Terms of Use
Little Chimney Ltd
1. Introduction
These terms of use set out in this document, together with the terms of our privacy policy as set out in section 6 (Privacy), set out the rules which cover our relationship with you in relation to the Services ("Terms of Use"). These Terms of Use apply to you if you use our Services and are legally binding so please read them. You may also want to print them out or save them on your device in case you ever want to come back to them in the future.
Please remember that these Terms of Use are not a complete list of all of your or our rights or responsibilities, as there might be others under general law. If you want more information about your general rights as a consumer, contact a consumer advice organisation, such as the Citizens' Advice Bureau.
The Services are provided to you subject to these Terms of Use. By using the Services, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree with these Terms of Use, you must not use the Services.
2. Who are we?
We are Little Chimney Limited (also referred to in these terms as "us", "we" or "our"), a company registered in England and Wales with Company No: 13346445 and having its registered address at 14 North Street, Bourne, England, PE10 9AB.
3. Our Services
Through our website (www.chimnie.co.uk) ("Website"), we provide a number of services including:
- allowing owners of property to list their properties within our off-market inventory of real estate profiles which provides access to buyers searching for their dream home and provide sellers a platform to sell their home without the inconvenience of listing through regular classifieds; and
- social networking functionality which allows validated users to:
- connect and communicate with Subscribers on the Website; and/or
- receive updates: (i) relating to properties that are in and/or close to their local area; and (ii) on properties that you have "favourited" through your use of the Website (e.g. notified of that property being put up for sale or a closing date being added to the property).
If you as a user have found your dream home on Chimnie and you want to make an offer or request a viewing, but you cannot connect or communicate with the home owner since he/she has not joined our platform, Chimnie enables you to send a physical postcard to the home owner (via Scribeless). You decide about the information you wish to include in the postcard, for example any contact details, any possible offers you want to make and so on. You will be responsible for the information you share via the postcards and Chimnie will be indemnified for any violations. Since you will be triggering the sending of the postcards, you will also be responsible for any costs associated with this service.
(together the "Services", each user of the Services being a "Subscriber").
We are not an estate agency. The Chimnie Platform is not created and will not be used for buying and/or selling houses. It is created solely for the purpose of research and communication.
We are aware that buying a property is one of life's biggest purchases, so it is important you plan accordingly, especially when it comes to your finances. If you wish to receive advice on any personal circumstances, Chimnie can introduce you to a range of independent financial advisers (IFAs) who can assist when you are ready to take the plunge. Although every user on Chimnie will be assigned a financial assistant, whose job is to set up intro meetings for IFAs, Chimnie cannot offer you financial advice, and we make no representations about the suitability of the advice any IFAs we introduce you to gives to you. We may be paid a fee by any Independent Financial Adviser we introduce you to. We will be requesting that you provide us your phone number if you wish to be contacted by an IFA. Please be aware that IFAs will be providing their own services, they will take account of your personal circumstances. We take no responsibility for the advice they give.
In providing the Services, we do not provide any legal, accounting and/or tax advice and do not guarantee that by listing your property within the Services that you will receive interest in or an offer for your property or that your property will sell for a particular price. Where you receive or make an offer through the Services for a property, the sale and completion of the legal documentation in order to finalise such sale will be completed separately and you will both need to appoint a solicitor to support you in finalising any legal documentation in respect of the sale.
In providing our social networking functionality as part of the Services, we are not responsible for any content, material and/or communications shared or distributed by other users of the Website. Where we become aware of any content, material and/or communications which are shared or sent in breach of these Terms of Use, we will seek to remove this from our Services and disable the access of the applicable user distributing such content, material and/or communications.
4. Support and how to contact us
If you want to learn more about the Services or have any problems using it please take a look at our support resources.
If you have any questions relating to these Terms of Use, if you are having any trouble using the Services or if you wish to make a complaint, please contact us by emailing us at hello@chimnie.co.uk or any such other email address that we notify to you.
5. Changes to these Terms of Use and the Service
We may amend these Terms of Use from time to time, for example, to reflect changes in law, the functionality of our Website or the Services. We will, where possible, give you reasonable notice of any changes to these Terms of Use by email to the email address that you have provided to us. We are constantly updating and improving the Service to provide new features and services. To do this, we may need to update, reset, stop offering or supporting a particular part of the Service or feature, or introduce new pricing. We may also withdraw the Service for any reason, without notice, at any time and without any liability to you. You hereby accept that these changes to the Service may affect your activities on the Service, content and features used by you – you are always free to exercise your right to terminate under section 13.
