The Organising Experts® Terms & Conditions

The Organising Experts® offer a professional decluttering and organising service. The company is registered as ‘The Organising Experts Limited’ in the UK and ‘The Organising Experts’ is a Registered Trademark.

Professional Membership

The Organising Experts® is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and is a member of The Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers UK, APDO UK, and as a member we are bound by their Code of Ethics.

Insurance

The Organising Experts® have full and current public liability and professional indemnity insurance as a Professional Organiser and Decluttering Practitioner. A copy of our certificate is available upon request.

Confidentiality & Privacy

The Organising Experts® is a professional service. We never divulge client information or any personal details that we see in the course of our work to anyone without your consent. The only way in which your details may be mentioned to others is in the context of describing our services to others, but your details will always be depersonalised and unidentifiable (e.g. “a previous client”). The Organising Experts® is registered with the ICO (Information Commissioners Office). This means we take your privacy seriously and only use your personal information to provide a professional service. Please also refer to our Privacy Policy.

Photographs

We like to take “before and after” photographs of the work we do together, in order to keep a record of your progress and the final outcome. We can provide you with copies of these photographs upon request, if you want to share your progress on social media. We would also like to share these photographs on our website and on social media, as it helps us to show future clients the results of our work and build trust in our services. However, we will always ask you for your signed permission to take photographs before we start working together and if we can share them on our website and social media. If you agree, all photographs will be used anonymously, unless you ask to be named alongside your photographs or you want us to link our social media post to your social media post.

Client Testimonials

When our work is complete, we will send you a request for client feedback. This helps us to improve our services and is very much appreciated, as it helps build client trust and helps us to improve our services. We will always ask whether you agree to us including your feedback on our website, social media and in any company literature.

Breaks & Refreshments

The process of decluttering and organising can sometimes be tiring and emotionally demanding. For this reason, it’s important to take breaks to rehydrate and pace ourselves. For this reason, we will build in breaks throughout the day. If we are with you for the entire day (two 3-hour sessions) then we will build in a 60-minute lunch break between 1pm and 2pm which we do not charge for. We will also include two 10-minute breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, which are included in our fees. If you feel you need more breaks during the process, then please let us know, as we can adjust or work to suit your pace (see pace and speed below).  ​

Pace & Speed

We will always aim to complete the tasks agreed in the time allocated and agreed. However, if it takes more time or you decide that you need more time, then we will discuss this with you at the time and you will be asked whether you prefer to adjust what we can achieve in the timeframe booked or extend the timeframe to enable us to complete all of the work. Please note that any extra time will be invoiced as an additional expense.

Hours of Work

Our office hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Our face-to-face working hours (called tidying sessions) are 10-4pm, Monday to Friday. We can start at 8am and finish at 8pm during the week upon request, or work on the weekend or a public holiday upon request but you will be charged a higher rate.

Your Participation

It is extremely important that you (‘The Client’) are involved in the decluttering process, as we cannot decide what you should or should not keep. To do this, we expect you to work alongside us during the decluttering process. We also ask clients to stay involved during the organising phase of the work, so you can also make decisions regarding storage location. If you prefer us to organise your decluttered belongings for you, we can do this upon request. We will discuss if you can use your existing storage solutions or you need to purchase additional storage solutions. If you do, then we will present a proposal on how to organise your belongings for you and what additional storage solutions are required for an additional cost. We will ask you to sign off these costs before purchasing any items and invoice you as an expense. We will make product recommendations based on our experience, in line with your taste and budget.

3rd Party Suppliers

We may occasionally recommend the services of another company as part of our service, for example a waste disposal company, builder, decorator or removal company. The Organising Experts® will not be held responsible for the quality or performance of this 3rd party service provider, or hold any liability for any fees payable for their services or for any loss or damage that they may cause. For the avoidance of doubt, any contractual arrangements will be made directly between you and the supplier. We appreciate any feedback on the quality and performance of these 3rd party service providers, as our aim is to provide and maintain the highest possible standards at all times. 

Removal of Items

During the process of decluttering and organising your belongings, it is common for people to want to dispose of their belongings. If this happens, we will discuss how you want to do this (e.g., recycle, donate, give to family or friends, sell, up-cycle etc.) and if you need our help to do this. If you do need us to help you in this process, we will provide you with options of how to dispose of the items. If we incur any costs for helping you dispose of any items, we will provide you with a cost estimate upfront and ask you to sign a release form to not only agree to these costs but also so we can legally dispose of the items on your behalf. Disposal of any items will not take place without your explicit authorisation. Once anything is disposed of it is non-returnable under any circumstance. Please note that we are unable to advise on the value of any items during the process and recommend you get external valuations done by a 3rd party provider if required.

Removal of Other People’s Items

If you decide during the process of decluttering that you want to dispose of any item/s that do not belong to you, then we will need the express permission of the owner of those items to grant us permission to dispose of those items on their behalf. We will ask for that person to sign a release form and agree to our Terms & Conditions to do this.

