Terms and Conditions of Works
1. Booking your work in
To book your project with Apples and Pears Ltd, we request a confirmation email sent to enquiries@applesandpearsltd.co.uk. Once we have received your e-mailed confirmation for the work quoted, we will request a deposit to secure your work. The deposit will consist of 10% of your overall cost. This will pay towards the VAT charge on your work. On payment of your deposit, you have entered into a contractual agreement with Apples and Pears Landscaping Ltd.
All desposits are strictly non-refundable.
Please note: Even if you have sent a text message or a voicemail to Tim or our administration team, we do also require your booking in writing to proceed.
2. Payment Terms
An initial, non refundable, deposit (amount to be confirmed with procedures of work) is payable as soon as you have confirmed your quote and enter into your contract with Apples and Pears Ltd. An interim payment will then be required prior to your project commencement to secure you initial delivery of materials and labour. This could be up to a week in advance to allow us time to proceed with your orders. Should your have item on project that requires advance ordering, then you will be required to the pay a set amount to be confirmed, by email, prior to your work commencing. The rest of the monies due for your work will be split into interim payments, across your project, with a final payment being left until completion. We carry out an interim payment schedule to ensure Apples and Pears Ltd, our team and your selves are protected. Once we confirm your start date, we will also confirm your interim payment schedule. Your final balance will be due on the completion day of your work.
3. Final Balance
Your final balance payment is due on the completion day. Apples and Pears Ltd will provide you with a final invoice. Payment must be cleared within 48 hours of receipt of your invoice. Any late payments will be subject to a £100 administration fee for every 24 hours. Please bear in mind, we have more than 1 team on different sites every day. Late payments cause a loss to our business, our staff and our suppliers.
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4. Cancellation
Terms of cancellation for projects are as follows;
All deposits are non-refundable.
Should you cancel within 1 month of your installation date, you will be charged for any materials that have been pre-ordered for your project together with the following:
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Projects under £2,000 = £150 administration fee
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Projects from £2,001 - £4,000 = £250 administration fee
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Projects from £4,001 - £6000 = £350 administration fee
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Projects from £6,001 - £8,000 = £450 administration fee
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Projects £8,001 - £10,000 = £550 administration fee
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Projects £10,001 - £15,000 = £700 administration fee
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Projects £15,001 - £20,000 = £1,000 administration fee
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Projects over £20,0001 = £1,500 administration fee
5. Deliveries
Some materials may be delivered to your property prior to your work commencing. We will, of course, inform you, should this be the case. If required, a member of the team will arrive on site to organise this.
6. Measurements
All measurements will be taken and discussed during your initial site visit. You will then be provided with a written confirmation of your project. Please ensure you are happy with your quotation and ask any questions you feel are necessary. A further site survey will take place 2-4 weeks prior to the start of your project to double check measurements and walk through the project with you.
Once work has commenced, should you feel unhappy with any of the work as it progresses, please immediately inform your site foreman, do not wait until your project has been completed, as this causes delays for yourselves, our team and other customers. and may cause additional costs to yourself. This will also provide us the chance to rectify your issue immediately.
Please Note: Changes to measurements can be reflective in the cost of your project. This would always be confirmed with you prior to going ahead.
7. Paving
When you look at paving on the internet, most companies wet the paviours before taking their photos. This brings the colour out in them, especially if it is a natural product, for example, Indian Sandstone. We do carry samples of some of the most popular Indian Sandstone paviours, however for all others, we would advise, to be sure you are happy with your choice of paviour and colour, that you try and view it in person, prior to confirming your order. We can help you with stockists should you need it.
When Apples and Pears provide you with a quote that includes your paviours, it will be for the paviours that we can provide samples for or where we direct you to to view them. Should you choose a different paviour from one of our suppliers, this will incur an additional charge based on the square meterage of your patio. If you choose a paviour that is not regularly offered by one our suppliers, or from somewhere you have found on the internet, you may be required to order and supply your own paviours and your quote will be adjusted accordingly.