Your continued use of the Services will confirm your acceptance of the revised terms or changes to the Service. Please check the Terms of Use whenever you use the Services to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.
If you do not accept the amended Terms of Use or changes to the Service, you can exercise your right to terminate under section 13 (Cancellation Rights and Termination) below.
6. Privacy
In order to ensure that a Subscriber is listing a property through our Services which they own and to avoid any fraudulent use of our Services, we undertake verification checks on any Subscriber on our Website (through our service providers Equifax and HM Land Registry). This may include a requirement on you to provide certain documents to verify your identity and ownership of the property such as a mortgage statement and/or passport. To verify your identity you can choose to provide a photograph of your driving licence, passport or international ID. To verify the ownership of the property you can choose to provide a utility bill, bank statement or government tax. We may use this information to conduct checks on the property (including the ownership information held by HM Land Registry) to verify you as the homeowner. If for any reason you fail the Equifax online verification process, Chimnie will automatically send you an email to your inbox, asking you to send us a document to prove your identity and another document to prove your ownership of the property, at hello@chimnie.co.uk. We do this as soon as possible after we have detected a failed verification in order for you to be able to process your request as soon as possible. We reserve the right to reject a listing for any reason in our sole and absolute discretion.
By signing up and verifying the home address on our platform, the user grants permission for their home's profile (and all relevant information) to be used in advertising and promotions. This could include the use of images and descriptions.
We won't share your sign up information and details with our partners without your permission.
Whether you are a Subscriber or potential buyer, under data protection legislation, we are required to provide you with certain information about who we are, how we process your personal data (including any information we obtain from you as part of verifying your identity and ownership of the property) and for what purposes and your rights in relation to your personal data and how to exercise them. This information is provided in our privacy policy and it is important that you read that information.
Please be aware that internet transmissions are never completely private or secure and that any message or information you send through the Services may be read or intercepted by others, even if there is a special notice that a particular transmission is encrypted.
7. Payment
Please read the provisions of this section carefully as they set out how fees may be payable in connection with the Services.
Monthly Payment
You have the option to increase the visibility of your property on the Website by paying an optional monthly amount ("Monthly Payment"). You can choose the amount that you wish to pay and can cancel the Monthly Payment at any time prior to the subsequent payment date.
The higher the Monthly Payment that you make then the higher your properties will be placed within the property search results in any spotlight (search radius) in which a home appears. The property of a Subscribers that make a Monthly Payment will be placed higher in property search results than a Subscriber that does not make a Monthly Payment. Subscriptions will be applied to any properties for which you have verified your ownership.
The search position boosts from Subscriptions are applied on a best effort basis. Whilst every effort will be made to maintain integrity in our uptime and the sorting of search results, we provide these functions without guarantee and will not be liable for any malfunction affecting provision of these features.
The Monthly Payment shall be in British pounds sterling and shall include VAT.
8. Acceptable use and licence restrictions
You agree that you are solely responsible for any costs and expenses you may incur in relation to your use of the Services.
You agree that you will:
- not rent, lease, sub-license, loan, provide, or otherwise make available, the Services in any form, in whole or in part to any person without prior written consent from us;
- not copy the Services or Website except as part of the normal use of the Services or Website or where it is necessary for the purpose of back-up or operational security;
- not translate, merge, adapt, vary, alter or modify, the whole or any part of the Services or the Website nor permit the Services or the Website or any part of it to be combined with, or become incorporated in, any other programs, except as necessary to use the Services or Website on devices as permitted in these terms;
- not disassemble, de-compile, reverse engineer or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Services or Website nor attempt to do any such things, except solely to the extent such actions cannot be prohibited by law;
- comply with all applicable technology control or export laws and regulations that apply to the technology used or supported by the Services or Website; and
- not remove, alter, or obscure any copyright, trade mark or other proprietary notices appearing in or on the Services or Website.
