This document (together with any documents referred to in it) sets out the terms and conditions on which we supply our Virtual Office services (Services) to you and overwrites any previous versions of Service Terms and Conditions.

By ordering any of our Services, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. If you do not accept these terms and conditions, you will not be able to order or use any Services from our Site.  Clavering House Limited accept applications in person at our registered office address or through our website. www.claveringhouse.co.uk is a site operated by Clavering House Limited (we/us). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 07406205 and with our registered office at Clavering House, 1 Clavering Place, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3NG, which is also our Trading Address.

1. Your status

1.1 By placing an order through our Site, you confirm that:

(a) You are legally capable of entering into binding contracts;

(b) You will not use any of the rights granted by these terms for any obscene, illegal, immoral, or defamatory purposes and will not in any way bring us or our name into disrepute.

2. How the contract is formed between you and us

2.1 All orders are subject to acceptance by us and the terms of clause 2.2; we will confirm such acceptance to you by sending you an email that confirms that your order has been accepted (the Confirmation Email). The contract between us (Contract) will only be formed when we send you the Confirmation Email, a copy of these terms and conditions is also sent with the confirmation email.

2.2 After we receive your order, we will first send our Account Activation email this will detail the next steps required to activate your service. This will include steps (if you have not already done so) to submit copies of your original personal identification for that of the individual applying for the contract along with a current proof of home address document. We will not send you a ‘Welcome Email’ detailing the particulars of your service until we have received personal identification documentation that is suitable.

3. Supply of services

3.1 Services will commence on the date set out in the Confirmation Email (Start Date) and will be provided for the initial term selected by you on our site, and thereafter until either party provides not less than one month’s written notice to the other party of its intention to terminate the Contract.

3.2 We shall use all reasonable endeavours to meet any performance dates specified in the Confirmation Email, but any such dates shall be estimates only and time shall not be of the essence for performance of the Services.

3.3 All fees and charges are payable in English Pounds.

4. Supply of services

4.1 Your Obligations/You shall:

(a) Ensure that the terms of any order and any information you provide are complete and accurate;
(b) Co-operate with us in all matters relating to the provision of the Services;
(c) Provide us with such information and materials we may reasonably require in order to supply the Services and ensure that such information is accurate in all material respects.
(d) Co-operate and comply with all requests made by us to ensure The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017 are met

4.2 We are under no obligation to send you a Welcome Email, and we will not send you a Welcome Email until we have received personal identification documentation and identity checks have been carried out and passed. The ID should be that of the person responsible for the company or business (person of significant control or owner) applying for the contract along with a current council tax bill, rent agreement or mortgage statement, alternatively a utility bill (gas, electricity, water, landline telephone) or current account/building society statement issued in the past three months, showing the person of significant control’s or owner’s current home address.

We will carry out identity checks on each individual (Sole Trader), Person of Significant Control (Limited Companies), Partners (LLP and Partnerships), and corporation. For the individual(s) involved – these checks will leave a ‘soft credit search’ that does not leave any visible footprint for lenders but is vital in establishing proof of identity. If these identity checks are failed, and the correct documentation cannot be supplied – we will be unable to activate your account. Cancellations within 14 days of an order will be issued a refund minus the non-refundable £30 + vat administration fee to cover our costs in carrying out these identity checks. It is your full responsibility to supply to us all relevant documentation in a timely manner, all payments will commence from the first payment made and continue each month/year, regardless of the necessary paperwork being received.

4.3 Under current legislation, we are also required to monitor ongoing relationships with all clients who use our services, we will have to carry out additional checks in the following situations:

• Should you need to update the address that we forwarded mail to;
• Should the ownership structure of your business change (for example a new beneficial owner);
• On an Annual basis, we also carry out electronic spot-checks on customer accounts, should the report show any changes to the details we previously held on file, we will request new identification documents which will then need to be verified to keep your virtual office service active.

4.4 Due to the type of services we provide any compensation claim shall be limited in total to one month’s service fee. We cannot accept any compensation claim that is the result of consequential loss to your business and, by accepting these terms you fully agree to indemnify us from any such claim.

