Property valuation services - commercial/residential/sectional title/insurance/bond

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1. Definitions

MVS: mirfin Valuation Services, the owner of the website and provider of the Service
the Service: the property valuation service as publicised in the Website
the Client: any person accessing any part of the Website and/or making use of the Service offered in the Website (exluding links to external sites), i.e.entering into a legal contract with MVS
the Property: the land and/or building to be valued by MVS, as requested by the Client
the Contract: the order submitted by the Client through the Website and accepted by MVS
the Fee: the full monetary amount to be rendered by the Client, thereby legally purchasing the Service from MVS
the Website: the website, including the content therein, used to publicise the Service, proprietary to MVS (www.mirfin.co.za)
ECT Act: Electronic Communications & Transactions Act 25 of 2002

2. Service offered on the Website (www.mirfin.co.za)

2.1	Property Valuation Service: upon submission of the completed order form for property valuation and full payment of the fee for the Service, a contract between MVS and the Client is made and MVS shall endeavour to assess the value of the Client's Property, according to the data specified by the Client in the order form.
2.2	The order form may be obtained on the Website or requested by telephone or facsimile or email.
2.3	The Service is available throughout all nine provinces of the Republic of South Africa and will be charged at the rate as quoted, irrespective of the location of the property within the Republic of South Africa.
2.4	MVS will endeavour to execute the Service within four to ten working days, depending on the size of the project and provided that all relevant information, as well as full payment as per the requirements of the quotation, has been received from the Client and that the Property is readily accessible. This can however not be guaranteed.
2.5	The Service shall be executed by professional valuers, registered with the S.A. Council for the Property Valuers Profession.
2.6	MVS may at its sole discretion refuse to accept an order submitted online or otherwise from the Client.
2.7	These terms and conditions of business shall govern all contracts entered into for the supply by MVS of the Service to the Client. By submitting the completed order form on the Website, the Client acknowledges that he/she has read and accepts these terms and conditions.

3.Warranties and Liability

3.1	MVS warrants that its contracted valuers are experts in conducting residential property valuations and that they are efficient in their functions and duties to conduct professional valuations.
3.2	The Service is covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance.
3.3	MVS does not guarantee a sale price for the Property equal to the valuation amount.
3.4	Subject as expressly provided in these terms and conditions all warranties, conditions and other terms implied by statute or common law are expressly excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.
3.5	The entire liability of MVS under or in connection with these terms and conditions shall not exceed the Fee.
3.6	Given the nature of the Services it is not MVS usual policy to give refunds. However, client satisfaction is very important to MVS and requests for refunds will be reviewed very carefully on a case by case basis. MVS may at its discretion offer a refund as a gesture of goodwill in appropriate cases.
3.7	MVS accepts no liabilities for any actions taken by the Client as a result of visiting the Website or for the contents therein.
3.8	Whilst all reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of the content of the Website, the Website and all content on the Website is provided on an "as is" basis and "as available" basis. It is a term and condition of the use of the Website that the Client expressly agrees that the use of the Website is entirely at his/her own risk and that he/she remain solely responsible for the legality and soundness of any decision he/she makes or action he/she takes as a result of his/her use of the Website. The information contained in the Website is not intended and should not be construed as legal advice. The Client is required to verify the accuracy, completeness and currency of all information contained in this Website.
3.9	MVS, its owners, directors, trustees, employees, officials, suppliers, agents and / or representatives shall not be liable for any loss or damage, whether direct, indirect or consequential, or any expense of any nature whatsoever, which may be suffered by the Client which arises directly or indirectly upon: his/her use and reliance; his/her inability to use; or the functionality of the Website and / or its content, or of any external website, whether accurate or not.
3.10	The Client indemnifies MVS, its owners, directors, trustees, employees, officials, agents, suppliers or representatives and keep them fully indemnified, from and against any loss or damage suffered or liability incurred in respect of any third party, which arises from his/her use of this website or the information obtained in the Website.
3.11	MVS shall not be held responsible or liable for maintaining the confidentiality of private information or data on the Client's side, after such information or data has been transmitted to the Client.

