Terms and Conditions

Contract

  1. These Conditions of Sale shall constitute the whole of the contract between you, the Customer, and The James Hutton Institute (‘us’) with respect to the services or products detailed in any order, acknowledgement of order, delivery note and/or invoice which shall apply to the exclusion of any other terms or conditions.
  2. Delivery of samples by you to the James Hutton Institute, for analysis or for any purpose, shall be deemed to constitute acceptance of these Conditions of Sale. The James Hutton Institute will only accept samples for analysis or other work on the basis of these Conditions of Sale shall apply to the exclusion of any other terms or conditions.
  3. Subject to clause 9 below, acceptance by you of our sample kit will be deemed as acceptance of the services provided by us and we will charge you for the sample kit and the related services even if you do not subsequently return any samples to us for analysis.
  4. Due to the restricted cost of our analytical services we cannot enter into any protracted correspondence on any reports or analysis provided, or provide advice on the management of soil or crops.

Prices

  1. Services or products will be invoiced at the price ruling at the time of the receipt of orders or the receipt of samples, whichever is later, unless as otherwise agreed in writing.
  2. Prices quoted are net of VAT and any government duty, levy or tax applicable, which will be charged at the appropriate rate ruling at the time of despatch of the services or products.

Delivery

  1. All times and dates for delivery or completion of services are given as a best estimate and are approximate only and shall not be the essence of the contract. We will not be liable for any loss or damage resulting from any delay howsoever caused and you shall not be entitled to rescind or avoid the contract by reason of any such delay.
  2. Unless excluded by our acknowledgement of order we may deliver goods to you by instalments and invoice accordingly.
  3. We may refuse to deliver further services or products if any of our invoices for any services or products are not paid in full, within the terms stipulated in clause 5.

Loss or damage in transit and cost of postage

  1. We can accept no liability for damage, shortage or loss in transit of samples sent to us.
  2. It is your responsibility to ensure that all samples are correctly packaged and we will not be liable for any delivery costs in excess of cost of postage provided by us.
  3. Proof of posting will not be accepted as proof of receipt by the James Hutton Institute.

Payment

  1. Payment for services or products supplied shall become due 30 days from the date of invoice for the services or products.
     
  2. Interest will be charged on outstanding sums at a rate of 4% above the base rate (as varied from time to time) of Clydesdale Bank plc and shall be calculated on a day-to-day basis from the date payment becomes due to the date payment is received and shall apply both before and after any judgment.
     
  3. Any discount noted on our invoice is withdrawn if payment is not made when due.
     
  4. Where Clause 8 below applies all invoices will be treated as immediately due and payable in full.

Right to refuse complete orders

We have the right to refuse to carry out any tests or provide reports on any samples provided for analysis if we consider that samples have not been correctly collected or packaged, if we consider the samples are hazardous or injurious to health or for any other reason at our sole discretion.

Title

  1. The title in any products or the right to use any results or reports provided by the James Hutton Institute shall not pass until payment has been received by us in full for the relevant services or products. In the meantime, you shall keep any products safe and insured and you may deal with the service or products in the ordinary course of your business.
  2. Before title has passed and without prejudice to any of our other rights we shall have the right to recover or re-sell the goods or any of them and we or our employees or agents may enter upon your premises for that purpose.

Insolvency

If you are or become insolvent or unable to pay your debts as they fall due (including circumstances in which a receiver or liquidator or manager or administrator or any person acting in like capacity is appointed over your business and/or any of your assets) or, in the case of individuals, you are bankrupt, or make a composition or arrangement with creditors, then you will be entitled immediately to treat ourselves as discharged from any further obligation or duty to you (although we may at our option press for completion of all our respective outstanding obligations). In these circumstances we are entitled to immediate access to any of your premises in order to reclaim our products. We reserve all our other rights and remedies.

