GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Effective Date: 20th February 2013
1. Introduction
1.1 This website is owned and operated by Direct Villas UK Limited. We are registered in the UK (technically “England & Wales”) under number 6009413. Our registered office is at Newham House, Dudley Road, Darlington DL1 4GG. Our trading address is Newham House, Dudley Road, Darlington DL1 4GG. Our other contact details are specified on our website.
1.2 Please read these terms and conditions carefully. They cancel and replace any previous versions. By registering on or using this website you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. The General Terms and Conditions apply to all Users. The Advertiser Addendum (at the end of these terms and conditions) applies to Advertisers only.
2. Definitions
2.1.1 “Advertisement” means a property listing or other advertisement on our Service.
2.1.2 “Advertiser” means a User who places an Advertisement on our Service.
2.1.3 “Content” means all information of whatever kind (including Advertisements and customer reviews) published or sent by Users on or in connection with our Service.
2.1.4 “Service” means both our website and our related software and services.
2.1.5 “User” means a person who uses our Service (whether or not registered with us) including Advertisers.
3. Changes to the terms and conditions
3.1 We may change these terms and conditions by posting the revised version on our website for a reasonable period before they become effective. Please check our website from time to time. You will be bound by the revised agreement if you continue to use our Service following the effective date shown.
4. Use of our Service – applicable to all Users
4.1 We grant Users a limited personal right to use our Service subject to these terms and conditions.
4.2 You are not eligible for, and must not use or register on, our Service if you are below the legal age to contract with us or if display of or access to the material contained on this Service is illegal under the laws (if applicable) of the country from which you are accessing the Service (eg because the country does not permit such a Service or display of or access to such material at all or because you are under the relevant age limit in that country).
4.3 Where you communicate with us on behalf of a company / organisation, you promise that you have authority to act on behalf of that entity.
4.4 If you are a property-seeker, please note that any contract for the rental of a property or other transaction advertised on our Service is between you and the Advertiser concerned. We may provide tools to facilitate a transaction but we are not a party to that contract.
4.5 We do not verify Advertisements. Nor do we accept legal responsibility for the accuracy of, or otherwise in relation to, any Advertisement or in connection with any consequent communications or transactions. Before acting on such information, you must make your own appropriate and careful enquiries including as to its accuracy and suitability for your purposes. You rely on such information at your own risk.
4.6 Any content which we ourselves make available on our Service (such as buyers’ guides) is intended for very general guidance but we cannot guarantee that it is accurate or up to date and we do not accept legal responsibility for it. Again, before acting on such information, you must make your own appropriate and careful enquiries including as to its accuracy and suitability for your purposes. You rely on such information at your own risk.
4.7 You are responsible for your Advertisements, customer reviews and other Content. You must ensure that such information is accurate and up to date, not misleading, complies with all applicable laws, regulations and codes of conduct and does not infringe any third party intellectual property or other rights. Also, the Content must not be defamatory, offensive, vulgar, racist, abusive, invasive of another’s privacy or similarly inappropriate.
4.8 We reserve the right without notice or refund to reject, suspend, alter, remove or delete Content or to disclose to the relevant authorities any Content if it is the subject of complaint or where we have reasonable grounds for believing that it breaches our terms and conditions, or that such steps are necessary to protect us or others, or that a criminal act has been committed, or if we are required to do so by law or appropriate authority. If so, you must not attempt to re-publish or re-send the relevant Content.
4.9 You must notify us immediately if you become aware of any inappropriate Content or inappropriate behaviour by any User. You can do this by emailing info@directvillasuk.com or by clicking on the “Contact Us” link located prominently on our Service.
4.10 You agree that you will not in connection with the Service:
4.10.1 collect or harvest any personal data (ie information enabling someone to be identified or contacted);
4.10.2 publish or provide to us personal data of another person (ie information enabling someone to be identified or contacted) unless that person is 18 years or over and you have obtained that person’s explicit written consent;
4.10.3 sell access to the Service;
4.10.4 sell advertising, sponsorship or promotions on or in connection with Content except where explicitly authorized by us;
4.10.5 access or distribute Content or any other part of the Service other than through functionality explicitly authorised by us and, if we do so authorise, you must not modify such functionality including any links back to our Service; or
4.10.6 attempt, encourage or assist any of the above.
4.11 You must comply with any guidelines or requirements on our website. You must promptly comply with any reasonable request or instruction by us in connection with the Service.
4.12 You must ensure that all contact and payment information (eg email and postal addresses, credit card numbers) which you provide is accurate and not misleading and that you will update it so that it remains so.
4.13 Your account is for use only by the entity using our Service and is non-transferable. You must not authorise or permit any other person to use your account. You must ensure that your users take reasonable care to protect and keep confidential their passwords and other account or identity information. You must notify us immediately of any apparent breach of security such as loss, theft, misuse or unauthorised disclosure or use of a password. In such case you should also immediately amend your password via our Service. You are responsible for third parties who use your account or identity (unless and to the extent that we are at fault).