Artificial Grass
We only supply "Supreme Senna" artificial grass. The grass is laid on the correct sub-base to ensure maximum durability and is secured in place. Should you wish to have grass with stripes, you will need to order a machine to complete this. We can leave you with stripes but once the lawn is walked upon, these will begin to fade. Cleaning and maintaining the grass is the responsibility of you, the customer.
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Natural stones
Natural stones, such as Indian sandstone (which is often a popular choice), is a porous stone. Please be aware that on occasions colour can change from slab to slab due to the nature of the sand and quartz compaction through-out the years of the stone ageing and developing.
Because of the natural nature of the stone, colour can change when exposed to high levels of UV, when wet or if marked by other deposits such as lawn feed or grass seed etc. When laying the natural stones, the colour can also change when in contact with the grout this is due to oxidation. This is a natural process and can take time to rectify.
A non-acidic rust remover (Alkaline based) can help in the colour restoration of the stone by converting the rust compounds into a soluble solution. Thus, balancing the oxidation and salt levels of the stone and restoring the PH Balance. Please be aware this can take time to level out but is a process that in time will rectify.
Because of the information stated above, if this develops on any natural stone laid by Apples and Pears, we will not take responsibility for this as a fault for our correction. This is due to it being a chemical reaction within the stone which we cannot be accountable for and is within the stone prior to it being cut. Please note; when you agree to your contract with Apples and Pears, you also agree to take full responsibility for any discoloration of this kind. We are happy to advise on paviour care and cleaning.
8. Turfing
We supply freshly cut turf to each job where we are to lay a new lawn. This would have been cut and laid within 72 hours.
With freshly laid lawns, we ask for the area not to be used for 3 weeks to allow the lawn to knit together and ‘bed in’. We also ask for you to lightly water the lawn on a regular basis to encourage even growth and a quick and healthy ‘knitting’ phase.
Please note: New turf should not be watered in the heat of the day. It should be completed either 1st thing in the morning or in the evening.
Apples and pears Landscaping Ltd are not responsible for new turf dying off due to lack of watering.
Once the turf has been laid, we are not responsible for the turf after the 3 week period mentioned above. This includes for leatherjackets, lack of care including under/over watering and any pets using it as a toilet.
If for any reason you were to have concerns that the turf was infected with leather jackets(these are the eggs of crane flies) or a form of termite, please do let us know with immediate effect. Termites tend to live deep in soil, and form ‘mud tunnels’ therefore they usually would come after we have laid the turf, as we always dig new lawn areas deep and supply a layer of new grade A topsoil.
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9. Service Calls
If you have booked Apples and Pears LTD to install a patio or provide cement or brick work for you, the work must not be walked on, sat on, or used for at least 48 hours after it has been laid. If you choose to do so, after our contractors have left site, there is a very high chance that you will disturb the work.
In particular, in the case of paviours, the result of this is that the cement may not stick, or you can cause damage to the sub-base, cement or grout work which can cause movement and damage. This, in turn, may cause a paviour to rock and become unstable, resulting in the paviour needing to be re-laid. However, this is something that the customer then becomes liable for.
Please Note: This does include children and pets.
After we have completed a patio installation, on rare occasions, where the area is quite vast, it may be necessary for us to re-lay between 1-3 paviours. This is due to the suction of the cement to the under face of the paviour.
All our customers are given a 14-day period to make us aware of any issues regarding the paviours or brick work.
Apples and Pears LTD will provide one service call, at a cost to ourselves.
If you find that you require a service call, please get in contact with our Office team, within 14 days, on 07704 160612 or email enquiries@applesandpearsltd.co.uk.
If a second service call is required, this will be at an additional charge once we have discussed the matter with you.
If a service call is required after the 14 day period is up, there will be an additional charge to send an operative out to carry out the work. This will be provided via email prior to us sending an operative out to rectify the work.
