Delivery Terms of Business

1. Who we are

We are Loch Shaped Hole Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15201380), trading as LSH Forestry. Our registered office is Fifteen Montgomery Way, Rosehill Industrial Estate, Carlisle, CA1 2RW. Our trading address is The Guild, 5 Abbey Street, Carlisle, CA3 8TX. We are VAT registered (VAT number 455 5118 91).

2. Agreeing to work together

We'll set out the work, the price, and anything specific to your project in a proposal or quotation. You accept it, and these terms, when you tell us to proceed, whether by signing, replying to confirm by email, or asking us to start the work. Once you've done that, we have an agreement.

3. What we'll do

We'll carry out the works described in your proposal with reasonable skill and care, to the standard you'd expect of a competent forestry contractor, using materials of satisfactory quality. We'll keep you informed of progress and flag anything that changes the picture, for example ground conditions, weather delays, or a problem with access or supply.

4. What we need from you

Our work depends on you giving us what we need to do it. You agree to: give us safe and timely access to the site for us and our subcontractors; make sure you have the right to carry out the works and any necessary consents, licences, or permissions in place (for example a felling licence or grant approval); tell us about anything on site that could affect the works or safety, such as services, boundaries, protected features, or rights of way; and give us timely decisions and approvals. If we're delayed, held up, or have to return to site because access, information, or consents were missing, wrong, or late, any extra cost or time may be chargeable.

5. Materials and money up front

This work usually means we buy materials and pay subcontractors well before the job is finished, often a large sum. To reflect that:

• Where the proposal says so, we may ask for a deposit before we start, or stage payments as the work progresses. Unless the proposal says otherwise, we'll invoice the full amount on completion.
• Materials we supply remain our property until you have paid for them in full. Until then, we may recover them or charge you for them. Once they're installed or planted, this doesn't entitle us to disturb your land beyond what's reasonable to protect our position.
• The price in the proposal is based on materials and subcontractor costs known at the time. If those costs rise materially before we commit to them, for example a supplier price increase, we'll talk to you before proceeding rather than spring it on you.

6. Our price and payment

Our price is set out in your proposal, either as a fixed price or as costs plus our margin, and is exclusive of VAT, which we'll add at the rate in force. Unless the proposal says otherwise, payment is due within 30 days of our invoice.

Payment is due on these terms whether or not you have received any grant funding. We understand many clients rely on a grant to pay us, and we'll do our part to support your claim, but the timing or outcome of a grant is a matter for the awarding body, and your obligation to pay us doesn't depend on it. The one exception is where a delay or shortfall in your grant is caused by our own error or failure. In that case we'll deal with it fairly and won't hold you to a payment our mistake has prevented you funding.

If an invoice isn't paid on time, we may charge interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and we may suspend work until payment is brought up to date. We'll always tell you before we do.

7. If work stops before it's finished

Either of us can bring a job to an end by letting the other know in writing (email is fine). If a job stops before it's complete, including because you ask us to stop, or because something outside our control prevents us finishing, you remain liable for the work we've done and the costs we've committed to up to that point, including materials bought and subcontractors engaged for the job. Sums already invoiced remain payable.

8. Standing behind our work

We want you to be happy with what we've done, and we stand behind our workmanship.

• For 12 months after we finish a job, if any of our work proves defective because of poor workmanship or materials, tell us and we'll put it right at our cost.
• This covers the quality of our work. It does not cover damage caused later by weather, livestock or wild animals, vandalism, neglect, or anything outside our control, or by changes other people make after we've finished.

9. Trees and natural losses

Trees are living things, and some won't survive, through drought, frost, browsing, disease, or simple natural attrition, however well they're planted. This isn't a defect in our work, and we can't guarantee that any particular tree or proportion of trees will survive.

What we will do is plant well and to specification. A reasonable allowance for early losses is normal and is something we'll budget for and discuss with you when planning the work. Replacing failed trees ("beating-up") in the years after planting is establishment work that we're glad to carry out and price separately, not a defect to be made good for free, except where a failure is genuinely down to our own poor workmanship, which clause 8 covers. Where your planting is grant-funded, keeping trees stocked to the scheme's requirements is usually something the scheme expects, and we'll help you plan replacement planting so you stay compliant.

10. Insurance and our responsibility to you

We carry public liability and employers' liability insurance, and we stand behind our work. If we cause loss or damage through our negligence or breach of these terms, we'll put right what we reasonably can.

Our total liability to you in connection with a job is limited to the price of that job. We're not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for a loss of grant funding that results from an awarding body's decision rather than our own failure. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that can't lawfully be excluded.

11. Subcontractors

We use trusted subcontractors, for example tree planters and fencing contractors, to carry out parts of the work. They work for us, not for you: we remain responsible to you for the work as a whole, and if a subcontractor's work falls short, you come to us and we'll sort it out, then settle matters with them ourselves. We engage subcontractors who carry their own insurance appropriate to the work they do.

12. Health and safety

We take safety seriously and work to the standards required for the activities we carry out, including the use of appropriate equipment and competent people. You'll let us know about hazards on site we couldn't reasonably know about, and keep others away from active work areas where we ask you to.

13. Your information and confidentiality

We'll keep what you share with us confidential and use it only for your work, except where we need to share it with an awarding body or are required to disclose it by law. We handle personal data in line with UK data protection law; our privacy notice is at lshforestry.co.uk/privacy. You're fine for us to keep your details to administer your work and, unless you tell us otherwise, to contact you about related services.

14. If something's not right

If you're ever unhappy with our work, tell us first. Most things are sorted out quickly with a conversation. You can reach us at info@lshforestry.co.uk.

15. The law that applies

These terms, and any work we do under them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

16. Changes

We may update these terms from time to time; the version that applies to a job is the one current when you accept the proposal for it. Any changes to an agreed proposal need to be agreed between us in writing (email counts).