1. Definitions
In these terms and conditions the following expressions have the following meanings:
1.1. "the Council" means Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council of Redcar and Cleveland House, Kirkleatham Street, Redcar TS10 1RT and shall include the Councils strategic partner Liberata UK (or any replacement strategic partner appointed by the Council from time to time) and any other companies who provide support services to the Council.
1.2. "Council", "Us", "Our" or "We" means Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.
1.3. "Business Day" means any day (other than a Saturday or a Sunday or a Statutory Bank Holiday) on which UK clearing banks are open for a full range of banking transactions.
1.4. "Customer", "You" or "Your" means you as an individual, sole trader, partnership or limited liability company or other legal entity.
1.5. "Instruction" means using the Service to:
1.5.1. instruct Us to instigate debit and credit card payments in accordance with the on-line payment instructions;
1.5.2. use the other facilities which We may from time to time incorporate into the Service.
1.6. "Service" means the Service, known as "Online Payments", offered by the Council to enable customers to make payments via the Council web site.
1.7. "Terms" means these terms and conditions as amended from time to time by the Council in accordance with these terms and conditions.
2. Introduction
2.1. None of Our personnel have the authority to agree orally to vary these Terms. We may at our discretion change these Terms by giving You at least 7 days notice.
3.Provision of the Service by the Council
3.1. You are responsible for obtaining and maintaining your own compatible computer system, being all such equipment, software and communications lines (including any public communications lines) required by you to properly access the Service ("Your Equipment"). The Council has no responsibility for or liability with respect to Your Equipment. For the avoidance of doubt you agree that the Council shall not be responsible for damage or loss caused by any malicious program to Your Equipment, and it is for You to ensure that you have the appropriate software installed on Your Equipment to deal with any such risks. The Council will notify You (on request) of the minimum specification of computer system required to enable you to access and use the Service.
3.2. You are responsible for all telecommunications and similar charges incurred by You in gaining access to and using the Service.
3.3. We cannot guarantee continuous provision of the Service, although where possible, notices will be placed on the Council's web site with information regarding any downtime.
3.4. We will not be responsible to You if changes to the Service or to any of Our facilities, operations, procedures or products: (i) render Your Equipment obsolete; (ii) require modification or alteration to Your Equipment; or (iii) otherwise affect performance of Your Equipment.
3.5. We reserve the right to control, direct and establish technical procedures for the use of the Service and You agree to follow the reasonable instructions and procedures of the Council with respect to the use of the Service as notified to You from time to time. The Council also reserves the right to make operational changes to the Service and will notify You of any such changes.
3.6. We may alter the facilities available under the Service at any time. We will notify You of significant changes to the Service.
3.7. We are not responsible for (but You will be responsible for) the accuracy of the information transmitted by You and shall not be liable for any loss incurred or damage suffered by You due to any such information not being accurate or complete.
3.8. You are solely responsible for virus checking all information sent to You by Us. We shall not be liable for any corrupt information sent to You, by Us.
3.9. The Service is provided subject to the condition that there will be no abuse or fraudulent use of the Service, and the Council reserves the right to terminate Your use of the Service and pursue You for any loss caused in relation to the same.. Abuse and fraudulent use of the Service shall include (without limitation): (i) attempting to, or actually obtaining, accessing, altering, de-compiling, reverse engineering or destroying the data files, programs, procedures and/or information of the Council or of another customer of the Council; (ii) assisting another to perform the acts prohibited in (i) above; (iii) using the Service in such a manner as to interfere unreasonably with the use of the Service by any other customer of the Council.
4. Use of the Service
4.1. We may act on any Instructions given. We are not liable for any action taken, or loss resulting from the receipt of such Instructions.
4.2. The Council may in its absolute discretion refuse to carry out any Instruction or reverse any action taken by the Council in response to any Instruction. The Council shall not be liable for any loss resulting from compliance by the Council with any Instruction received by it.
4.3. The final decision as to whether payment is made in accordance with Your Instructions rests with Your debit or credit card issuer and We shall not be responsible for the decision of Your debit or credit card issuer not to make any payment requested by You.
4.4. You undertake to co-operate fully with Us in any investigation we may wish to carry out in relation to the use of the Service.
