship or Barony Title.
1.2 Why you should read them. Please read these terms carefully before you seek to instruct us. These terms tell you who we are, the process for purchasing a Title (which we refer to as a “Lot”), how we will provide certain services to you, what to do if there is a problem and other important information. If you think that there is a mistake in these terms or you want to negotiate a change to any of our terms, please contact us as indicated below.
2. INFORMATION ABOUT US AND HOW TO CONTACT US
2.1 Who we are. We are Manorial Services Ltd a company registered in England and Wales. Our company registration number is 12712329 and our registered office is at 426/428 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH8 9AA. Our registered VAT number is 359 6672 44.
2.2 How to contact us. You can contact us by telephone on 07957 444 473, completing the contact form on our website or by writing to us at info@manorialservices.com.
2.3 How we may contact you. If we have to contact you we will do so by telephone or by writing to you at the email address or postal address you provided to us when you engaged us.
2.4 "Writing" includes emails. When we use the words "writing" or "written" in these terms, this includes emails.
3. OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU
3.1 Our services to you. Our services to you will consist of arranging the reservation of, and putting your offer to a vendor to purchase, a Lordship or Barony Title.
3.2 Display of Titles. Available Titles may be viewed in Lots from our catalogues. These are available on request. If you are interested in a Lot then you are invited to apply to us with instructions to put an offer to the vendor for the purchase of that Lot.
3.3 How we will accept your instructions. Our acceptance of your instructions will take place when we write to you (by letter or email) to accept them, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us.
3.4 If we cannot accept your instructions. If we are unable to accept your instructions, we will usually inform you of this by telephone or in writing but if you do not receive our acceptance in writing then no contract is in existence between us.
3.5 Limited to the UK. Our services are limited to Lordship and Barony Titles in the UK. We accept instructions from intending purchasers outside the UK but we cannot reserve or put offers for Titles outside of the UK.
4. PROVIDING THE SERVICE
4.1 When we will provide the service. We will begin the services on the date we accept your instructions.
4.2 Reserving a Title. After you have applied to us for a particular Lot and we have accepted your instructions, we will promptly put an offer to the vendor. Subject always to contract as explained below, the Lot will be reserved on receipt of the Buyer Premium and the deposit from you in accordance with clauses 5.5 and 6.3 below and will stay reserved for a period ending three months from your receipt of the contract for purchase as explained in the next clause (or such longer period as we may confirm in writing after discussing with the vendor; depending on the Title the preparation of the contract for purchase may take longer than any timescale we may have outlined to you when we accepted your instructions).
4.3 Contract for purchase. On the vendor’s acceptance of your offer, we will arrange with the vendor’s solicitor the preparation of a contract for the sale and purchase of the Title between you and the vendor. Such contract will be on terms similar to the purchase of any land or property. Upon receipt of the contract we recommend that you take legal advice and appoint your own solicitor. To proceed with the purchase of the Title you must sign and date the contract and return it to us with the deposit and our fee referred to below.
4.4 We are not responsible for delays outside our control. If our supply of the contract for purchase to you is delayed by an event outside our control then we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay. Provided we do this we will not be liable for delays caused by the event, but if there is a risk of substantial delay of more than six months from our acceptance of your instructions then, as a goodwill guarantee, you may contact us to end your contract with us for our services and receive a refund of the deposit and our fees.
5. OUR FEES
5.1 Our fees (“Buyer Premium”). The fees for our services to you, known as the Buyer's Premium, equate to a stepped percentage of the price of the Lot agreed with the vendor.
(a) You will pay us 20% of the price agreed with the vendor up to £50,000 and 15% of the price agreed above £50,000, plus VAT on the overall sum. For illustration purposes, if the price agreed for the Lot is £55,000, and the prevailing rate of VAT is 20%, the Buyer Premium will be £10,750 (comprising £10,000 for the first £50,000 (at 20%), £750 for the remaining £5,000 (at 15%) and £2,150 for VAT (at the 20% prevailing rate).,
(b) You may also be required to pay a top-up fee too in the circumstances described in clause 6.7 below.
