1. About these terms
These terms apply when you submit a request through the “Book a Valuation” form on our website.
By ticking the acceptance box and submitting the form, you confirm that you have read and agree to these terms.
These terms apply only to the valuation or market appraisal request. They do not appoint Butterworth Sales and Lettings or a partner agent as your estate agent or letting agent.
2. The valuation or market appraisal
Any valuation or market appraisal we provide is an estimate of the likely sale price or rental value of the property based on the information reasonably available to us or a partner agent, current market conditions and, where applicable, a visual inspection.
The estimate:
- is provided for general guidance;
- is not a guarantee of the sale price, rental value or time required to sell or let the property;
- may change if further information becomes available or market conditions change; and
- should not be treated as a formal valuation for lending, mortgage, taxation, probate, matrimonial, accounting or other legal purposes.
A valuation or market appraisal is not:
- a building survey;
- a structural report;
- a homebuyer report;
- a mortgage valuation;
- a valuation by a chartered surveyor;
- a legal, tax, planning, building or financial assessment; or
- confirmation that the property is suitable for sale, letting, lending or any particular transaction.
You should obtain independent professional advice where a formal valuation, survey, legal advice, tax advice, planning advice or financial advice is required.
3. Information and inspection
Our or aour partner agents assessment may rely on information supplied by you, information available from public sources and our observations during any visual inspection.
Unless separately agreed in writing, we will not carry out:
- intrusive or destructive investigations;
- structural or technical testing;
- specialist inspections;
- searches of title, planning, building control or environmental records; or
- verification of every statement or document provided to us.
You are responsible for providing information that is accurate, complete and not misleading, including information about the property’s condition, size, alterations, tenure, occupancy, restrictions, planning matters and any known defects or disputes.
You must tell us promptly if any information previously supplied changes or is incorrect.
A visual inspection may be limited by access, weather, furnishings, floor coverings, stored items, locked areas, occupiers, safety concerns or other circumstances. We will not be responsible for matters that a reasonable visual inspection could not identify, subject to our legal obligations and the liability provisions in these terms.
4. Access and safety
You must ensure that we or our partner agents can safely access the relevant parts of the property at the agreed time.
You must tell us in advance about any known hazards, dangerous conditions, building defects, aggressive animals, infectious risks or other circumstances that could affect the safety of visitors.
We may postpone, refuse or end an inspection if we reasonably consider that access is unsafe or cannot properly be carried out.
5. No agency appointment
Submitting a valuation request, receiving a valuation or meeting with us does not:
- appoint Butterworth Sales and Lettings or a partner agent to sell or let your property;
- create a sole agency, sole selling rights or other agency arrangement;
- require you to instruct us or a partner agent;
- prevent you from contacting or instructing another estate or letting agent; or
- create any obligation to pay us or a partner agent a fee.
If you later decide to instruct us or a partner agent, the appointment, services, fees, commission, expenses and circumstances in which fees become payable will be set out in separate written Terms of Business. No agency fee will be payable unless agreed in those separate written terms.
6. Referral fee disclosure (residential sales introductions)
We sometimes work with independent partner estate agents who provide residential sales services in areas or circumstances where we may not be acting as the instructed sales agent.
With your permission, we may introduce or refer you to an independent partner estate agent.
If you choose to instruct that partner agent and your sale completes, the partner agent will pay Butterworth Sales and Lettings a referral fee equal to 20% of the partner agent’s sales fee, plus VAT at the prevailing rate.
Important points (plain English):
- You do not pay this referral fee. It is paid by the partner agent to us.
- This does not add to your fee. It does not increase the fee you pay to the partner agent under their agreement.
- You do not have to use the partner agent. You are free to choose another estate agent.
- Choosing another agent will not affect any separate valuation or property-management services provided by Butterworth Sales and Lettings.
- This is a financial interest for us and is not hidden.
- The exact referral arrangement and the partner agent’s identity (if different) will be confirmed to you in writing before any introduction is made. No introduction will be made without your permission.
7. Contact about your request
By submitting the form, you authorise Butterworth Sales and Lettings or a partner agent to contact you using the details you provide for the purposes of:
- responding to your valuation request;
- arranging, confirming, changing or cancelling an appointment;
- discussing the property and the information needed for the appraisal; and
- providing the valuation or market appraisal.