4.5. The Customer undertakes for itself and for any other party using its access to the Service: (i) not to create and/or introduce into the Service any destructive or contaminating program or advise any other party how to do so; (ii) to use an up-to-date virus-scanning program on all material downloaded from the Service; (iii) not to invade the privacy of other users of the Service.
4.6. You must notify Us immediately if You become aware of any error or any suspected error in the Service or in any transaction resulting from using it. You should check your statements of account carefully.
4.7. You shall only use the Service for lawful purposes and shall not use the Service to send material that is offensive, obscene, in breach of confidence, defamatory, or in breach of any intellectual property rights.
5. Your liability
5.1.You will be liable to Us without limit if we can show You have acted fraudulently or with negligence or in breach of these Terms.
5.2. The Customer undertakes fully and effectively to indemnify and keep indemnified at all times the Council against all actions, proceedings, costs, claims, demands, liabilities and expenses whatsoever (including legal and other fees and disbursements) sustained, incurred or paid by the Council directly or indirectly in respect of: (i) access to and/or use of the Service by the Customer or by Authorised Users; (ii) any information, data or material produced, transmitted or downloaded by the Customer or Authorised Users; (iii) any breach by the Customer or by Authorised Users of any of these Terms or of any law, code or regulation.
6. Our liability
6.1. We will not be liable to You for any loss You suffer as a result of Us acting on an Instruction as mentioned in Clause 4.1, except in so far as We are negligent.
6.2. We are not responsible for any misuse of the Service by You or anyone else.
6.3. We will not be liable to You for any loss You suffer due to any circumstances beyond our control which lead to the Service being wholly or partly unavailable for such reasons as, but not limited to, a technical break-down, industrial dispute, communications or power failure. In all such circumstances We will expect You to prevent or reduce your loss by telephoning Us on 01642 774774 or sending Us an e-mail to contactus@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk to affect, withdraw or continue the transaction.
6.4. Nothing in this Agreement shall exclude Our liability for death or personal injury caused by Our negligence.
6.5. We accept no liability to You for any indirect loss or damage (however arising), nor for any loss of profits, loss of sales, loss of turnover, loss of bargain, loss of opportunity, loss of computer equipment, software or data or loss of time.
6.6. If We incur any liability to You such liability will in all cases be limited to an amount equal to the value of the relevant payment requested by You in Your Instructions.
7. Termination of the Service
7.1. We may terminate, suspend or withdraw the use of the Service at any time. Except where security requires it or in circumstances beyond our control, or in the event of fraud or Your breach of these terms (when we will give you such notice) we will give You at least 30 days prior notice as is reasonable in all circumstances.
7.2. Any Security Information or documentation relating to the Service and used by You remains Our property, and upon termination of the Service, for whatever reason, shall be returned to Us and/or destroyed, as instructed by Us at that time. Such material shall not be copied, transcribed or used for any purpose other than as specifically authorised in the Terms.
7.3. The following provisions shall survive the termination of this Agreement: 4.4, 4.5, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 7.3, 7.4, 8.1, 9.2 and 12.1.
7.4. Termination of the Service will not affect any rights or liabilities of either of us that have already accrued.
8. Declaration
8.1. In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 The information provided by you will be available to all departments of the Council and may be shared with the Councils strategic partner or other direct service providers to the Council.
8.2. The Council are at all times subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to any information which is submitted by You.
9. Interpretation
9.1. The headings to the clauses of these Terms are for ease of reference only and shall not affect the interpretation or construction of these Terms.
9.2. If any provision of these Terms shall be found by any Court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable the invalidity or enforceability of such provision shall not affect the other provisions of these Terms and all provisions not affected by such invalidity or unenforceability shall remain in full force and effect to the fullest extent permitted by law. You agree to substitute for any invalid or unenforceable provision a valid or enforceable provision which achieves to the greatest extent possible the economic, legal and commercial objective of the invalid or unenforceable provision.
9.3. No delay, neglect or forbearance by either party in enforcing any of the Terms shall be taken as a waiver or otherwise prejudice the rights under these Terms.
10. Notices
10.1. All notices shall be sent by first class post to the address last notified to either party and shall be deemed to be received 24 hours after the date of posting.
11. Telephone monitoring
11.1. Any telephone calls made between You and Us may be recorded or monitored for training and security purposes.
12. Law
12.1. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law and the parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.