Terms

About us

Swallow Barn Property Care is a trading name of Swallow Barn Property Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 16675771, registered office Ground Floor, The Maltings, Locks Hill, Rochford, Essex SS4 1BB.

Contact us at hello@swallowbarn.co.uk. These terms apply to every job we do, unless we agree something different with you in writing.

Quotes

Our quotes are fixed prices, itemised into labour, materials, any items we buy for your property, and travel.

A quote is valid for 30 days. It is based on the information and photos you give us. If we find something on site that we couldn't have known about, such as hidden damp, blown plaster or damage behind furniture, we will tell you and agree any change in price before doing the extra work.

Accepting a quote

A contract starts when you accept our quote in writing, for example by replying to our email. We will then confirm dates.

Cancelling (homeowners and tenants)

If you are booking as a private individual and you accepted our quote by email, online or away from our premises, you can cancel within 14 days of accepting, without giving a reason, by emailing us.

If you ask us to start work within those 14 days and then cancel, you pay for the work done up to the point you told us. We will refund any deposit, less that amount, within 14 days.

After the 14 days, you can still cancel by telling us as early as possible. We may charge for work already done, materials already bought for your job, and reasonable costs we can't recover.

Deposits

For some homeowner jobs, especially those needing special-order materials, we may ask for a deposit. If so, the amount will be shown on the quote, and it is deducted from the final invoice.

Access, keys and your property

• You give us safe access at the agreed times, with water and electricity available.
• We never write down or store key-safe or alarm codes. Please give them to us by phone.
• We look after keys while we have them and return them as agreed.
• Please remove valuables and fragile items from the areas we're working in. We take reasonable care with everything else and protect floors and furniture.

Changes and extra work

If you ask for extra work, or we find work is needed, we will agree the price in writing before we do it, on the same basis as the original quote.

Work we don't do

We don't do gas, electrical or plumbing work. If a job needs a qualified engineer, we can arrange one and meet them at the property. Their work is their responsibility: we don't supervise or sign off engineers' work.

Payment

We invoice when the job is finished. Payment is due within 14 days of the invoice, by card through the secure link on the invoice or by bank transfer. Letting agents and regular landlords can pay on agreed account terms.

If payment is late, we may charge interest and recovery costs as the law allows for business customers.

Our work and putting things right

We carry out our work with reasonable care and skill, as the law requires. If you're not happy with any part of our work, tell us as soon as possible, ideally within 14 days, and we will come back and put it right.

This doesn't affect your legal rights. For more on them, see Citizens Advice.

Work completion reports and deposit evidence

At the end of each job we provide a work completion report with dated photos. For end-of-tenancy work it is set out so it can be used as evidence in a deposit dispute.

The report records the work we did. It does not decide who is responsible for anything, and we can't guarantee the outcome of any deposit claim or dispute. The scheme's adjudicator decides.

On any one tenancy we act for either the landlord (or their agent) or the tenant, never both.

Our liability

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit.

We are not responsible for losses that weren't a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms, for problems caused by existing defects in the property, or for the work of other trades.

We hold £2 million public liability insurance, which covers accidental damage to your property and injury to people while we are working.

For business customers (landlords, letting agents and companies): we are not liable for loss of rent, loss of profit or other indirect losses, and for anything other than accidental damage or injury, our total liability for a job is limited to the price of that job. If our work isn't right, we will put it right.

Photos

We photograph our work for your report. We will only show photos of your property on our website or elsewhere with your permission, and never in a way that shows the address.

Your information

We use your information as set out in our privacy notice.

Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Complaints can be sent to us first, and you can also use the courts of England and Wales.

Using this website

The words, photos, designs and logo on this site belong to Swallow Barn Property Limited, unless stated otherwise. You may view and print pages for your own use, but please don't copy or reuse them without our permission.

We try to keep the information on this site accurate and up to date, but it is general information, not a quote. Links to other websites are provided for convenience; we're not responsible for their content.