Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions apply to bespoke work commissioned from Reeve & Co Interiors Limited, trading as Sporting Cabinetmakers. They are written to be read rather than skimmed, because a bespoke commission is a long contract and the awkward moments in it are all predictable.

Before publication: these terms have been drafted to be fair, plain and consistent with how we actually work, but they have not yet been reviewed by a solicitor. Consumer contract terms are heavily regulated — in particular the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 — and failing to give the required cancellation information in an off-premises contract is a criminal offence, not merely a civil one. Have these reviewed by a commercial solicitor before they go live.

1. Who these terms and conditions are between

“We”, “us” and “our” mean Reeve & Co Interiors Limited, company number 09593800, of Stonham Road, Mickfield, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 5LS, trading as Sporting Cabinetmakers. “You” means the person or company named on the quotation.

Where you are contracting as a consumer, nothing in these terms and conditions removes or limits your statutory rights. Where any term conflicts with those rights, your rights prevail and the term does not apply. Where you are contracting as a business, the sections on liability and on set-off apply in full.

2. Quotations and how a contract is formed

A quotation is an offer by us, open for 60 days from its date. Nothing on our website is an offer, and nothing said in conversation or by email before a written quotation binds either of us. A contract is formed when you accept the quotation in writing and we receive the first payment.

The quotation, the drawings referred to in it and these terms together form the whole agreement. Where the quotation and these terms conflict, the quotation prevails.

Prices are exclusive of VAT, which is charged at the prevailing rate. Prices are fixed once the contract is formed and do not move for material cost, currency or anything else — the only thing that changes a price is a variation you have asked for and agreed in writing.

3. Payment

We do not ask for money before drawings are approved and a price is fixed. Deposits are held against your commission and are applied to it.

On overdue sums from a business client we may charge interest and a fixed recovery sum under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. For consumer clients we will write, and we would far rather telephone than send a solicitor’s letter.

4. Drawings and approval

We issue general arrangement and setting-out drawings for approval before manufacture. Nothing is made until you have approved them in writing. Please read them properly: this is the moment at which changes cost nothing, and once a piece is in the machine shop a change costs real money.

Drawings remain our intellectual property until the commission is paid in full. Drawings issued at quotation stage may not be used to obtain a competing quotation or given to another maker. On payment in full, a licence to use the drawings for the purposes of your own project passes to you.

5. Variations

Any change to an approved design is a variation. We will quote for it in writing, including its effect on the programme, before we carry it out. No variation is binding on either of us until it is agreed in writing — which protects you as much as it protects us.

Where a variation arises from something found on site that could not reasonably have been seen at survey — a services run in a wall we drilled, a floor that turns out not to be structural — we will stop, tell you, and price the options before continuing rather than proceeding and invoicing afterwards.

6. Lead times and delay

Lead times given in a quotation are estimates made in good faith and are not of the essence unless a completion date has been expressly agreed in writing. Typically ten to sixteen weeks in the workshop for a cabinet, longer for a room.

Where the delay is ours, we will tell you as soon as we know, and we will not invoice the finishing stage until the piece has genuinely reached it. Where a delay is caused by builder’s works not being ready, by access being unavailable, or by an approval we are waiting on, the programme extends by the period of the delay and storage beyond four weeks may be charged at cost.

7. What we need from you and your builder

Unless the quotation says otherwise, the following are yours rather than ours: structural openings and lintels; making walls sound, dry and true; floor levels and load-bearing capacity; first-fix electrical and data runs terminated outside any lined zone; ventilation provision; final electrical connection and certification; decoration to surrounding surfaces; and any alarm work.

The room must be weathertight, at normal working temperature and free of wet trades for at least fourteen days before installation. This is not boilerplate — timber installed into a damp room will move, and movement caused by installing into a room that was not ready is not a defect we can be responsible for.

We also need safe, reasonable access, somewhere to park a long-wheelbase van, and a route that matches what was measured at survey. Where access has changed since survey, tell us before delivery day.