You may only use the Services and Website for lawful purposes. You must not access or use the Services or Website (or any of the services, products or content made available through the Services or Website):
- in any unlawful manner, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with these Terms of Use, or act fraudulently or maliciously, for example, by hacking into or inserting malicious code, such as viruses, or harmful data, into the Services or Website or any operating system;
- in a way that infringes our intellectual property rights or those of any third party in relation to your use of the Services or Website (to the extent that such use is not licensed by these Terms of Use);
- to transmit any material, content and/or communications that are defamatory, obscene, inflammatory, unlawful, offensive or otherwise objectionable in relation to your use of the Services or Website (as we in our absolute discretion may decide), nor use the Service to send junk, spam, or repetitive messages;
- in a way that would harass, harm or cause distress to any other user of the Website;
- in a way that could damage, disable, overburden, impair or compromise our systems or security or interfere with other users;
- to collect, scrape or harvest any information or data from the Services or Website or our systems or attempt to decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running the Services or Website;
- to access or interfere with another user's account or information, impersonate another person or create or use a false identity or contact details
- with the aim of diverting Subscribers or users away from our Website; or
- in any way that is not authorised by us or is detrimental to us or our third party service providers.
Any breach of the above could, without limitation, result in the immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our Service, the removal of your Content, legal action against you including proceedings for the reimbursement of all costs resulting from such breach and/or disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities where we deem appropriate.
If you think that a user is infringing your rights by posting Content, then any person may send us an "Infringement Notice" by emailing us at hello@chimnie.co.uk, setting us your name and contact details, a statement why you consider that such content infringes your rights or does not comply with the above rules and a link to the content at issue. We will respond to such notices within a reasonable timeframe and investigate such complaints.
9. Your Account as a Subscriber
Where you own property and wish to list it through our Services or are a buyer looking to purchase a property and communicate with a seller, you must register and subscribe to the Services through our Website ("Subscriber"). As a Subscriber, you will be able to:
- list your property within our off-market inventory which will become available to view for potential buyers that access our Website
- communicate with Subscribers as the Service allows, and
- pay a Monthly Payment (as more fully detailed in section 7 (Payment) above) should you wish to increase the visibility of your property in property search results on the Website.
In subscribing to our Services, we will need to verify that you own the property that you are seeking to list through our Services. Therefore, we will need to obtain certain verification information from you as more fully detailed in section 6 (Privacy) above.
You can only register as a selling Subscriber if you own a property and the property is located in the United Kingdom.
Registering false contact information of any kind may result in the suspension or termination of your account and access to the Services in accordance with section 14 of these Terms of Use.
You may only use and access the Services on your own behalf and not on behalf of anyone else. Please ask them to sign up on their own behalf if they wish to use the Services.
Your registered account details (including your username and password) are confidential. You must not disclose this information to any third party. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other action taken in connection with your account. You must immediately notify us of any unauthorised use of your account or any other breaches of security.
10. Intellectual Property
All intellectual property rights in the Services and the Website throughout the world belong to us (or our licensors). You have no intellectual property rights in, or to, the Services and the Website other than the right to use them in accordance with these Terms of Use.
You licence us on a worldwide, royalty free, irrevocable and perpetual basis to use any information, data or other content ("Content") you provide to us through the Services and the Website or that we obtain or receive on your behalf and you agree that we can use, modify, display, distribute and create new material using the Content so that we may provide you with the Services so that we may promote our Service and for any other purposes in connection with the operation of our business (subject always to the Privacy Policy).
By submitting Content, you confirm and agree that the owner of that Content has expressly agreed that, without any particular time limit, and without the payment of any fees, we may use the Content for the purposes set out in these Terms of Use.
11. Liability Disclaimer
Please read the provisions of this section carefully as they exclude or limit our liability for any losses suffered by you in connection with your use of the Services and Website.
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 or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
We are responsible to you for foreseeable loss and damage caused by us. If we fail to comply with these Terms of Use, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these Terms of Use or our failing to use reasonable care and skill, but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time you accepted these Terms of Use, both we and you knew it might happen. We will never be responsible for any financial or business loss, or loss of goodwill or reputation. You alone decide whether to proceed with a sale or purchase of a property with a party with whom you have connected via the Service. We make no commitments in relation to properties listed on the Service, or information related thereto.
We take no responsibility for the advice that any IFAs gives to you. They will provide their own services by taking account of your personal circumstances and advising accordingly.