4.5 We are required, by current legislation, to report to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) where we know or suspect that a transaction involves Money Laundering or Terrorist Financing. By instructing us to act on your behalf in accordance with our Terms of Business you give us irrevocable authority to make a disclosure to SOCA if we consider it appropriate.

 

5. The Services

5.1 The Services will be those services set out on our Website at the time you order the Services from us.

5.2 Mailbox Service – Customers may use our business centre as their business trading address (the Centre) and NOT their Company Registered Address unless stated within their Confirmation Email. If a registered address service is offered or added to your account, upon termination of our contract you agree to inform Companies House of the change of address within 14 days. Registered Address Users – The registered office service includes the use of the Centre as your registered business address for Companies House and HMRC purposes. We do not provide a service to update your details with Companies House or HMRC, therefore you will need to make your own arrangements.

We do not allow cars to be registered at our address and all DVLA mail will be returned to sender.

5.3 Mail – Incoming mail will be handled as per your selection during sign up. The post forwarding service is based on a fair usage policy. Under this policy, if at any time, we deem you exceed the level of use reasonably expected from someone using this service, then we reserve the right to suspend your Virtual Office. In such an event we will contact you in an effort to establish a reasonable usage charge that will permit you to continue to use the Virtual Office service. We also reserve the right to open any items before collection or forwarding that may be suspected of containing dangerous or illegal objects/substances or to provide information to the police or other investigative bodies where it is our belief that our services are being or have been used for criminal or fraudulent purposes. Mail collection will only be permitted to the person or persons nominated by you for collection, and only when we have received personal identification documentation and identity checks have been carried out and passed.

5.4 Mail forwarding – All mail delivered to you at the Virtual Office address will be forwarded by first class Royal Mail to the address (United Kingdom only) specified by you during the sign-up process as soon as reasonably possible after receipt at the Virtual Office address. In the event that mail delivered to you at the Virtual Office address is not addressed in such a way that we are able to verify from the outside packaging that it is addressed to you, we reserve the right to open such mail to determine for whom it is intended. Clavering House does not guarantee or assume responsibility for any mail forwarded on behalf of the client.

5.5 Parcels – Maximum parcel size accepted is 50 x 50 x 50cm = 5Kg. We will not accept any items exceeding this or if they contain any dangerous, live or perishable goods. Due to the nature of parcel delivery companies, in that there are no set or expected delivery times, we will not accept responsibility (however infrequent) for parcels that fail to be delivered due to a member of staff not being available to accept the delivery. Outgoing parcels are charged at Royal Mail’s current franking rates plus a 20% admin charge. You agree for these fees to be included in your invoice for that calendar month, to be collected in line with your billing cycle. You are prohibited from sending your own courier to collect items; all parcel forwarding must be arranged by the Centre to the forwarding address specified by you during the sign-up process.  Tracking numbers will not be provided, in line with The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017.

5.6 Telephone Answering – Our Telephone Answering Service enables calls to a telephone number designated by the Centre to be answered in the company name specified by the Client. Calls will be handled according to instructions specified by the Client and outlined in the Welcome Email.

5.7 Telephone Number Service – You will be assigned either a local geographic or national telephone number according to your request after signing up to our services. You need to specify whether your number is to be diverted to either a mobile or a landline number. Although infrequent, diversion charges are subject to change, we will give 30 days notice of any such changes.

 

6. Price and payment

6.1 Prices are as quoted on our Website, except in cases of obvious error, and exclude VAT.

6.2 Clavering House fees are invoiced and collected in line with your original start date, and on the 1^st of each calendar month thereafter. All fees and charges are invoiced.

6.3 If your payment is not received on time, we will notify you by email that the payment is overdue. If after three attempts to collect outstanding fees no payment is received, we reserve the right to either suspend or terminate your subscription. Should your account fall into arrears, your details will be sent to our debt collection partner who will enforce collection of the debt.

6.4 Payment for any additional services, such as additional telephone calls over your package allowance, parcel forwarding and telephone numbers diversion charges are invoiced a month in arrears.

6.5 Automatic Renewals: When signing up for our services, you agree that your services will be automatically renewed at the expiration of your initial term. If you do not wish to renew, you must provide us with written notice at least one month prior to this renewal. Failure to give notice in the required timeframe will result in you being liable for the renewal fees.

