Agency Terms of Business
These terms govern the use of the hop platform by estate agency businesses and their staff. They apply in addition to our website terms and privacy notice. If you buy a Property Logbook as a homeowner rather than through an agency, different terms apply to you.
1. About these terms
1.1These terms govern the use of the hop platform by estate agency businesses and their staff. They apply in addition to the website terms and the privacy notice published at homeownerspassport.com, and where there is any conflict on a matter of agency account use, these terms take priority.
1.2The platform is operated by Teal Legal Ltd, which trades as hop. References to we, us and hop mean Teal Legal Ltd. References to you and the Agency mean the estate agency business that holds the account.
1.3You accept these terms when the first user of your account logs in to the platform and confirms acceptance, or when your account is first used to place an order, whichever happens first.
1.4You contract with us as a business. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 do not apply to your use of the platform. Where a homeowner contracts with us directly for a Property Logbook, that contract is a consumer contract and those protections apply to them.
2. Your account
2.1The person who registers the Agency confirms that they are authorised to accept these terms on behalf of the Agency and to commit the Agency to charges incurred through the account.
2.2You may add further users to your account. You are responsible for everything done through your account, including all orders placed and all charges incurred by any user you add, whether or not that user was authorised internally to place the order.
2.3You must keep login credentials secure and tell us promptly if you believe an account has been compromised. You must remove users who leave your business.
2.4You must give us accurate registration information and keep it up to date, including a valid billing contact.
3. hop Snapshots
3.1hop Snapshots are provided free of charge to registered agency accounts. No payment method is required to register or to generate a Snapshot.
3.2Snapshots are produced using data obtained from HM Land Registry under a pilot arrangement, and that arrangement carries volume limits. Your use of Snapshots must be reasonable and connected to genuine valuation and listing activity. We may apply a fair use limit to your account and may throttle or suspend Snapshot access where use appears automated, speculative or unconnected to a genuine instruction.
3.3We may vary, limit, price or withdraw the free Snapshot service at any time on thirty days written notice. Where the underlying third party data arrangement is varied, suspended or ends, we may vary, limit or withdraw the service immediately and without notice, and we will tell you as soon as we reasonably can.
3.4Nothing in these terms commits us to providing Snapshots free of charge for any minimum period, and no part of any subscription fee is attributable to Snapshots.
3.5A Snapshot is an overview compiled from third party sources. It is not a conveyancing document, it is not legal advice, and it must not be relied on as a substitute for the searches and enquiries carried out in a conveyancing transaction.
4. hop Sale Packs
4.1Sale Packs are chargeable. The price is shown in the platform at the point of order and is exclusive of VAT.
4.2You place an order when you confirm creation of a Sale Pack in the platform. At that point the order either consumes an available credit on your account or, where no credit is available, incurs a charge at the price displayed.
4.3Because a Sale Pack is generated on demand and we incur third party data costs at the point of generation, an order cannot be cancelled once the Sale Pack has been created and credits or charges applied are not refundable. Where a Sale Pack is not of satisfactory quality or does not match its description, contact us within thirty days and we will replace it or, if we cannot, refund it.
4.4Where free trial Sale Packs are enabled on your account, a trial pack is provided with certain data redacted. Trial packs are provided for evaluation only, are not suitable for reliance in a transaction and must not be supplied to a seller, buyer or conveyancer as a complete pack. A trial pack may be upgraded to a full Sale Pack at the price then displayed.
4.5Where a Sale Pack invites a seller to complete a questionnaire or supply information, you confirm that you have the seller's authority to enter their details into the platform and to invite them to do so.
5. Credits, subscriptions and pricing
5.1Agency subscriptions are monthly and roll from month to month. Either party may cancel by giving notice before the next billing date, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing month in which notice is given.
5.2Credits included in a subscription are allocated for the billing month in which they are provided. Unused credits lapse at the end of that billing month and do not carry forward.
5.3Credits have no cash value, are not refundable and cannot be transferred between accounts or exchanged for money.
5.4We may change subscription prices, credit allocations and pay as you go prices on thirty days written notice. If you do not accept a change you may cancel before it takes effect.
5.5All prices are exclusive of VAT, which is charged at the applicable rate.
6. hop Property Logbooks
6.1A Property Logbook may be provided to a homeowner in one of two ways, selected by you in the platform at the point of creation.
6.2Sponsored. You pay for the Logbook using a credit. The homeowner receives full access at no cost to them, and your branding appears in the Logbook.
6.3Owner paid. The homeowner pays for the Logbook directly. We contract with the homeowner for that Logbook, we take payment from them and we are responsible to them as the supplier. The Logbook remains locked until the homeowner pays.