5. Cancellation
5.1 We may at any time without cause immediately cancel your agreement with us including your right to use of our Service. If so, we will refund in full any fees already paid for the period in respect of which we take such a step.
5.2 We may at any time cancel this agreement (giving notice by email to the extent reasonably practicable) if you have breached our terms and conditions or, acting reasonably, we consider that it is necessary to protect us or others or if we are required to do so by law or appropriate authority. In such case, there will be no refund of any fees.
5.3 Following cancellation or termination of this agreement, your registration for and right to use our Service are terminated. All clauses in this agreement which are stated or intended to continue after cancellation will continue to apply.
5.4 You must not attempt to re-register for or continue to use our Service if we have given you notice of cancellation.
6. Functioning of our Service
6.1 We cannot guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. We will use reasonable endeavours to rectify faults if they occur.
6.2 We are entitled, without notice and without liability, to suspend the Service for repair, maintenance, improvement or other technical reason. If so, we will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the suspension takes place at a time when our Service is least likely to be used and that the suspension is for the shortest period possible.
6.3 We are entitled to make changes to the Service.
7. Third party websites
7.1 We may link to third party websites which may be of interest to you. We do not recommend or endorse those sites or the products or services which they offer nor are we legally responsible for them as they are outside our reasonable control. You use such third party sites at your own risk.
8. Intellectual property rights
8.1 All trade marks, logos, content (including our website’s structure and layout), graphics, images, photographs, animation, videos, text and software used on the Service are our intellectual property or that of our partners or Advertisers. For the purposes of your personal use only, you may view such content on your screen and print a single copy. You may not otherwise retrieve, display, modify, copy, print, sell, download, create derivative works from, hire or reverse engineer (unless permitted by applicable law) or use such content without our specific prior written consent.
8.2 If you publish any Content on our Service, you grant us a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable (with right to sub-licence), royalty-free licence to use, copy, alter, display, sublicence and create derivative works from that Content in any media formats, including for the purpose of redistribution or promotion of our Service. You waive your moral rights in relation to such content to the extent legally permitted. You grant each User a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use your Content to the extent permitted by the functionality of the Service and these terms and conditions.
9. Liability etc
9.1 Nothing in this agreement in any way limits or excludes our liability for negligence causing death or personal injury or for fraudulent misrepresentation or for anything which may not legally be excluded or limited.
9.2 You must give us a reasonable opportunity to remedy any matter for which we are potentially liable before you incur any costs remedying the matter yourself.
9.3 Very important: If you are a consumer (ie not acting in the course of a business), we shall not be liable for any loss or damage caused by us or our employees or agents in circumstances where:
9.3.1 there is no breach of a legal duty of care owed to you by us or by any of our employees or agents;
9.3.2 such loss or damage is not a reasonably foreseeable result of any such breach;
9.3.3 such loss or damage is caused by you, for example by not complying with this agreement; or
9.3.4 such loss or damage relates to a business.
9.4 Very important: If you are a consumer (ie not acting in the course of a business), you will be liable for any reasonably foreseeable loss or damage we suffer arising from your breach of this agreement or misuse of our Service (subject of course to our obligation to mitigate any losses).
9.5 The following clauses apply only if you are a business (including Advertisers):
9.5.1 To the extent allowed by law, you and we exclude all terms, whether imposed by statute or by law or otherwise, that are not expressly stated in this agreement.
9.5.2 Our liability of any kind (including our own negligence) with respect to our Service for any one event or series of related events is limited to the total fees payable by you in the 12 months before the event(s) complained of.
9.5.3 In no event (including our own negligence) will we be liable for any:
a) economic losses (including, without limit, loss of revenues, profits, contracts, business or anticipated savings);
b) loss of goodwill or reputation;
c) special, indirect or consequential losses; or
d) damage to or loss of data
(even if we have been advised of the possibility of such losses).
9.5.4 You will indemnify us against all claims and liabilities directly or indirectly related to your Advertisement or the advertised goods or services (if you are an advertiser) and/or breach of this agreement.
9.5.5 This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between us with respect to its subject matter and supercedes any previous communications or agreements between us. We both acknowledge that there have been no misrepresentations and that neither of us has relied on any pre-contractual statements. Liability for misrepresentation (excluding fraudulent misrepresentation) relating to the terms of this agreement is excluded.
10. “Act of God”
10.1 Neither you nor we are liable for failure to perform or delay in performing any obligation (excluding payment) under this agreement if the failure or delay is caused by any circumstances beyond your or our reasonable control (for example, outages at third party networks) . If our Service is unavailable for more than 14 days, you are entitled to cancel this agreement and obtain a refund of any subscription payment made for the period that the Service was unavailable.