Subsidence under paviours is not uncommon. If we believe that there are signs of subsidence, which have resulted in lose paviours, then we will advise you on the best way to move forward. Apples and Pears Ltd can accept no responsibility of subsidence under the paviours that have been laid. The cost of this would be payable by you, the customer, to rectify.
​10. Weather
Due to the nature of our work, we are very much weather dependent. The safety of our team is paramount to us. Therefore, due to adverse weather conditions (snow, high winds and rain, or extreme heat in summer seasons), there may be times your project has to be closed down for the day or moved by a couple of days until the weather/working circumstances improves. This can be due to customer and staff safety as well as for reasons such as we cannot lay cement in rain. Obviously, we always do our best to complete projects to our deadlines, but please be understanding that some circumstances are out of our control. Please also bear in mind, if the weather has been particularly bad the week prior to your work commencing, this may put a delay on your project commencement whilst we complete work from the previous week.
There may be times where the team have not been on site during the rain, but quite often the ground needs to dry out after the rain, so work may not recommence immediately.​​
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11. Force Majeure
In the event of "Force Majeure", neither party shall be in breach of this agreement or otherwise liable for any failure to fulfill its obligations if such failure results from events, circumstances or causes beyond its reasonable control.
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12. Unforeseen circumstance
Apples and Pears always aim to stay as competitively priced as we can. On odd occasions when we start digging footings and various other items, we can unearth unexpected circumstances such as drainage works or hidden concrete footings underground that may require addressing. If this is the case, we will always contact you with an email or call to inform you if an additional cost will apply. Please note this doesn’t happen often but on the occasion it does, we will notify you straight away.
13. Additional work
If you request additional work to be completed or any changes to our original quote for your project, this must be confirmed through our Director, Tim Murphy, before it can be completed. This is to ensure we have the correct measurements, budget and plan, orders and supplies to complete your project on time. Any changes will be confirmed in writing from our administration team, and we will request a confirmation email from you to confirm progress.
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14. Jet Washing
We understand that you have spent a considerable amount of money on your new garden area and you want it to be kept clean and tidy. Should you choose to jet wash your patio or decking area and you use a high pressured jet washer, you will run the risk of damaging your grouted areas, or should you have chosen IRO decking, you run the risk of damaging the colouring. This is done so at your own risk and Apples and Pears have no responsibility for any damage that this may cause.
15. Snagging
On completion of your project, we will take pride in showing you the completed project and will ask you to confirm you are happy with the completion of the work before we leave site. If there are any snags that require addressing after this date, please ensure you contact us within 14 days of completion to arrange a service call on our admin email.
Any snagging not discussed within the 14 day cooling off period, may not be covered by your original quote.
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16. Suppliers
Apples and Pears work with with several local landscaping companies to supply your materials. We may ask you to visit one to choose your paving or decorative stone, if required. This provides you with a good opportunity to see the products and enable you to choose your preferred design.
Please Note: Apples and Pears do not hold accounts with suppliers and everything is purchased on a pay as you go basis. This is why our interim payment plans are so important, particularly on larger jobs, so we can ensure your materials are readily available to carryout your work and our team members are paid every week.
17. Marketing
We do take photos of projects and use these as marketing on our Facebook page and other resources. Please confirm in your booking email if you do not wish for this to happen.
We also really appreciate your custom and support. If you would like to leave us a review on our Facebook page, we would be extremely grateful.
If you have received a discount leaflet or would like to take up an offer being advertised on our social media, please let our team know on your initial enquiry. This will then be added to your quote. If we are not informed, the discount will not be removed once we have quoted.
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Apples and Pears reserve the right to amend or change our Terms and Conditions at any point.
Contacts you will need to know:
Customer service/ Project bookings / Enquiries/Accounts - Gill Jenkins
enquiries@applesandpearsltd.co.uk
​077014 160 612​
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​​Tim Murphy - Director
07715 678 772
Should you wish to send an email to Tim, please do so via the enquiries email above.
Please Note: Tim is out on site every day or driving between projects and often cannot answer calls. Please feel free to email or call our administration team who will be pleased to help with any questions or queries for you.