4.Client's Obligations

4.1	In the event of a sale of the Property, the Client shall not hold MVS responsible or liable for the actual price attained during the sale of the Property. The Client is free to market the Property for a lesser or greater amount than the valuation by his/her own choice and will.
4.2	The Client shall not manipulate or attempt to manipulate the Service. In the event of manipulation or attempted manipulation by the Client, his/her representative or any other person, the Service shall be rendered null and void and the Fee shall be forfeited.
4.3	The Client shall warrant full accessibility to the Property. In the event that the the valuer is denied access to the Property, threatened, or if the Client forfeits the appointment agreed upon with the valuer, the Fee shall be retained by MVS.
4.4	The Client warrants the accuracy of all information supplied by him/her to MVS. MVS accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracies in information supplied by the Client nor for any matters not disclosed by the Client to MVS.
4.5	The Client acknowledges that upon submission of the order form, his/her details may be supplied to other subcontractors of MVS for the purpose of providing the requested service. The Client warrants that he/she is 21 years of age or older.
4.6	The Client warrants that his/her personal details as submitted to MVS in the order form are complete, true and accurate.
4.7	The Client acknowledges that if any false information or deliberately misleading inaccuracies come to light in connection with the Contract, MVS reserves the right to cancel the Contract without notice and without refund of the Fee or any part thereof.
4.8	The Client shall notify MVS of any changes to the information supplied by the Client to MVS whether as part of the order process or otherwise as soon as possible.
4.9	The Client agrees not to transmit any material that is unlawful or harmful, defamatory, abusive, threatening, vulgar or obscene. The Client remains liable to any third party for his/her comments, and MVS is not liable to any third party regarding the content of his/her comments.
4.10	The Client shall satisfy him/herself that he/she fully comprehends these terms and conditions, legally and grammatically.

5.Privacy Policy

5.1

MVS shall process any personal data supplied by the Client in strict accordance with its privacy policy. In keeping with section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996, we respect your rights to informational privacy and data protection. You may use this site without providing us with any personal information. However, in order to qualify the Service available on the Website, we will ask you for relevant personal information in order to provide the Service to you. We will use such information only for our own internal purposes including: to maintain and update mailing lists and databases; and for research and development purposes.

5.2

By completing and submitting the online order form and ticking the box contained in the online order form to confirm he/she agrees to these terms and conditions the Client shall be deemed to consent to MVS processing any personal data supplied by the Client. An order cannot be processed unless the Client by ticking the box contained in the online application gives such consent.

5.3

Without prejudice to the generality of the Client's consent referred to in clause 5.2, the Client by ticking the box contained in the online application to confirm he/she has read and agrees to these terms and conditions shall be deemed to consent to MVS providing his/her personal data to associated companies who may contact the Client with a view to providing mortgage, financial or legal advice. Any remuneration associated with such mortgage and/or financial/legal advice will be agreed between the Client and that associated company as a separate arrangement outside of these terms and conditions and the service fees charged by MVS. Although MVS maintains this introductory arrangement, MVS does not take any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, adequacy and completeness of the service given by any of the associated companies.

5.4

Upon cancellation of the Client's order for whatever reason MVS shall maintain the Client's data for a reasonable period for administrative purposes and the purposes set out in these terms and conditions, after which it will be deleted.

5.5

MVS or media companies may contact Clients to ask for assistance with publicising the Services. The Client has the right to decline offering their assistance for this purpose. Where personal information (such as the Client's name, address, telephone number, email address and credit card information) is submitted to the site by the Client, for example through sending an email or filling in required fields, the following principles are observed in the handling of that information:

5.5.1	MVS collects, processes and stores only such personal information regarding the Client as is necessary to provide the Services offered. The specific purpose for which information is collected is apparent from the context in which it is requested.
5.5.2	MVS will not use the personal information submitted for any other purpose other than the efficient provision of the Service, including the Website and services offered through it by third parties, without obtaining the prior written approval of the Client or unless required to do so by law.
5.5.3	MVS will keep records of all personal information collected and the specific purpose for which it was collected for a period of one year from the date on which it was last used. MVS will not disclose any personal information regarding the Client to any third party unless the prior written agreement of the Client is obtained or MVS is required or permitted to do so by law.
5.5.5	If information is released with the Client's consent, MVS will retain a record of the information released, the third party to which it was released, the reasonfor the release and the date of release, for a period of one year.
5.5.6	MVS will destroy or delete any personal information under its control which has become obsolete.
5.5.7	Information collected about the Client through his/her use of the Website is the property of MVS.
5.5.8	MVS will retain all ownership of and copyright in any database of the Client's personal information.
5.5.9	No credit card information is retained or stored by MVS.

5.6

Note that, as permitted by the ECT Act, the Website may use personal information collected to compile profiles for statistical purposes and trade in these profiles. No information contained in the profiles or statistics will be able to be linked to anyspecific Client.

6. Service Fee

6.1	Payment can only be effected by way of a bank transfer (electronic or manual), and an acknowledgement of receipt of payment will be issued for every successful payment, together with immediate instructions to the valuers..
6.2	Valuation fees can only be refunded if the request is cancelled before the valuer received the instruction. An amount of not greater than 15% of the valuation fee may however be retained to offset administration costs.
6.3	Tax invoices will be issued for all successfully completed valuations.
6.4	The valuation fee paid by the seller of the Property or anybody else on his/her behalf cannot be used to waive any valuation fees charged to the buyer of the Property by any lending institution, nor can the valuation be transferred from the seller to the buyer for the purpose of securing a loan.
6.5	The service fees for the Property Valuation Service are inclusive of VAT. MVS's VAT registration number is 4360204046.
6.6	All transactions will be processed in South African Rands (ZAR).

7. Security Policy

7.1	Note: This section will not be relevant until further notice. Virtual Card Services process all credit card transactions. All credit card transactions are 128 bit Secure Socket Layers (SSL) encrypted. The company registration documents and the site's registered domain name are checked and verified by Thawte, ensuring the cardholder and merchant that nobody can impersonate VCS to obtain confidential information.
7.2	Virtual Card Services is committed to providing secure online services. All encryption complies with international standards. Encryption is used to protect the transmission of personal information when completing online transactions. Virtual Card Services Internet servers are protected by firewalls and intrusion detection systems.
7.3	The Merchant does not have access to credit details.
7.4	Virtual Card Services continually reviews and enhances its security in line with technological changes .

8. Delivery of Service

8.1	Upon receipt of confirmation of payment to MVS' banking account, MVS, respectively its subcontractors, shall undertake to contact the Client for an appointment for valuation at the Client's earliest convenience.
8.2	The Service shall be concluded with the valuation certificate and tax invoice being sent to the Client as electronic PDF files to the email address indicated by the Client. MVS shall undertake to conclude the Service within the period as stipulated in 2.4, after the physical valuation.

9. Cancellation

9.1	Because MVS provides the Service immediately after MVS has accepted the Client's completed online order, the Client by ticking the box contained in the online application to confirm he/she has read and agrees to these terms and conditions shall be deemed to waive his/her right to have any second thoughts within the period prescribed by national consumer protection laws. However, MVS reserves the right to consider cancellations at its own discretion on an individual basis.
9.2	Should the Client for any reason wish to cancel the Service, he/she shall advise MVS in writing of his/her cancellation and any such cancellation must be signed by the person who purchased the Service.
9.3	In the event of a cancellation of the Service, the Client shall be liable for a 15% handling fee which shall be retained from the refund to the Client.

10. General

10.1	MVS reserves the right to decline valuation requests at its own discretion.
10.2	All valuation reports remain the sole property of MVS until fully paid for.
10.3	No valuation facilitated by MVS shall be compared to an evaluation, an opinion offered or valuation done by any person who is not a qualified professional valuer.
10.4	MVS shall not be responsible for any delays in performing, or for failure to perform, any of its obligations if the delay or failure was due to any cause beyond MVS's reasonable control. If any provision of these terms and conditions is declared by any judicial or any other competent authority to be void, voidable, illegal or otherwise unenforceable or indications to that effect are received by either party from any competent authority then that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so these terms and conditions shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.
10.5	These terms and conditions supersede any prior agreement (oral or in writing) between MVS and the Client and contain the whole agreement between them. The Client acknowledges that he/she has not relied upon any oral or written representations made by MVS or its employees or agents.
10.6	These terms and conditions shall be exclusively governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without giving effect to any conflict of law principles. The Client hereby consents to the non exclusive jurisdiction of the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court of South Africa in respect of any disputes arising in connection with these terms.
10.7	Any references to mortgages or other financial matters made on the Website are made for purely generic information purposes only and any reference made is not a statement of financial advice or any indication of suitability for the Client's individual circumstances. MVS is not authorised by any financial authority or any other regulated body and is therefore unable to give any kind of advice in financial matters. The Client is strongly encouraged to seek financial and/or mortgage advice before entering into any mortgage or other financial arrangement.
10.8	With regard to any mortgage scenarios, these are for factual information only and do not convey any type of financial advice.
10.9	MVS reserves the right to change these terms and conditions without notice by posting the changes to the Website.
10.10	We are not liable for damages, direct or consequential, resulting from the Client's use of the Service, any failure by MVS to provide the Service, suspension of the Service, or termination of the Service.
10.11	All provisions of these terms and conditions are, notwithstanding the manner in which they have been grouped together or linked grammatically, severable from each other. Any provision of these terms and conditions which is or becomes unenforceable in any jurisdiction, whether due to voidness, invalidity, illegality, unlawfulness or for any reason whatsoever, shall, in such jurisdiction only and only to the extent that it is so unenforceable, be treated as pro non scripto and the remaining provisions of these terms and conditions shall remain in full force and effect.

11. Copyright Notice

MVS retains the copyright and all intellectual property rights in and to the Website, including all current and future content that is displayed on the Website. This includes but is not limited to all material which is defined to include trademarks, trade names, logos, documents, texts, information, data, drawings, images, icons, logos, photographs, video and audio clips. MVS also asserts the copyright of third parties in this regard.

12. Disclaimer

12.1

MVS may offer useful links from the Website to websites of relevant third parties. Any such link is not a statement of recommendation of any of the services promoted on the said linked websites or due to any other links on the MVS site. The directors of MVS do not take any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, adequacy and completeness of the information which is not directly on the MVS website and set out in the terms listed above.

12.2

You agree to access and use the Website entirely at your own risk.