5.2 Guide price for the Lots. The guide price of each Lot is set out on our website and in the catalogue. All Lots are zero-rated for VAT which will not be payable on the price you pay a vendor. Your instructions to us may be to offer the vendor less that the guide price but we may refuse to accept your instructions, and no contract for services will be in place between us, if we believe the vendor will not entertain that offer. Our business depends on good relations with the vendors and derisory offers therefore will not be actioned.
5.3 We will pass on changes in the rate of VAT. If the rate of VAT changes between your instruction and the date the vendor agrees the price of the Lot with you, we will adjust the rate of VAT that you pay.
5.4 Currency conversion. If we agree to accept foreign monies, these will be credited at the prevailing rate on the day that they are converted into sterling. Any shortfall shall be paid to us promptly on demand and any excess will be applied to the price payable to the vendor on completion which we will send to the vendor’s solicitor.
5.5 When you must pay and how you must pay. We prefer BACS payments but we do accept payment by all major debit and credit cards subject to a surcharge of 1.5% (UK/EU) or 3% (non-UK/EU). You must pay the Buyer Premium on receipt of our invoice which we will issue at the same time as we confirm the vendor’s acceptance of your offer. You must pay our invoice at the latest within seven calendar days after the date of the invoice.
5.6 We can charge interest if you pay late. If you do not make any payment to us by the due date we may charge interest to you on the overdue amount at the rate of 2% a year above the base lending rate of the Bank of England from time to time. This interest shall accrue on a daily basis from the due date until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgment. You must pay us interest together with any overdue amount.
5.7 What to do if you think an invoice is wrong. If you think an invoice is wrong please contact us promptly to let us know. You will not have to pay any interest until the dispute is resolved. Once the dispute is resolved we will charge you interest on correctly invoiced sums from the original due date.
5.8 Right to a refund of our fees. Your rights to the refund of our fees are as follows
(a) Even if we are not at fault but you end the contract under our goodwill guarantee set out in clause 4.4, you will receive a full refund of our fees.
(b) If, pre-contract with the vendor, your solicitors discover a defective title during their investigations which affects the vendor’s ownership of the Lot, you will receive a full refund of our fees (as well as the deposit paid in accordance with clause 6.5). You will need to provide us with satisfactory evidence of the defect (usually via a letter from you solicitor) before we refund our fees.
6. THE DEPOSIT
6.1 Reasons for the deposit. There are two reasons why we take a deposit:
(a) Protection for the vendor. As any vendor requires when selling a residential property, a deposit will be payable on the entry into of the contract for the sale and purchase of a Lot too with the vendor (see clause 4.3). The deposit will form part payment of the purchase price you agree with the vendor should you proceed to complete the purchase of the Lot.
(b) Protection for us too. Our business depends on good relations with the vendors and it is imperative that you will go on to honour the purchase if your offer is accepted by a vendor. As the Lot will be reserved to you and withdrawn from sale, our opportunity to sell the Lot to a genuine buyer may be lost if you unreasonably pull out of the transaction. Accordingly, should you pull out of the purchase pre-contract with the vendor for any reason other than as explained in clause 6.5(c) below, you will forfeit the deposit which will be charged to you as a reservation fee.
6.2 Amount of the deposit. The deposit payable to reserve any Lot will equate to 25% of the price of the Lot agreed with the vendor.
6.3 When you must pay the deposit and how you must pay it. As with our fees, we prefer BACS payments but we do accept payment by all major debit and credit cards subject to a surcharge of 1.5% (UK/EU) or 3% (non-UK/EU). You must pay the deposit at the same time as you pay our Buyer Premium – on receipt of the invoice for our fees (which we will issue at the same time as we confirm the vendor’s acceptance of your offer). It must be paid at the latest within seven calendar days after the date of the invoice for our fees.
6.4 Holding and release of the deposit. We will hold the deposit as stakeholder for the vendor until completion of the purchase at which point it will be released to the vendor (or until it may otherwise be released to the vendor in accordance with the terms of the contract for the sale and purchase of the Lot between you and the vendor). If you pull out of the purchase pre-contract with the vendor for any reason other than as explained in clause 6.5(c) below, you will forfeit the deposit as explained above and, by way of set off, it will be released to us in payment of the reservation fee.