11. Transfer
11.1 We may transfer all or part of our rights or duties under this agreement provided we take reasonable steps to ensure that your rights under this agreement are not prejudiced. As this agreement is personal to you, you may not transfer any of your rights or duties under it without our prior written consent.
12. English law
12.1 These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and any disputes will be decided only by the courts of the United Kingdom.
13. General
13.1 We may send all notices under this agreement by email to the most recent email address you have supplied to us (unless otherwise stated in this agreement). Headings used in this agreement are for information and not binding. Any failure by either party to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this agreement does not mean this is a “waiver” (ie that it can’t be enforced later). If any part of this agreement is ineffective or unenforceable for any reason, then it will be replaced with a provision which as far as possible achieves the same thing and the rest of the agreement shall continue to apply. A person who is not a party to this agreement shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this agreement except insofar as expressly stated otherwise.
14. Complaints
14.1 If you have any complaints, please contact us via the contact details shown on our website or write to our address shown at the start of these terms and conditions.
ADVERTISER ADDENDUM – APPLIES TO ADVERTISERS ONLY
15. Introduction
15.1 If you are an Advertiser, this Advertiser Addendum applies to you in addition to the General Terms and Conditions. In the event of any conflict, the Advertiser Addendum takes priority.
16. Your Advertisement
16.1 Do not include any Content in your Advertisement if you are concerned that it may be misused by others.
16.2 Your Advertisement must include any minimum information specified on our Service.
16.3 We reserve the right in our discretion without notice to edit the text or layout of Advertisements submitted to or posted on our Service or to locate or relocate Advertisements on our Service in order to comply with our terms and conditions and otherwise to the extent that we think fit (provided that you achieve prominence which is broadly equivalent to what we offer for your particular package).
16.4 You agree that, in connection with the Advertisement, and the supply of services which are the subject of the Advertisement, you will act in accordance with the highest industry standards and in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations and codes of conduct.
16.5 Advertisements must not include claims relating to the property which are not matters of fact. Advertisements must include any important deficiencies or defects in the property.
16.6 Only one self-contained property can appear on each Advertisement, not multiple properties (even if they are located on the same site or complex) or examples of properties. The property initially listed may not be changed without our prior written consent.
16.7 No hyperlinks or URLs may be included in the Advertisement unless they link directly to your own website advertising the property which is the subject of the Advertisement and not to any third party property listings or other website. We reserve the right to remove such material at any time if they do not comply with the foregoing requirements.
16.8 You may only use any contact information supplied by Users via our Service in connection with the property in respect of which the enquiry was made or any other property which is the subject of current Advertisement by you on the Service. You must not otherwise market to or contact Users. You must not disclose any contact information to any third party without the explicit consent of the User.
16.9 We do not guarantee that your Advertisement will generate any particular level of enquiries or revenues.
16.10 We reserve the right to irretrievably delete your Advertisement following expiration of your subscription or termination or cancellation of this agreement.
16.11 You may at any time cancel your agreement with us (including your subscription) by following the instructions on our Service. A request for cancellation under this clause does not give rise to any refund.
16.12 You must display rental rates which are applicable to your property for a 12 month period beyond the expiration date of your subscription.
16.13 The availability calendar for your Advertisement must be accurately updated to reflect the true availability of your property for rent.
17. Payment
17.1 Subscriptions can be acquired at the prices, for the periods and by the payment methods specified on our Service. Unless otherwise stated, prices exclude VAT which must be payable in addition if applicable. Payment is in advance. You are legally committed to pay from the point when we confirm your order.
17.2 We may at any time change our subscription prices. The new rate takes effect if you apply for a new subscription or renew an existing subscription after we post the new prices on our Service.
18. Refer A Friend
18.1 This section of our terms and conditions applies to any “Refer A Friend” or similar offer on our Service.
18.2 In order to participate, you must be an Advertiser with an active and fully paid subscription to our Service as at the date when you make the referral.
18.3 The offer only applies to referrals made by means of the “Refer A Friend” or similar form on our Service.
18.4 You can refer as many individuals as you wish.
18.5 The referred individual must:
18.5.1 be a new member of our Service;
18.5.2 never have advertised on our Service before;
18.5.3 mention your Villa Number (visible on the right hand side of your property listing page) in the "Promotional Code" box when registering on our Service;
18.5.4 create at least one new Advertisement; and
18.5.5 pay the fee for at least a 12 month Advertisement within 30 days of the date when the referred individual clicks on the link in the referral email.
18.6 Save as provided hereafter, for every qualifying referral (irrespective of the number of properties advertised) you will be entitled to receive a single gift as specified in the offer at the time you make the relevant referral. In the event that we do not have the relevant gift in stock or are unable to deliver it to you, we reserve the right to send you an Amazon Gift Voucher as an alternative. No cash alternatives are available.
18.7 This offer will run until whatever date is specified in conjunction with the offer.
18.8 We reserve the right to withdraw the offer at any time without notice.