Our Terms & Conditions for providing VolDECs
The VolDEC website is maintained by the Carbon Descent International Ltd (CDI) and Building Energy Solutions (BES). Use of the website, including any data calculations, is subject to these terms and conditions. Copyright within the text, photos, other images and methodology lies with either CDI or BES or is used under licence from third parties.
Should you wish to obtain a VolDEC (which may consist of data processing or other services and the issuing of a certificate or other reports) from CDI and BES, which are collectively referred to as “we” or “us” below, then the following additional terms and conditions will apply.
1. Data provided to us from you is regarded as being your sole responsibility, and we cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions within it. Although we may undertake standard verification checks on all VolDECs, and may undertake additional verification and auditing checks on a sample of data submitted to us, these are designed to give us internal assurance as to the likely veracity of data, and we cannot guarantee identifying any inaccuracies or inconsistencies, and have no obligation to report to you any data that we consider to be potentially in error.
2. (a) Source data provided by you remains your property. However by entering data into our system (whether electronic or on paper forms) you are giving us an unrestricted right to process and report upon that data, save that in the case of reported data we shall not identify the property to which that data relates without your explicit consent other than through the production of a VolDEC certificate and report, which we will deliver to you or to your nominated agent.
(b) Calculated data from VolDECs belongs to us, although we give you an unrestricted right to report and act upon such calculated data. Furthermore, we are, under these terms, permitted to report publicly aggregated data about energy, waste or water use or energy generation by building type and or market sector (including sub-divisions such as age or geographical location) for purposes including (but not restricted to) research and the development of better benchmarks, subject to our taking reasonable steps to prevent users of such aggregated data being able to construe information about a specific building or buildings owned by you.
(c) Where we are reporting on a building with one or more landlords and one or more tenants, we may assume that the VolDEC results (including report and certificate) may be made available to all landlords and tenants relating to that building unless you give use specific instructions not to do so, or naming only those parties associated with that building who may be permitted to see the results. We may also presume that contracted facilities managers and letting/sales agents may be informed about VolDEC results unless you specifically require us not to do so.
(d) VolDEC reports are issued with a specific period of validity. You agree not to continue to refer to a VolDEC rating on a building as being current beyond the stated period of validity. You may continue to refer to it as a historical rating, and act upon any recommendations for energy performance improvement actions beyond that date.
(e) Energy consumption data varies with many factors including the level of activity inside a building, external weather conditions, employee or occupant behaviour, and any changes made to the building or its services during the period of data collection. The VolDEC rating is based on historical data for a defined period, so cannot be guaranteed to be representative of energy use in that building or as an indicator of future energy consumption.
(f) We will audit 5% of the VolDECs generated through the online VolDEC portal, in order to ensure that data input to the system is accurate. This audit may require you, the user of the VolDEC portal, to provide us with additional data or supporting evidence. This might also involve us carrying out a site visit to any building recorded on the VolDEC online system. By agreeing to these terms and conditions you agree to take part, cooperate with and support us in the execution of any such audits that involve you. Should an audit indicate incorrect inputs or use of the VolDEC platform then CDI/BES will work with the organisation to resolve any issues and re-issue the certificate with a normal certificate cost to the client. NEF/BES reserve the right to block organisations that continue to submit poor data or misuse the VolDEC platform. Any appeal will be referred to an independent energy expert at a joint cost to the client.”
3. We will not sell data relating to your properties to third parties for the purpose of marketing energy performance improvement actions without your explicit consent. We may sell aggregated data (as in condition 2 above) to interested parties, including government agencies, but with the same proviso that we shall use reasonable endeavours to prevent data relating to your individual properties being identifiable, without your explicit consent.
4. Any actions taken by you following the completion of a VolDEC, including (but not restricted to) your undertaking any recommendations for energy performance improvement actions, are undertaken by you at your own risk and we cannot be held liable for the failure of such actions to achieve anticipated (or any) energy savings, or for any consequential losses as a result of such actions, howsoever caused.
5. The detailed VolDEC methodology and processes are owned by us, and you agree not to seek to reverse engineer them or to otherwise produce VolDEC outputs without using our systems or services. If, during the conduct of a VolDEC process, you identify potential improvements to the methodology, system or service, then you may offer it to us as an improvement and we may, at our absolute discretion, decide whether to seek to create a similar improvement through our own efforts or to negotiate with you for incorporation of your specific improvement into our system.
6. We agree to provide the certificate providing payment has been agreed in accordance with our terms of business and reserve the right to withhold provision of VolDEC results until such time as we have been paid. Where certificates need to be subsequently revised or updated due to either incorrect or poor quality source data provided by you, extra charges may need to be applied.
7. These terms and conditions form the basis of the legal agreement between you and us for the provision of VolDEC services, including the production of any certificates or reports as may be agreed. They are applicable to the extent that they may be applied; if any terms become illegal or unable to be delivered, the remaining terms shall stay in force and be construed in the light of the changed circumstances. If necessary, they shall be interpreted according to English law and subject to the jurisdiction of English courts.
8. CDI and BES accept no liability for the use of the VolDEC online tool and benchmarks both of which are to be used entirely at the user’s risk. The VolDEC tool should not be used for any application with potential liabilities unless the user has first established to their own satisfaction the tool’s functionality and appropriateness.
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