Terms of service.

Although we provide very thorough treatment programme for lawns, it does not necessarily mean your lawn is going to be `perfect`. Factors outside our control / the scope of our work will also impact lawn condition. And even the best kept lawns will move in and out of peak condition during the various stages of the year as grasses move through their natural growth cycle.

We want to work with you, to create a lawn which gives pleasure and satisfaction. We are on hand, during our visits, on the phone or via email to help you get the best from our work. Advice is always free!

The five regular essentials treatments Each time we treat your lawn, during a seasonal visit, your timed job completion card & invoice will include a description of what was done & will include any useful guidance, such as how long before the next mow is advisable, and if weedkiller was used - how soon the grass will be safe for pets and children (normally within 3 hours)

Our Regular Essentials Lawn Treatment service will be ongoing and roll automatically from season to season & year to year. You can cancel our service at any time if all outstanding invoices are paid.

Treatment spacing: The 5 treatments per year have different length gaps between them. This is for sound horticultural reasons. It would be far more convenient if we could come every 10 weeks – but some treatments may be 7 or so weeks apart while others will be closer to 14 weeks apart.

If you want to even out the cost & set up a Direct Debit, please email us a request including your name and address.

Optional extras, like Lawn Aeration +/- Extra soil conditioning, Scarification and over seeding.

Although most lawns need these regularly, they Are NOT included in the regular essentials plan. We are happy to take bookings for these (and will provide timely booking opportunities) ahead of the procedure calendar period, but invoices for all these (and any other work outside the scope of the `regular essentials` plan cannot be included in either Pre-Pay OR Direct Debit arrangements.

Our “Price per treatment” quotation:

Is made on the basis that you will take all 5 treatments in the programmes annual schedule. We use no repeat ingredients in the programme and each treatment compliments the efficacy of the others. We do not offer a partial service of reduced treatments; this would be a diminishing return for customers, and it would greatly increase our own costs per treatment for any individual customer. We are unlikely to provide partial treatment plans & if we do, the pricing will be notably higher per treatment than we have quoted for the full programme. If you choose to miss a treatment, we reserve the right to add a 20% surcharge to the following treatment.

Lawn Access: All our prices are quoted on the basis that we can access your lawn even if you are out and that access will be left unlocked and unobstructed for our scheduled visits.

* Each `regular essentials `invoice will include the date of the next regular visit.

* A reminder of that date will be sent by email, a week or so before it falls due.

** Dates of our visits are always notified well in advance, but due to the nature of our work, the variability of weather and traffic, we are not able to offer or predict `time slots`. We believe working attentively is more valuable than clock watching & rushing to hit `time targets`.

Payments:

Unless you have set up either a pre-payment plan or a Direct Debit, invoices must be paid within 14 days. Our bank details are on invoices, but you can also pay by cheque if necessary & we do still take cash in person.

Our pricing is set on the basis that customers will not need to be in for us to work on their lawns. If you are in, we will be delighted to see you. But trying to dovetail our schedules around customer movements would have a huge pricing impact.

If you need to reschedule a treatment date due to extended absence during which gates will be locked or because of a family function or the like, please give us as much warning as you can with 14 days as a minimum.

If a treatment is not delivered due to either a late request to move dates or due to a wasted journey / a locked gate or a client request to `miss this one` we reserve the right to add a 20% surcharge to your next regular essentials treatment invoice.

If we are locked out and unable to gain access for a scheduled visit, we will try and reschedule. However, if this is impractical or imposes disproportionate extra costs for us, we reserve the right to pass on these costs or add a 20% surcharge to your next invoice.

The weather: Is our risk, if we cannot complete a scheduled treatment due to unsuitable weather, we will reschedule it at the earliest available opportunity. You will not be left wondering if we turned up or not, we will be in contact promptly to arrange a new date.

Mechanical Work like Scarification & Aeration: May be unavailable at some properties due to insufficient or unsafe access. Bookings are always subject to weather, we want to earn the money and deliver the service and we work hard to achieve this, but we cannot guarantee that bookings are fulfilled.

For all our visits, please ensure that the following items are in order:

Your lawns are free / or at least almost free of dog faeces. Wheeled equipment needs to be able to operate in straight lines for accurate work & we do not carry pressurised water to clean it before loading it back into our vehicles.

Garden furniture is moved off the lawn: If you forget, and it is safe to move it ourselves we will, but we will not be liable for any damage that may result. But if it is an item not safe or possible for one person to move, we will work around it as best we can, things like trampolines can seldom be moved solo, without risk of damaging them or the Lawn.

Autumn and early winter leaf fall from trees should recently cleared, within the prior week or less. Please be sure to read about how damaging leaves can be if not cleared promptly & regularly in our Lawn Advice section. During our visits for Autumn and early winter treatments, we do expect to find some recently fallen leaves on customer lawns. We will blow enough of them off to allow an effective treatment application. They will be blown onto the nearest flower bed or non-lawn surface. However, we do not price these treatments to include a significantly time-consuming leaf clearance service, if we find significant & long-standing leaf fall needs clearing, and if we have time to tackle it, we will invoice this separately at £20 (+vat) for every 100SqM of lawn.

During visits including mechanical Scarification: Lawns must not have loose stones or gravel above soil level or embedded in the grass. They can be flicked up by our machinery, causing danger to windows, vehicles, and our grounds staff. We are not liable for any damage to property caused by loose stones or gravel present on customer lawns.

Scarification produces significant debris from the surface of the lawn. We do not remove this from your property. It is bagged by us, into sturdy garden refuse bags which we provide without charge. The bags are left on site. We will use garden refuse bins if available. And if instructed, we can take debris to a compost heap or bonfire site at the property.

Late payments: Payments are due within 14 days of invoice date. Chasing late payments by email &/or letter is costly and time consuming. First Reminders are sent 16 days after invoice issue, if that is ignored a second reminder will be sent after 30 days of invoice issue. We reserve the right to charge interest at 5% per week after the 14 days payment window has expired.

Service Calls If your lawn suffers a sudden deterioration in condition, please let us know. In the first instance, please send one or two pictures by email to info@grasshopperlawncare.co.uk quoting your customer number in the email heading. Very often we can identify the issue from photos, but if we cannot, we will schedule a service inspection. Most problems are mowing, or weather related or can be identified from a photo but occasionally it will be something which will need in person investigation.

Communications The office is open Monday – Friday except bank Holidays, while it is common that office-based staff are in the stores, checking equipment calibration or handling deliveries it is rare that we do not answer a telephone or email query within an hour or two, except during our summer staff holiday shut down and during the Christmas break.

Photography and other media: If we record any images of your lawn or your lawn being worked on the images will not identify your individual property or its location. Such images/media will remain the property of Grasshopper Lawncare. Normally we ask permission to do this, but occasionally this is not possible. We use digital media of lawns and maintenance procedures for internal training and for marketing purposes.