This permission is limited to dealing with your valuation request. It is not consent to receive general marketing communications.
Any marketing communications will be dealt with separately and will require any consent or other lawful basis required by applicable law.
8. Referral and sharing your information
Butterworth Sales and Lettings will only send your personal data to the named independent partner estate agent for the purpose of discussing and providing residential sales agency services if you give separate, affirmative permission (for example, by ticking an optional referral permission box).
Partner agent: [Partner Agent Full Legal/Trading Name] (independent partner estate agent).
If you give permission, we may share:
- your name;
- your contact details (such as telephone number and email address);
- the property address; and
- relevant information you supplied for the valuation or market appraisal request (for example, key features, tenure/occupancy details you provided and your preferred timescales).
Purpose of sharing: so the partner agent can discuss and, if you wish, provide residential sales agency services and/or a sales fee quotation. The partner agent may contact you in relation to the requested referral.
Optional permission: Your permission to share information for a referral is optional. It is not a condition of requesting or receiving a valuation or market appraisal from Butterworth Sales and Lettings.
Withdrawing permission: You can withdraw permission before the referral is made by contacting us at team@butterworth-sales-lettings.co.uk or 01803 262772. Withdrawal will not affect any sharing that has already lawfully taken place before the withdrawal.
Data protection roles: The partner agent will act as an independent controller for its own processing of your personal data. You should read the partner agent’s privacy notice for details of how it uses and protects your information.
Record of permission: If you give permission, we will keep a record that you provided it, including the date/time and the version of the wording presented at the time.
For the avoidance of doubt, ticking the mandatory acceptance checkbox for these terms does not, by itself, give permission for us to share your personal data with a partner agent.
7. Appointments, cancellation and non-attendance
If you need to cancel or rearrange an appointment, please contact the partner agent as soon as reasonably possible using the contact details above.
We / the partner agent may cancel or rearrange an appointment where the property is inaccessible, the information provided is materially incomplete or inaccurate, the inspection cannot safely proceed, or circumstances outside our reasonable control affect the appointment.
If you do not attend or provide reasonable access at the agreed time, we / the partner agent may treat the appointment as cancelled and may require a new appointment to be arranged. We will not charge a cancellation or non-attendance fee unless that charge has been separately agreed with you in clear written terms before it becomes payable.
8. Accuracy and use of the appraisal
You should not rely on the appraisal as the sole basis for making a financial, legal, tax, lending, investment or other significant decision.
Before relying on an estimated value, you should consider obtaining appropriate independent advice and carrying out your own checks.
We / the partner agent will take reasonable care when preparing the appraisal, but the result may be affected by incomplete or inaccurate information, changes in the market, limited access, the condition of the property and matters that are not apparent during a visual inspection.
We / the partner agent must not knowingly provide information that is false or misleading. Nothing in these terms permits us to avoid our legal duties or to disregard material information that we know or reasonably ought to know.
9. Liability
We / the partner agent will provide the valuation or market appraisal with reasonable care and skill.
Subject to the limitations below, we will be responsible for direct loss that is reasonably foreseeable and caused by our breach of these terms, negligence or other legal fault.
We / the partner agent will not be responsible for:
- a difference between an estimated value and the eventual sale price or rental value;
- losses arising solely from normal changes in the property market;
- losses resulting from information that you supplied being inaccurate, incomplete or misleading;
- matters that could not reasonably have been identified through the agreed visual inspection; or
- losses that are not reasonably foreseeable or that arise indirectly, except where the law requires otherwise.
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits:
- liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence;
- liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
- liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited; or
- your statutory rights as a consumer.
Any limitation or exclusion in these terms will apply only to the extent permitted by law and will not affect any rights or remedies that cannot legally be excluded.
10. Privacy and personal information
We / the partner agent will handle personal information submitted through the valuation form in accordance with applicable data protection law and our Privacy Notice.
Our Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information, the lawful bases we rely on, retention periods and your rights.
11. Changes to these terms
We / the partner agent may update these terms from time to time. The version and effective date shown at the beginning of these terms will identify the version that applies to your request.
We / the partner agent will not use a later version to alter terms that have already applied to a completed valuation request unless the change is required by law or you agree to it.
12. Governing law and jurisdiction
These terms and any dispute or claim arising from them are governed by the law of England and Wales.
The courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory rights you may have as a consumer.