Terms of Use

 

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS APP

These terms set out our rules and policies for using our website-based app at https://www.balanced.build/ (the “App”) and any of the services offered on our App whether as a visitor or as a registered user of the App. By using our App, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them. If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our App.

We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference. 

The general provisions under Section A shall apply to all users of the App, even if you are just browsing (with registered users being referred to as “Members”). If you are a Member and use the App to manage your building services, you are a “Builder”. If you are a Member and use the App to manage building services being provided to you, you are a “Homeowner”. Section B applies to Builders and Homeowners, in addition to Section A.

License terms for the mobile application associated with the App are included in the mobile application and will apply to your use of the mobile application in addition to these terms. 

SECTION A: GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Who we are and how to contact us

https://www.balanced.build/ is a App operated by Balanced Build Ltd ("we", “us”, “our”). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 12960549 and have our registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, England, WC2H 9JQ. 

The App enables Builders and Homeowners to upload documents and information relating to a building project and manage their building projects.

Our App provides a project management space and facilitates an escrow payment system for staged payments relating to each building project. The escrow payment system will be provided by a third party, Trustshare Limited. Trustshare Limited (“Trustshare”) is a company registered in England & Wales with company number 12650826, whose registered office is at 71-75 Shelton Street, London, Greater London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ. Trustshare is a registered eMoney provider as an EMD agent of Payrnet LTD, with a FCA register number is 902866.

Links provided on our App to Trustshare’s website and/or application are our responsibility, but we accept no liability for the availability, suitability, reliability or content on Trustshare’s website and/or application.

To contact us, please email info@balanced.build.

2. There are other terms that may apply to you

These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our App:

a) Our Privacy Policy which sets out information about the data we collect and how we use the data.

b) Our Acceptable Use Policy below, sets out the permitted uses and prohibited uses of our App. 

When using our App, your contributions must: 

  • Be accurate (where they state facts);

  • Be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and

  • Comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.

When using our App, your contributions must not:

  • Contain any material which is defamatory of any person;

  • Contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;

  • Promote sexually explicit material;

  • Promote violence;

  • Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;

  • Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;

  • Be likely to deceive any person;

  • Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;

  • Promote any illegal activity;

  • Be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;

  • Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;

  • Be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;

  • Give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; or

  • Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

c) Our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our App.

3. We may make changes to these terms

We amend these terms from time to time. We will let you know when we do so. If you do not agree to any such changes, you may not use the App.

4. We may make changes to our App

We may update and change our App from time to time to reflect changes to our services, our users' needs and our business priorities.

We do not guarantee that our App, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our App for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our App through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

5. We may transfer this agreement to someone else

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under this contract.

6. Our App is only for users in the UK

Our App is directed to people residing in the United Kingdom. We do not represent that content available on or through our App is appropriate for use or available in other locations.

7. How you may use material on our App

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our App, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off or take a screenshot of one copy of the page you are using for your personal use only, and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to this copy.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our App must always be acknowledged.

If you print off, copy, download, share or repost any part of our App in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our App will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

8. No text or data mining, or web scraping

You shall not conduct, facilitate, authorise or permit any text or data mining or web scraping in relation to our App or any services provided via, or in relation to, our App. This includes using (or permitting, authorising or attempting the use of):

  1. Any "robot", "bot", "spider", "scraper" or other automated device, program, tool, algorithm, code, process or methodology to access, obtain, copy, monitor or republish any portion of the App or any data, content, information or services accessed via the same.

  2. Any automated analytical technique aimed at analysing text and data in digital form to generate information which includes but is not limited to patterns, trends and correlations.

The provisions in this clause should be treated as an express reservation of our rights in this regard, including for the purposes of Article 4(3) of Digital Copyright Directive ((EU) 2019/790).

This clause shall not apply insofar as (but only to the extent that) we are unable to exclude or limit text or data mining or web scraping activity by contract under the laws which are applicable to us.

9. Do not rely on information on this App

The content on our App is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our App.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our App, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our App is accurate, complete or up to date.

10. We are not responsible for websites to which we link 

Other than as set out in clause 1 with regard to Trustshare, where our App contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.

We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.

11. User-generated content is not approved by us

This App may include information and materials uploaded by other users of the App. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our App do not represent our views or values. See Acceptable Use Policy in clause 2.

12. How to complain about content uploaded by other users

If you wish to complain about content uploaded by other users, please contact us on info@balanced.build.

13. How we may use your personal information

We will only use your personal information as set out in our Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy. By using our App you consent to such use. 

14. Uploading content to our site

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you must comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

Any content you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, but you are required to grant us a limited licence to use, store and copy that content and to distribute and make it available to third parties as necessary for use of the App as described under clause 15. 

We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

We have the right to remove any posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

15. Rights you are giving us to use material you upload

When you upload or post content to our site, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform that user-generated content in connection with the service provided by the website and across different media as needed for you (whether Builder or Homeowner) to use the App as required for managing your building project. 