6.4Where a Logbook is owner paid, you set the price payable by the homeowner within the range permitted in the platform. We retain our published wholesale amount and pay you the difference as commission. Commission is earned once the homeowner has paid and any refund period has passed, and is paid monthly in arrears. Where a homeowner is refunded after commission has been paid, we may recover the commission from later payments due to you.
6.5We may set and change the permitted price range at any time. We may decline to accept, or may adjust, a price we consider likely to mislead a homeowner or to bring the hop brand into disrepute.
7. Commission and self billing
7.1We operate self billing for commission. You authorise us to raise invoices on your behalf for the commission due to you, and you agree not to raise your own sales invoices for those supplies.
7.2You agree to accept each self billed invoice we raise. Invoices will be marked SELF-BILLING and will show your name, address and, where you are registered for VAT, your VAT registration number.
7.3You must give us your VAT registration number, or confirm that you are not registered for VAT. Where you are not registered, no VAT will be shown on the self billed invoice and none will be paid to you.
7.4You must tell us immediately if your VAT registration number changes, if you cease to be registered for VAT, or if you transfer your business. We may suspend commission payments until your details are confirmed.
7.5The self billing arrangement starts when you accept these terms and runs for twelve months. It renews automatically for further periods of twelve months unless either party gives notice, and it ends when your account ends. We may ask you to reconfirm your details at each renewal.
7.6Where we outsource invoicing to a third party we will tell you before doing so.
8. Your responsibilities in relation to Logbooks
8.1You are responsible for ensuring that a Logbook is set up only for the legal owner or owners of the property, and you confirm that you have their authority to enter their contact details into the platform and to have us contact them.
8.2Where auto renewal is selected, the homeowner's Logbook subscription renews automatically until the homeowner cancels. We are responsible for giving the homeowner the information and cancellation rights required by law.
8.3A Logbook belongs to the homeowner. It continues to exist independently of your account and is not affected if you stop using the platform, although co branding may be removed where your account is closed.
9. Payment
9.1Payments are processed by our payment providers, currently Stripe and GoCardless. We do not hold your card details directly.
9.2Subscription fees are taken on the billing date each month. Pay as you go charges are taken at the point of order or invoiced monthly in arrears, as set out on your account.
9.3If a payment fails or an invoice is not paid when due, we may suspend access to chargeable features, and to the account, until the amount is paid.
10. Data protection
10.1Each party acts as a controller in respect of the personal data it determines the purposes and means of processing for. You are the controller of your client and prospect data. We are the controller of the data we process to operate the platform, and of the direct relationship we have with a homeowner who takes a Logbook from us.
10.2Where you enter a seller's or homeowner's details into the platform, you confirm that you have a lawful basis for doing so and for us to contact that person about the product you have initiated.
10.3Our processing is described in the privacy notice published at homeownerspassport.com.
11. Your responsibilities
11.1You will use the platform only for genuine agency activity, and will not resell, scrape, bulk extract or systematically reproduce output except as these terms allow.
11.2You will not present hop output as legal advice or as a substitute for the work of a conveyancer.
11.3You remain responsible for your own obligations to your clients and to buyers, including your obligations in relation to material information under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and National Trading Standards guidance. hop output supports those obligations but does not discharge them.
12. Accuracy and liability
12.1hop compiles information from HM Land Registry, local authority and other third party sources. We take care in assembling and presenting it, but we do not independently verify third party data and we do not warrant that it is complete, current or free from error.
12.2Complexity scores, predicted timescales and similar indicators are estimates generated from the data available. They are provided to help prioritise work and are not a guarantee of outcome or timing.
12.3We are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of instructions or indirect or consequential loss.
12.4Our total liability to you in any twelve month period is limited to the total amount you paid us in that period, or one hundred pounds if you paid us nothing.
12.5Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.
13. Branding and intellectual property
13.1You grant us a licence to use your name, logo and brand colours for the purpose of producing co branded output for you and your clients, for the duration of your account.
13.2We grant you a licence to use and supply hop output produced through your account in connection with the properties it relates to. All other rights in the platform and its output remain ours.
14. Suspension, termination and what survives
14.1Either party may end this agreement by giving notice before the next billing date, taking effect at the end of that billing month.
14.2We may suspend or end your account immediately where you are in material breach, where payment is overdue, or where your use puts a third party data arrangement at risk.
14.3On termination, unused credits lapse and are not refunded, access to the platform ends, and Sale Packs and Logbooks already delivered are unaffected.
15. Changes to these terms
15.1We may change these terms on thirty days written notice to your registered billing contact. If you do not accept a change you may cancel before it takes effect. Continued use after the change takes effect is acceptance.
16. General
16.1These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.
16.2The platform is available in respect of properties in England and Wales only.
16.3No third party may enforce these terms except as expressly stated.