Please back-up content and data used with the Services. We recommend that you back up any content and data used in connection with the Services, to protect yourself in case of problems with the Services.
We do not accept any liability for loss of your password or account ID caused by a breakdown, error, loss of power or otherwise caused by or to your computer system.
We are not responsible for events outside our control. If our provision of the Services is delayed by an event outside our control then we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay. Provided we do this we will not be liable for delays caused by the event but if there is a risk of substantial delay you may contact us to end your contract with us.
Although we intend the Service to be available as much as possible, there might be times when the Service is interrupted, or down, so we may carry out upgrades or repairs, or where there is a security risk. The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We don't promise that the Service is error free.
Nothing in these Terms of Use affect your statutory rights. You may also have other rights in law.
12. We are not responsible for third party websites
The Services may contain links to independent third-party websites which are not provided by us. These independent sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for and have not checked and approved their content of their privacy policies (if any). You will need to make your own independent judgement about whether to use such independent sites, including whether to buy any products or services offered by them.
We make no representation or commitment and shall have no liability or obligation whatsoever in relation to the content or use of, or correspondence with, any such third-party website, or any transactions completed, and any contract entered into by you, with any such third party.
Furthermore, this Website contains data provided by third parties and we accept no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this material. You agree to release us from claims or disputes of any kind arising from or in any way connected to such disputes with third parties.
Sellers must provide accurate description of their properties. Property descriptions that do not accurately describe your properties can mislead buyers. Chimnie takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any false content provided by its users.
13. Your Termination Rights
Termination for Convenience: If you no longer wish to use the Services, you can terminate these Terms of Use at any time by providing us with ten (10) days' notice by emailing hello@chimnie.co.uk and we will remove you access to the Services on expiry of this notice period. We will normally remove access to your account within two (2) days of the date of expiry of the ten (10) day notice period and at that time your property will be removed from our off-market inventory. Please note that once deleted, your account cannot be recovered.
14. We may end your rights to use the Services if you break these terms and request you cover our expenses
We may end your rights to use the Services at any time by contacting you if you have broken these Terms of Use in a serious way. For example, if you breach the terms of section 8 (Acceptable use and licence restrictions) or provide us with false or misleading information as part of our verification checks. We will always tell you why we are ending your rights to use the Services as part of our notification to you.
If what you have done can be put right we will give you a reasonable opportunity to do so before we end your rights to use the Services.
If we end your rights to use the Services you must stop all activities authorised by these Terms of Use, including your use of the Services.
If we are sued due to an action or inaction by you (including a breach of these Terms of Use), then you agree you will, upon our request, cover all fees incurred by us as a result of such action, inaction and/or breach of these Terms of Use. If we conduct a defence of any claim brought by a third party, then you agree to assist us as reasonably requested.
15. We may transfer these Terms of Use to someone else
We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms of Use 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 these Terms of Use.
16. You need our consent to transfer your rights to someone else
You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these Terms of Use to another person if we agree in writing.
17. If a court finds part of these Terms of Use illegal, the rest will continue in force
Each of the sections of these Terms of Use operate separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining sections will remain in full force and effect.
18. If we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later
Even if we delay in enforcing these Terms of Use, we can still enforce it later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these Terms of Use, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breach of these Terms of Use, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.
19. Notices
You agree that any notices and other communication may be given by us by email and this will comply with any legal requirement for such communications to be in writing. You also agree that any notice or other communication made in such manner will be deemed received by you 24 hours after the email is sent to you.
You must notify us as soon as possible if your email address changes.
20. Website Availability-Minors
The services of the website are intended only for adults over the age of eighteen (18) years or for minors who have limited legal capacity. Minors are expressly forbidden to use the website and adults are legally obliged to protect them. However, if minors (under eighteen (18) years of age) use services of the website, the company bears no responsibility for their exposure to content, or for any other use of the website.
21. Which laws apply to this contract and where you may bring legal proceedings
These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of England and Wales and you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the Services in the English and Welsh courts.
If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the Services in either the Scottish or the English and Welsh courts. If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the Services in either the Northern Irish or the English and Welsh courts.
Disclaimer: Chimnie is not responsible for inaccuracies in descriptions. Buyers should always verify listing details independently.
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