Limitations and Exclusions

  1. We accept no liability of any kind whatsoever (save where and to the extent that such liability cannot lawfully be excluded by express provision to that effect) in respect of any loss or damage arising from the services or products supplied or their use.
  2. We will, at our own option, repeat any analysis or review any reports at our own cost which are not of satisfactory quality and which are notified as such to us within 14 days of delivery and this shall be our sole liability in relation to such goods. Where we accept responsibility for such services or products we will (as our final liability) at our own option repeat any analysis or review any reports or give you a credit note for the value of the services or products.
  3. We do not accept liability in respect of the suitability of our services or products for any particular purpose, even if these purposes have been discussed with us or where in good faith we have suggested a particular course of action.
  4. Where you consider that we have not carried out the services or provided the agreed products you must notify us in writing within 14 days of delivery of any report or product. We will not accept any claims more than 14 days after delivery of any report or product and any related invoice will be payable in full as set out in clause 5 above.
  5. We do not accept liability for late delivery of any services or products.
  6. We do not accept any liability for decisions made or expenditure incurred on the basis of the information provided in any report or analysis or consequential or indirect loss including loss of profit, business, contracts, revenues or anticipated savings.
  7. The fertiliser requirements stated in our reports are based on the tables supplied by “Fertiliser Recommendations for Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (RB209)”, DEFRA, and we accept no liability for the accuracy of these tables or for decisions made or expenditure incurred on the basis of the requirements calculated in accordance with these tables.
  8. Subject to clause 9.11 below if on any ground we are liable to you, our maximum aggregate liability is limited to the total value of the services or products purchased by you in the twelve months prior to the act of omission giving rise to the liability.
  9. Neither party is liable to the other for any loss arising from causes or circumstances (including but so as not to be exhaustive act of God, fire, explosion, civil commotion, war, expropriation, labour disputes, supervening legislation or act of government) wholly beyond that party’s reasonable control.
  10. Nothing in these Conditions excludes or limits our liability within the United Kingdom for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
  11. Any samples provided by you to us will have no commercial or other value and we will not be liable in any way for the cost of any samples or the cost of obtaining any subsequent samples for any reason whatsoever.
  12. You warrant that you have the right to obtain the samples that you send to us and you agree as part of these Conditions of Sale to indemnify us against any claims whatsoever arising from services supplied by us in connection with samples provided by you.
  13. No report or analysis may be reproduced, except in full, without the written approval of The James Hutton Institute.

Description of Services and Product

All descriptions and illustrations of the services or products contained in any of our catalogues web sites, price lists, advertising matter and other literature are intended merely to present a general idea of the services or products described or shown therein and none of them shall form part of any contract.

Oral Warranties

We will not be bound by any oral warranty purported to be given by us or on our behalf unless it is confirmed in writing, such confirmation to be signed by us or a person authorised by us to sign on our behalf.

Analytical Services

  1. The test methods used in the generation of reports will be where practical covered by the laboratory’s ISO17025 accreditation schedule. A full copy of this laboratory’s current accreditation schedule (Testing Lab 1917) can be downloaded from www.ukas.com. The methods used in our laboratory are based on well established chemical extraction methods following current guidelines and nationally approved standards, unless otherwise indicated.
  2. Whilst every care is taken to ensure that the results from the analysis are as accurate as possible, it is important to note that the analysis relates to the sample received by our laboratory, and is representative only of that sample. No warranty is given by our laboratory that the results from the analysis relate to any part of a field or growing area not covered by the sample received and accordingly our liability in connection with such analysis is hereby executed.
  3. It is important to ensure that any sample sent out for analysis is representative of the area requiring analysis, that samples are obtained in accordance with our recommended sampling techniques and that samples are returned in accordance with the instructions issued by us within 3 days of the collection of samples.
  4. A leaflet containing instructions on how to take samples is available from our laboratory on request.
  5. Samples provided by you will be retained by us for 30 days following receipt but due to the deterioration of samples over time we cannot guarantee the accuracy or relevance of any further analysis of such samples after the first analysis is carried out by us.
  6. Samples provided by you will not be returned unless agreed so in writing and you will be charged a separate fee for their return
  7. We reserve the right to use any data obtained from analysis for scientific use at our discretion.

Third Party Rights

For the avoidance of doubt nothing in this Agreement shall convey on any third party any benefit or the right to enforce any term of this Agreement.

Whole Agreement and Waiver

  1. If any of these Conditions is held invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part the validity of the remaining Conditions and the remainder of the provision in question shall not be affected.
  2. No waiver by us of any breach by you shall be considered as a waiver of any subsequent breach of the same or any other provision.

Law/Jurisdiction and Notices

  1. These Conditions of Sale shall be interpreted and shall operate in all respects in accordance with the laws of Scotland and both parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Scotland Courts but any order of judgement of the Scotland Courts may be enforced without limitation against any assets or revenues in other jurisdictions.
  2. All notices should be sent to HuttonSoils.com, The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH.