Terms and Conditions

1: Architectural Services

Once appointed, it will be HOKO Design Ltd’s responsibility to fulfil the following stages as detailed in the signed Service Proposal:

Concept Design

1. Assist in defining the brief and parameters of the project.
2. Survey and model existing property in 3D.
3. Prepare initial concept design in plan and elevation for client review.
4. Gather feedback and prepare unlimited design revisions (within 3 month period).
5. Prepare 3D visuals of the concept design for client review.
6. Recommend an appropriate time for the client to commission a feasibility cost plan for the design.
7. Finalise the design.

Planning

1. Prepare information suitable for a planning application and/or listed building consent/ permitted development or equivalent.
2. Submit an application for planning permission and manage the application and correspondence with the local authority.

Building Control

Project Delivery Services HOKO Design Ltd will coordinate the Project Delivery phase, including: 

1.  Appointment and coordination of the Structural Engineer and Quantity Surveyor
2.  Preparation of the technical design and specifications
3.  Submission and management of Planning Permission and Building Warrant applications
4. Tendering of the construction package and analysis of contractor submissions 
5.  Provision of a suitable building contract for the Client to use with their chosen contractor
6.  Handover of the coordinated design and contract to enable construction to commence.”

2: Our Fees & Other Costs

1. The total Fee shall be paid as follows:  50% on signing of the Project Delivery Contract. The remaining balance payable in 5 equal monthly instalments, invoiced monthly and payable within 14 days.
2. These payments will be set up as a direct debit at the start of the project.
3. Consultant fees form part of the Project Delivery service and will be managed by HOKO on behalf of the Client unless otherwise stated in the Project Delivery Contract
4. Work will not commence until the first payment has been received.
5. If a monthly instalment payment is not received we will stop working on the project.
6. We allow for one site visit within our fees for the survey. Additional site visits will be charged at £200 + VAT per half day or £350 + VAT per full day plus subsistence as appropriate. Mileage will be charged at £1.00 + VAT per mile for additional site visits.
7. Our additional hours rate is £100 + VAT per hour. This will be applied to work that is out with the agreed architectural services listed above.
8. Additional in-office VR sessions can be arranged for £200 + VAT.
9. If you request design changes after the initial 3 month design phase or we have moved to the planning/building control phase, we will need to charge our additional hours rate.
10. Local authority fees for planning permission and building control will be paid directly by you, the client. We will advise you on how much these will be and where to pay and when. These are not included in your quote.
11. If planning is refused, we will need to charge our additional hours fee to resubmit a revised design, however we have an excellent track record of approved planning applications.
12. As Architects we cannot offer advice on aspects covered by other consultants such as but not limited to: Cost, Engineering, M&E, Planning, Fire, Acoustics, and Party Wall disputes. If we feel that you need a specialist consultant, we will make you aware of this as early as possible. We have an ongoing working relationship with several consultants that we trust to help us deliver your project, some of whom we receive a small referral fee. Costs for consultants are not included in this quote and we do not accept liability for consultant’s work or their timelines. If you have preferred consultants please let us know.
13. Our recommended external consultants require their fee to be paid before they proceed. Sometimes we receive a small referral fee from these consultants.
14. A feasibility cost plan is charged at £600 + VAT (pre-planning) and a detailed cost plan is charged at £1,000 + VAT (for tender). We strongly recommend commissioning both cost plans at the correct time as suggested by your Architect.
15. If you decide to change the scope of your brief, for example from a garage conversion to an extension, then we will discuss any additional fee that may be required.
16. Once your contractor has reviewed the drawings, if any updates are requested we will charge our additional hours rate, unless there is an error on our side.
17. All work to update drawings whilst on site will be charged at our additional hours rate.
18. If the Local Authority requires us to change the design, we will discuss this with you, this is included and no additional fee will apply.
19. If you request to postpone a planning permission application, building control application for design changes, an additional month may be charged if we are required to work during this period. If delays are out of the control of both parties the project will be paused until we can continue at no additional cost.

3: Copyright

1. As designers, we have copyright over all the material we produce. Our work cannot be submitted to anybody or reproduced without our consent.
   Once all fees have been paid in full, the client will have consent to own a copy of the licence to use solely for its intended purpose.
2. Our drawings and specifications must not be used on any other project or distributed to parties out with the design or construction team.
3. The right to the copyright and all other intellectual property in all work produced for the Client by HOKO Design Ltd under this Agreement will be the sole property of HOKO Design Ltd. Copyright and intellectual property in this context shall include but not be limited to copyright and intellectual property in all designs, layouts, drawings, specifications, statements of work, documents accompanying planning and other submissions, and all FF&E (fixtures, fittings & equipment) schedules.
4. HOKO Design Ltd may publish photographs and videos of the project which may contain the client’s image, please notify us if do not wish any such publication to take place.
   HOKO shall not be liable for the consequences of any use of any information or designs prepared by us except for the purposes for which they were provided.

4: Liability & Insurance

1. The company will work with reasonable skill and care following normal professional practice for the duration of the project.
2. HOKO Design Ltd are not liable for issues caused by drawings or other material supplied being used out with their intended purpose. For example; concept or planning drawings being used for construction. Only drawings labelled ‘for construction’ should be used for construction.
3. HOKO Design Ltd are not liable for any material provided by 3rd party consultants such as Quantity Surveyors, Structural Engineers etc.
4. HOKO Design Ltd maintains Professional Indemnity Insurance, proof can be provided on request. No employee of HOKO Design Ltd will be personally liable for any claim.
5. HOKO Design Ltd acts as the Client’s agent when appointing and coordinating consultants. Each consultant is responsible for the services they provide

5: Deadlines

1. The Project will be delivered in stages in accordance with the Project Delivery programme and statutory approval timelines. Key decisions and Client Meetings will be required at each stage to maintain progress.
2. Timescales will be confirmed by your architect, but we will aim to issue your first design within 4 weeks from survey. Design iterations afterwards will be within 2 weeks. If it is a full redesign we will let you know if additional time is required.
3. The conclusion of our active involvement in your project will be when we issue the construction set and have provided you with advice on how to select a contractor.
4. We will aim to complete all design work by the end of month 6. We can continue to work on the design with you after this point but we may need to charge our additional hours rate for any design work done after month 6.

6: Principle Designer & CDM

1. The CDM regulations are there to ensure that we are considering risks from the outset. We ensure that risks are managed from the start. We want to make sure the project can be built and maintained as safely as possible.
2. Your duties as a domestic client are to appoint a principal designer for the pre-construction phase and a principal contractor for the build phase.
3. If your property was built before 2001 we strongly recommend that you commission an asbestos survey for the areas affected by the proposal. Most contractors will ask for this to be provided at the start of the project.
4. We will consider the risks created by the design from the outset of the project and highlight any design features that could mitigate risks early on.
5. It is the principal contractor’s responsibility to manage health and safety on site. They will take all the information in our PCI file and prepare the Construction Phase Plan (CPP), which details how the work will be carried out safely on site. At the end of the build, the contractor will need to compile all the up-to-date drawings and documentation for systems and products installed on site and issue you the final health and safety file.
6. The Health and Safety file will be issued at the end of the project by the contractor. This should be kept in a safe place and referred to should you carry out any future works to the property, or should you sell the property, it should be given to the new owner.
7. If you have a pre-existing health and safety file for your property, you must provide this to us at the outset of the project.

7: Complaints

1. HOKO Design Ltd. aim to provide a professional standard of service, but if at any time you are not satisfied, please bring the issue to our attention as soon as possible and we can discuss how to resolve the issue. Use the email hello@hokodesign.com.
2. If you wish to make a formal complaint please request our complaints procedure and this will be sent to you.
3. If you wish to raise a dispute with HOKO Design Ltd, we request that this is done informally in the first instance. If an agreement cannot be made, we will make a recommendation for Mediation and as a last resort for Adjudication.
4. We appreciate feedback and hope you will be forthcoming with any comments on how we can make our service better.
5. HOKO Design Ltd will perform obligations under this agreement with reasonable skill and care, and in conformity with the normal standards of the profession. For projects agreed for Planning Permission and Building Control, only the client is responsible for all matters relating to the project management and construction. HOKO Design ltd will act as the client’s agent to the local authority, as such the client must not make contact with the local authority without the prior permission of HOKO Design Ltd. Client intervention can cause delay and problems and shall be viewed as a cause for termination of the contract.