6.5 Return of the deposit. Your rights to the return of the deposit paid are as follows:
(a) Even if we are not at fault but you end the contract under our goodwill guarantee set out in clause 4.4, you will receive the deposit back from us.
(b) Once you have entered into a contract for the sale and purchase of the Lot with the vendor, the deposit may be returnable by the vendor under the terms of the purchase contract (for example if the contract is rescinded) but you will need to take this up directly with the vendor and enforce your contractual rights against the vendor.
(c) If, pre-contract with the vendor, your solicitors discover a defective title during their investigations which affects the vendor’s ownership of the Lot, you will receive the deposit back from us (as well as a refund of our fees in accordance with clause 5.8). You will need to provide us with satisfactory evidence of the defect (usually via a letter from you solicitors) before we return the deposit to you.
6.6 Deposit is also a reservation fee. As explained above, the deposit also acts as a reservation fee if, and only if, you pull out of the purchase pre-contract with the vendor for any reason other than as explained in clause 6.5. If this occurs, we will charge you a reservation fee equal to the amount of the deposit inclusive of VAT at the prevailing rate. We may issue you with an invoice at any time after you have pulled out and we will set off your liability for the payment of our invoice by retaining the deposit.
6.7 Election to re-use the deposit (and top-up fee). Rather than incur the reservation fee should you decide to pull out of the purchase pre-contract, you may elect to use the deposit to make an offer on another Lot for an equal or lesser value so long as you make such an offer within six months (or longer as agreed with us) of you pulling out of your previous Lot. If the amount agreed for the new Lot is less than the previous reserved Lot then the deposit will still stand as the deposit under your contract with the new vendor (albeit for more than 25% of the purchase price) but if the amount agreed for the new Lot is more than the previous reserved Lot then you will need to increase the deposit to 25% of the price accepted by the new vendor. We also reserve the right to charge you an additional “top-up” fee for the new Lot on the same basis as clause 5.1(a) above, save that the additional fee will be reduced by the amount already charged for the previous reserved lot (ignoring the VAT charged when calculating the reduced fee).
7. YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS
7.1 Ending your contract with us. Your rights to end the contract you have with us are limited:
(a) If you want to end the contract because of something we have done or have told you we are going to do, please see clause 7.2;
(b) In all other cases, please see clause 7.3.
7.2 Ending the contract because of something we have not been able to do. If you are ending your contract with us because you are legally entitled to after we have done something wrong (i.e. broken the contract) or you want to exercise our goodwill guarantee in clause 4.4 above your contract with us will end immediately. We will refund you in full the deposit and the payment of our fees if you exercise our goodwill guarantee. You may be entitled to compensation if you have a legal right to end the contract because of something we have done wrong but please note our responsibility in respect of your losses in clause 11.
7.3 You are unlikely to have the right to change your mind. As we are providing services to you, you will not have a right to change your mind once we have accepted your instructions and contacted the vendor with your offer. At that point, we feel that our services to you are complete and you cannot then change your mind. Notwithstanding this position, this does not affect your rights to a refund of our fees and the return of the deposit in accordance with clause 5.8 and clause 6.5 which are more generous than your legal rights under consumer laws and, of course, we will only charge you fees in the first place if the vendor accepts your offer (or indeed any revised offer). If you wish to end the contract in what is likely to be a small window before we contact the vendor then you will need to do this as soon as possible after we have accepted your instructions (you have 14 days from our acceptance but only if we have not contacted the vendor; if we already have then our services are complete and you cannot cancel).
8. HOW TO END THE CONTRACT WITH US
8.1 Tell us you want to end the contract. If you are entitled to end the contract with us, please let us know by doing one of the following:
(a) Phone or email. Call us on 07957 444 473 or email us at info@manorialservices.com.
(b) Online. Complete our contact form on our website.
(c) By post. Write to us at 113 Bellenden road, London SE15 4HY, United Kingdom.
8.2 How we will refund you if a refund is due. We will refund you by the method you used for payment.
8.3 When your refund will be made if due. We will make any refunds due to you as soon as possible and in any event within 14 days of notifying you that you are due one.
9. OUR RIGHTS TO END OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU
9.1 We may end the contract if you break it. We may end our contract with you at any time by writing to you if you do not make any payment to us when it is due and you still do not make payment within seven days of us reminding you that payment is due.