16. We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them

We do not guarantee that our App will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and App to access our App. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our App by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our App, the server on which our App is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our App. You must not attack our App via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will cooperate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our App will cease immediately.

17. Rules about linking to our App

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.

You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link to our App in any website that is not owned by you unless this is on mainstream social media. The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy. 

Our App must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our App other than the home page.

We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our App other than that set out above, please contact info@balanced.build.

SECTION B: MEMBERS - BUILDERS AND HOMEOWNERS 

18. Registering your account

In order to register as a Member, you must complete the form with the information requested and set up a password. In order to use Trustshare’s escrow services, you will also be redirected to Trustshare’s website to complete compliance processes as you will be using their App to transfer money between parties.  

We will be paid a commission by Trustshare when Members of our App use Trustshare’s escrow services. 

19. You must keep your account details safe

Once you choose your password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party.

We have the right to disable any Member account at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use. In such cases, you will need to liaise with Trustshare, with whom you will have contracted directly for escrow services, in order to access funds held by them in escrow.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly change your password and notify us at info@balanced.build.

20. Using the App

Builders must input the stages of the building project and the associated costs on the App.

Builders can set out the costs chargeable for each stage of a building project on our App. 

Homeowners are required to check and agree that the information provided by the Builder about each stage of work and associated costs is correct. 

Homeowners must then make the relevant stage payment prior to commencement of a particular stage of building work within a project. This is done via Trustshare. 

The funds paid by a Homeowner shall be held in an escrow account operated by Trustshare. This will be subject to Trustshare's Seller Terms and Conditions (“Trustshare’s Terms”). Trustshare’s Terms may be updated from time to time. 

Once the Builder informs the Homeowner that a stage of building has been completed and the Homeowner confirms that this work has been completed, they will release the funds held in escrow related to that stage of work to the Builder less the agreed retention amount that remains in escrow. This process is repeated until completion of your building project, where the last payment as well as all retention amounts are released.

21. Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

Whether you are a Builder or a Homeowner:

  1. We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

  2. Different limitations and exclusions of liability will apply to liability arising as a result of the supply of any services to you as set out below.

If you are a Builder:

  1. We exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our App or any content on it.

  2. We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

  3. use of, or inability to use, our App; or

  4. use of or reliance on any content displayed on our App.

  5. In particular, we will not be liable for:

    a. loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;

    b. business interruption;

    c. loss of anticipated savings;

    d. loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or

    e. any direct, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or damage.

If you are a Homeowner:

  1. Please note that we only provide our App for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our App for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

  2. If defective digital content that we have supplied, damages a device or digital content belonging to you and this is caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation. However, we will not be liable for damage that you could have avoided by following our advice to apply an update offered to you free of charge or for damage that was caused by you failing to correctly follow installation instructions or to have in place the minimum system requirements advised by us.

22. Our dispute resolution policy

Where a Dispute (as defined below) arises between a Builder and a Homeowner, the parties acknowledge that such Dispute shall not be subject to Trustshare’s terms. Instead, our dispute resolution policy as set out in this section shall apply.

A Dispute arises where a Homeowner does not release funds for a particular completed stage of the building project (“Dispute”). If no amicable resolution has been found by the parties within 14 days after a request to release such funds has been made by the Builder, the Builder shall notify us of a Dispute by email to info@balanced.build. The notice should provide details of the disputed issues, the Homeowner and the building project reference.

Balanced Build Ltd will then communicate the following optional process to follow, in order to help resolve the dispute:

1. Once a dispute has arisen, the builder should provide photographic evidence of the works completed within seven days.

2. The customer should communicate their concerns with the evidence provided within seven days.

3. Should a resolution not be found within four weeks after evidence was first provided, the customer and builder should seek formal mediation or legal advice.

4. If no resolution can be found through mediation, it may be necessary to resolve through a court claim.

5. The outcome of the court claim should be communicated to Balanced and Trustshare, in order for the funds to be released accordingly.

6. New stages of work can start while a dispute about a single stage is ongoing, should both parties agree.

It shall remain the Builder and the Homeowner’s sole responsibility to amicably resolve the Dispute.

A Dispute shall be deemed to be resolved when the Homeowner releases the funds subject to the Dispute and provides us with a notification of the same by email to info@balanced.build.

There is no time limit to the resolution of the Dispute. However, the parties agree and accept that any funds held by Trustshare in the escrow account shall remain in the account until the Dispute has been resolved.

Members agree and acknowledge that we take no responsibility for a Dispute or the resolution of a Dispute.  

23. Which country's laws apply to any disputes?

If you are a Homeowner, please note that these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction except that if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.

If you are a Builder, these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

These terms were last updated on 8 May 2022.