8: Stopping Or Pausing

1. Should you decide to pause your project, we can suspend your project for up to 3 months.
2. If you decide not to progress with your project and/or if you are unresponsive to multiple attempts at communication, we will assume you no longer wish to proceed and we will terminate our service agreement. If the project is terminated, fees shall be payable in accordance with the staged payment schedule for the Project Delivery phase and in proportion to services completed up to the termination date.
3. Under certain circumstances and at the discretion of a Director at HOKO Design Ltd, we can consider terminating the service agreement without any additional fees being issued. However, any work undertaken to that point may still be required to be paid.

9: HOKO Shop

1. HOKO Shop is our interior design service, it is a separate company (SC53150) working in tandem with HOKO Design Ltd in your project delivery.
2. You will require a full interior schedule to issue your tender but we recognise that most homeowners do not have the time, experience or skill to source, design and decorate their interior spaces.
3. HOKO Shop is an interior design service which runs alongside HOKO Design’s service and is charged per room. We will issue you with a quote for your project based on the rooms that you would like interior design input.
4. Payment for HOKO Shop’s design fee will be required upfront before any work will commence.
5. Our design fee includes your initial interior design package and up to two revisions.
6. Any work outside this scope of work will be charged as additional hours at a rate of £100 + VAT per hour. We will discuss this with you before any additional work is done.
7. HOKO Shop retains a right to amend or cancel your order. Our supplier agreement means we try to keep product prices fixed. However, in some circumstances, they might change for reasons out of our control. We reserve the right to adjust the prices of any products due to fluctuation in rates. We will notify you of any price changes and will offer alternatives accordingly.
8. Images of products are taken from supplier websites. The colour of products that are delivered to you may, therefore, vary slightly from the images displayed on your computer.
9. Product pricing excludes any applicable delivery and installation costs, which will be added to the price of the products and set out as part of the total amount due.
10. HOKO Shop’s Interior design service can only supply items from our suppliers. if there are any items that you do not require please inform us before you begin the design process.
11. One initial meeting will be scheduled with our interior designer. This will allow for enough revisions to your package until you are happy to proceed with the order. One final meeting will be arranged to finalise the product list ahead of delivery. Any other meetings requested will be billed at a rate of £100/hour. Delays in confirming your interior package may also delay your tender being issued to contractors.
12. We will refer you to our kitchen suppliers. We have built trusted relationships with them and will issue detailed floor plans to them. We cannot be held accountable for any issues beyond the introduction.
13. It is your duty as the client to notify us of any issues with the products delivered, we advise checking the items before signing for the delivery.
14. We cannot order any items until you pay the master list.
15. Product lead times can change, for example, if a brand takes longer than expected to manufacture a product and will be confirmed once your order is accepted by the supplier(s). Where a lead time stated within the order process changes, we will endeavour to communicate these to you.
16. The products will be your responsibility and all risk in relation to them will pass to you from the time when the products are delivered to you. It is your duty to store the products safely.
17. We cannot accept any returns, refunds or exchanges unless the product is damaged or faulty upon delivery, in which we can return it to the sender.
18. It is the client/contractor’s duty to inform us of the date that each product is required. We cannot guarantee delivery will be made on the date but we will endeavour for the products to be delivered ahead of the date supplied.
19. Sanitary ware and bespoke joinery sizes need to be confirmed by the client/contractor post strip out and all turn out sizes can be measured accurately.
20. We can show design intent for internal doors and ironmongery, but these will be supplied by client/contractor.
21. Any joinery, balustrades or handrails are to show the overall design intent only and it is the contractors responsibility to build in a robust and safe manner. Balustrade design should be finalised with an engineer.
22. For calculating areas for flooring and tiling, it is your responsibility to tell us the exact locations (e.g. under units, on stairs) You must notify us of any additional areas that are not shown on the plan that you require flooring or tiles for before we place the order.
23. For flooring and tiling, 10% will be added to the required quantity to account for wastage. Any leftover product should be retained by yourself for future use and will not be returned to the supplier.
24. Any left-over paint cannot be returned and it is advised to retain this for future use.