8. Delivery, installation, title and risk

We deliver and install with our own fitters. We do not supply-only to a fitter we do not know, anywhere, because anchoring into structure is part of the security of the piece.

Risk in the goods passes to you on completion of installation. Title passes only when we have received payment in full. Until then the goods remain ours, and we may enter the premises to recover them if the contract is terminated for non-payment.

Please inspect the work at handover and raise anything then. Snagging items are recorded on the handover sheet and put right at our cost.

9. Timber, finish and natural variation

Timber is a natural material. Colour, figure and grain vary between boards and within a board, and they will continue to change after installation — oak mellows, walnut lightens, and any timber near a window will move in colour within the first year. That is the material behaving correctly and it is not a defect.

Solid timber also moves with humidity. Our construction allows for it, and we build to the moisture content appropriate to the destination — but you must tell us at survey if the room has underfloor heating, is unheated seasonally, or is in a materially different climate. Movement caused by conditions we were not told about is not covered.

Samples show a finish, not an exact match. Hand-applied and antiqued finishes are, by their nature, individual.

10. Warranty and defects

We warrant our workmanship and materials for ten years from installation, which is well beyond anything required of us. The warranty covers defects in manufacture, jointing, finishing and installation, and we will repair or replace at our option, at our cost, including our travel.

It does not cover: fair wear and tear; damage from misuse, accident or alteration by others; movement caused by conditions we were not told about; failure to maintain a finish as advised in the handover pack; or any modification to our steelwork by a third party, which voids the warranty on the affected element entirely.

Locks, hinges, runners and electrical components carry their manufacturers’ warranties, which we will pursue on your behalf for the first five years.

None of this affects your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which give you remedies for goods that are not of satisfactory quality, not fit for purpose or not as described, for up to six years in England and Wales.

11. Cancellation

Where you contract as a consumer away from our premises — which includes signing at your own house after a survey — you generally have 14 days to cancel under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, and we will give you the prescribed cancellation notice at that point.

Important: that right does not apply to goods made to your specification or clearly personalised. Almost everything we make falls into that exception, and it means that once manufacture has begun on a bespoke piece the 14-day right is not available. We will say so explicitly, in writing, before you commit — we are not going to hide it in a paragraph.

If you cancel a bespoke commission after manufacture has started, we will charge for work done and materials committed, and nothing more. In practice that is the deposit up to the drawing stage, and a fair proportion thereafter. We do not levy cancellation penalties.

We may cancel if we cannot make what has been asked for to a standard we are willing to put our name to, or if the site conditions make safe installation impossible. In that case we refund everything you have paid, less any drawings already issued to you.

12. Firearms licensing — what we do and do not do

We build to a published specification and we supply a signed specification sheet stating steel thickness, lock certification, glass make-up and fixing detail. We will agree that specification with your firearms enquiry officer before manufacture whenever you ask us to.

What we cannot do, and do not undertake to do, is guarantee that any arrangement will be accepted. There is no approval scheme for gun cabinets in the United Kingdom, no police force approves products, and the assessment is made at your address by your licensing authority. Compliance with the conditions on your certificate remains yours. Any statement on this website about what an authority is likely to accept is our opinion and is not advice.

13. Liability

Nothing in these terms and conditions limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else which cannot lawfully be limited.

Subject to that, and where you contract as a business, our total liability is limited to the contract price, and we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of use, loss of contract or any indirect or consequential loss. Where you contract as a consumer, we are liable for foreseeable loss caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill, and your statutory rights are unaffected.

We are not liable for the security outcome of any arrangement, for the acts of your builder or other contractors, or for delay caused by events outside our reasonable control.

14. General

If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest stand. A failure to enforce a term is not a waiver of it. Nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms. Notices must be in writing to the registered office or to the email address on the quotation.

These terms and conditions, and the contract, are governed by the law of England and Wales and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of its courts, including on European and American commissions.

We may update these terms. The version that applies to your commission is the version in force on the date of your quotation, and we will supply a copy of it on request.