7. Cancellation

7.1 You can give notice to cancel your subscription at any time by emailing admin@claveringhouse.co.uk. Cancellation terms are a minimum of one calendar month.

7.2 Change of Address following cancellation

Within 14 days past your account cancellation date, you shall notify your change of address to all relevant parties, and update all online and offline media.

Failure to update your address within this time will result in your services being reactivated with an additional £30 + vat reactivation fee added to your account. Within this 14 day timeframe, we will check your website, Companies House (for registered address clients) and Google My Business, and if evidence is found that our address is still in use, your account will be reactivated.

Should your account be reactivated, cancellation terms are 30 days from your subscription reactivation date.

Any postal mail or telephone calls received after termination of the Contract will not be forwarded and postal mail will be returned to the sender.

Please see the links below for guidance on changing your address:

HMRC (Registered Addresses) https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/companies-house-forms-file-a-change-of-address

Google My Business Google My Business Detail Updates

Should you not update your address, you will be liable for the charges as referenced above – this debt will be referred to our debt collection partner for collection. We will not enter into any further correspondence with you at that point.

7.3 Upon cancellation request, one final service invoice will be raised to cover your notice period if required, and we may raise one further invoice for services billed in arrears – post forwarding charges within your final month for example (after your account has been cancelled)

7.4  We reserve the right to terminate the service without notice or refund if any of our terms have been breached or if it’s our belief that the service is being used with fraudulent or criminal intent. Additionally, we may at any time terminate a Contract with immediate effect by giving written notice to you if:

(a) You fail to pay any amount due under a Contract on the due date for payment; or

(b) You commit a breach of any material term of a Contract and (if such breach is remediable) fail to remedy that breach within a period of 14 days after being notified to do so; or

(c) You become insolvent or go into liquidation; or

(d) You suspend payment of your debts or are unable to pay your debts as they fall due; or

(e) You enter into any compromise or arrangement with your creditors to reschedule any of your debts; or

(f) Any action is taken for or in connection with your winding up; or

(g) An administrator is appointed over you; or

(h) You are the subject of a bankruptcy petition or order; or

(i) We are no longer confident in the address you have provided for mail forwarding purposes i.e. forwarded mail is returned to sender

(j) You or someone you have authorised act in a manner that is deemed threatening or abusive towards employees; or

(k) You act in a manner which is or may be detrimental to our business reputation

8. Intellectual Property Rights

8.1 All intellectual property rights, which include but are not limited to all patents, copyright and related rights, trademarks, domain names, rights in goodwill or to sue for passing off, rights in designs, database rights, rights in confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered, registrable or not and including all similar or equivalent rights in any part of the world, subsisting in the Site shall be owned by us.

9. Confidentiality

9.1 A party (Receiving Party) shall keep in strict confidence all technical or commercial know-how, specifications, processes, or initiatives which are of a confidential nature and have been disclosed to the Receiving Party by the other party (Disclosing Party), its employees, agents or subcontractors, and any other confidential information concerning the Disclosing Party’s business or its products or its services which the Receiving Party may obtain (Confidential Information). The Receiving Party shall restrict disclosure of the Confidential Information to such of its employees, agents or subcontractors as need to know it for the purpose of discharging the Receiving Party’s obligations under the Contract, and shall ensure that such employees, agents or subcontractors are subject to obligations of confidentiality corresponding to those which bind the Receiving Party. The Receiving Party shall only use the Confidential Information for the purposes for which it was disclosed to it and shall under no circumstances use or disclose the Confidential Information after expiry of the Contract. This clause 9 shall survive termination of the Contract.

10. Written communications

Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications we send to you should be in writing. When using our Site, you accept that communication with us will be mainly electronic. We will contact you by e-mail or provide you with information by posting notices on our website. For contractual purposes, you agree to this electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications that we provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

11. Notices

All notices given by you to us must be by Email or by recorded delivery post to Clavering House Limited, Clavering House, 1 Clavering Place, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE1 3NG. We may give notice to you at either the Email or postal address you provide to us when placing an order.