9.2 You may have to compensate us if you break the contract. If we end the contract we may charge you reasonable compensation for the net costs we will incur as a result of your breaking the contract.
10. IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE SERVICES
10.1 How to tell us about problems. If you have any questions or complaints about our services, please contact us. You can telephone us at 07957 444 473 or write to us at info@manorialservices.com or at 113 Bellenden road, London SE15 4HY, United Kingdom.
10.2 Problem with the Title. After you have entered into a contract for the sale and purchase of a Lot with the vendor (see clause 4.3), any questions or complaints about the Title should be referred directly to the vendor and you should enforce all your rights against the vendor under that contract.
11. OUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR LOSS OR DAMAGE SUFFERED BY YOU
11.1 Particulars may vary slightly from the catalogue. Please note that all catalogue particulars are given as a general outline only. Although we have made every effort to display accurate particulars, these are for guidance only and are not intended to amount to amount to advice on which you should rely. Intending purchasers will need to satisfy themselves by their own investigations, inspections, searches as to the correctness of the particulars before entering into a contract with the vendor. In particular, any references in the particulars as to the geographical extent of a Lot is given for historical interest. Any rights referred to in the particulars being part of or any rights which may be associated with Lordships, Baronies, and Seignories are to be taken as historical and the operable historic rights associated with their purchase must be legally established by each new owner.
11.2 Manorial rules. The Lots in our catalogues are offered for sale subject to the Manorial Document Rules 1959 (No I 399); the Manorial Documents (Amendment) Rules 1963 (No 976); and the Manorial Documents (Amendment) Rules 1967 (No 963), copies of which may be applied for from the Auctioneers. These rules are mainly concerned with the safe custody of the documents. Where documents are associated with Lots, their location and where they may be inspected by appointment, are given after the particulars for further historical research. Intending purchasers should consider consulting with a solicitor before instructing us to make an offer to the vendor.
11.3 Recourse against the vendor. We recommend that all intending purchasers consult with a solicitor in respect of investigating the Title and agreeing the contract with the vendor. If you do not use a solicitor regularly or would like to consult a solicitor well-versed in the law as it applies to Lordships of the Manor and Manorial Rights, we can make a recommendation. We do not accept a duty of care to you in respect of your contract with the vendor and once you have entered into a contract with the vendor, your only recourse in respect of the Title is a claim against the vendor under that contract and we are not responsible for any loss or damage under that contract, whether that relates to the Title to the Lot you have purchased or otherwise.
11.4 What we are responsible to you for. We are responsible though for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking our contract with you, particularly our failing to use reasonable care and skill in arranging and reserving a Lot for you with a vendor. If we are responsible for foreseeable loss or damage then, nonetheless, in no circumstance will we be responsible for more than the fees you paid to us for our services.
11.5 We are not liable for business losses. We only provide services to individuals. We will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
12. HOW WE MAY USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
How we may use your personal information. We will only use your personal information as set out in our privacy policy which is available on our website.
13. HOW YOU MAY USE OUR MATERIALS
13.1 Ownership of materials. We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our materials, including our catalogues of Lots and the content on our website. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
13.2 Permitted acts.
(a) You may print off one copy of our current catalogue, and may download extracts of any page(s) from that catalogue or generally on our website, for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others to content posted on our website.
(b) You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
13.3 Acknowledgment of our rights. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content in our catalogues or on our website must always be acknowledged.
13.4 Prohibitions. You must not use any part of our catalogues or the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors. If you print off, copy, download, share or repost any part of our materials in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our materials will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies you have made.
14. OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS
14.1 We may transfer this agreement to someone else. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under our contract.
14.2 You need our consent to transfer your rights to someone else. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these terms to another person if we agree to this in writing.
14.3 Nobody else has any rights under this contract. This contract is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms.
14.4 If a court finds part of this contract illegal, the rest will continue in force. Each of the clauses of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining clauses will remain in full force and effect.
14.5 We are not your partner or agent. Nothing in this contract is intended to establish any partnership between us or constitute either of us as the agent of the other.
14.6 Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.
14.7 Which laws apply to this contract and where you may bring legal proceedings. These terms are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in the English courts. If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.