10: Terms & Conditions

1. You are responsible for checking your deeds to ensure that there is nothing there that prohibits you from doing the works proposed to your property. Check this with your factor (if there is one) and/or a solicitor. If your property is leasehold, there may also be restrictions placed by the leaseholder so please also check this. If you have a share of freehold you may need to apply for a license to alter or freeholder consent.
2. You must ensure that you adhere to your duties under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 if you are in England or Wales. This act does not currently apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland but it is advisable to notify any neighbours that you are building near or on the boundary to keep them on your side throughout the process.
3. You are responsible for commissioning any required ecological surveys. If there is any evidence of a bat roost you will need to commission a bat roost assessment. If the proposals will affect any other protected species, you will need to seek advice from a specialist. Equally if you are building near trees covered by a tree protection order it is your responsibility to commission a tree survey.
4. If you are building over or near a public sewer, you may need to apply for a build-over agreement. Contact your local water authority for further advice.
5. We cannot control local authority timescales or those of other consultants. Should any delays occur, we will inform you as soon as possible.
6. It is the advice of HOKO Design Ltd. that clients should wait until Planning Permission is obtained before applying for the Building Control Consent.
7. We cannot guarantee that planning permission will be granted. If the project proceeds to building control during a live application this is at the clients own risk. If the project is deemed to be of high risk of refusal, your Architect will make you aware of this.
8. The contractor is responsible for accurately measuring the site and checking these measurements against the Architect’s drawings. Only Construction stage material should be used for construction purposes, using material from any other stage is at your own risk. Dimensions on our drawings are indicative and all turn out sizes need to be checked on site by the contractor as sizes may vary once the strip out has been completed.
9. We do not recommend giving your concept/planning/building control drawings to a builder to get started. It is also an offence to start work without the necessary paperwork.
10. If your Architect leaves HOKO Design Ltd an interim Architect will take responsibility for your project until a replacement can be found.
11. HOKO Design Ltd provides technical design, statutory approvals, consultant coordination, tendering and building contract preparation services. The appointed contractor is responsible for managing the construction works on site.
12. Either party may terminate this agreement at any time by giving written notice of 1 month .Remaining fees due are detailed in section 8.0 previous.
13. By proceeding with this agreement, you agree to receive further information that may be useful, you can unsubscribe at any time.
14. By proceeding with this agreement, you acknowledge that we may use material associated with your project on our social media and online. Please write to us if you do not wish for this material to be shared.
15. If you are commissioning our services part way through a project you must ensure that all previous Architect fees have been paid in full.
16. HOKO Design Ltd are not responsible for the work of the contractor.
17. By paying the first invoice you are confirming you have read and understood the terms outlined in this document
18. We reserve the right to change our T&Cs and we will notify you once any changes have been made.
19.  Contract Priority: Where a Project Delivery Contract has been signed, the terms of that contract shall take precedence over these website Terms & Conditions in the event of any inconsistency.
20. HOKO Design Ltd will provide a building contract template for use between the Client and the selected contractor. HOKO Design Ltd is not a party to that building contract.

11: What We’re Expecting From You

1. Our working relationship with you is incredibly important. We expect that you will trust our judgement and work alongside us to deliver a successful project.
2. If at any point you feel unhappy with anything, we expect you to make us aware of this and give us the opportunity discuss solutions.
3. We expect that you are clear with your brief and respond within a reasonable timeframe to design revisions (10 days) so we can maintain progress with your project.
4. We expect that you will have questions throughout the process and hope you will ask these openly.
5. We hope that you understand that this is a creative process and requires honesty, clarity and teamwork from both sides.
6. You must let us know if you are in a conservation area, your building is listed or if there are any other constraints applied to your property.

12: What You Can Expect From Us

1. Our full commitment to see your project through to a positive conclusion.
2. An experienced team that can resource a solution to almost every problem your project encounters.
3. Good communication and time management.
4. Creative ideas that align with your brief.
5. Fun and professionalism!