Handling of Goods

We are happy to help you re-locate items of furniture within your home as part of the decluttering and organising process if they are light enough to be lifted and moved between us. If not, we will ask you to either enlist a friend or family member to assist, or recommend a 3rd party moving company to help. During our work together, we will also have to handle your possessions. We will do this with upmost care. However, should an accident occur we will not be liable for any losses for damage. We therefore advise our clients to ensure they have adequate insurance at all times, which adequately compensates them for their loss due to damage caused by us in our capacity as your professional organising agent.

Best Advice

Our advice on what to declutter and how to organise and store your belongings is done in good faith. We rely on our clients to make the final decision on whether to keep or dispose of a specific item or to organise the house as advised. The Organising Experts® cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of such decisions. We are also not a valuer of art or other items of special value or rarity, therefore you are advised to seek your own valuations of such items.

Cleaning

As part of our service of decluttering and organising, we often come across areas that are dusty or need vacuuming. We are happy to help you with any light dusting and vacuuming as part of our work but we are not a professional cleaning service and therefore we will not clean your home as part of our service. If we find that your home needs to be professionally cleaned in order for us to work together effectively, we will recommend a 3rd party local professional cleaning company to do this during our work together.

Accommodation & Travel Expenses

We will travel free of charge to destinations up to a 10 mile radius from our starting postcode, which will be provided to you during our first free consultation call for privacy reasons. For trips that are over 20 miles round trip, we will charge 45p per mile for any additional distance travelled plus our time. If we are required to stay overnight near to your home to complete the work at your request, we will charge this as an additional expense.

Car Parking and Access

We will travel to your home in a car, as we need to transport items used during the decluttering and organising process. Please therefore let us know during our consultation call if we require any special access or parking to work with you in your home. If we do, then we will ask you to provide the suitable parking permits to enable us to park near your property. If we are asked to pay any parking meters to work in your home, we will invoice you for these charges as an additional expense.

Safe Working Environment

In order to work within your home, we need to ensure that there is a good working environment and no risk of harm or damage to our health. During our consultation call, you will be asked to disclose the condition of your home and whether there is any risk to our safety or health. If this information is not divulged honestly and we discover that your home is a risk when we arrive (e.g., you have sharp or dangerous objects around including but not limited to needles, blades, broken glass, dangerous animals etc.) then we have the right to terminate our session until these dangerous items are removed. If they are not removed within 2 weeks, then the session will be cancelled and full payment will be required for that session and we will cancel all future bookings.

In the rare case where we see evidence of an infestation, the session will cease and you will be asked to hire a professional pest control company to resolve the infestation. Full payment will be required for that session. Once the infestation has been treated, we have the right to decide whether to continue to provide our services to you or to cancel any remaining sessions based on the outcome.

Please note that any risks associated with decluttering activities are your (‘The Client’s’) responsibility. Therefore please assess the safety of any equipment we may use before they are used, such as step ladders.

Respect

The Organising Experts® always expect to work in a safe and respectful environment. Therefore any form of physical or verbal abuse is unacceptable. In the event that such behaviour occurs, the session will be terminated and any funds paid for your session will be forfeited.

Personal Safety

We will share your name and address with a trusted person (e.g., a colleague or partner) whilst on-site with you. This follows personal safety guidance. Your information is treated with utmost respect and does not compromise GDPR.

Covid-19

Before we work together you (‘The Client’) and we (‘The Organising Experts®’) agree that we have no symptoms of Covid-19. We will also offer to wear a face covering during our sessions if asked. We will ask you to keep your house well-ventilated during our sessions (i.e. keep some windows open and let in fresh air).

Pets, Smoking & Allergies

In order to avoid triggering any allergies, please inform us during the consultation call if you have any pets. If you smoke, then please smoke outside or in a room where we are not working for the duration of our time together.

Delays

We will always do everything in our control to start and end our sessions on time. If, for any reason, we need to delay the start of our session, we will give you as much notice as possible. We would also appreciate it if you call us promptly if you expect a delay to our start time. We will also start to pack up our belongings 30-minutes before we finish each session, so we can end on time.

Cancellation

You have the right to cancel the agreement due to unforeseen circumstances. If you cancel 5 working days before a session, you will forfeit your 50% deposit. If you cancel 2 working days before a session, you will be charged the remaining 50% of the full session price. If you cancel ahead of time (more than 5 working days) then we will return your 50% deposit. Please note, Saturday and Sunday are not classed as working days. If The Organising Experts® need to cancel a session due to unforeseen circumstances, we will give you as much notice as possible and reschedule at your convenience. If a suitable alternative time cannot be arranged, we will refund any deposit paid.

No Show

If we arrive at your home or office on the day of the booked session and you are not there, then your deposit paid upfront for that day will be forfeited plus you will be sent an invoice for the remaining 50% fee for the session that day.

Payment

We require 50% payment as a deposit upfront for our services at the time of booking. If you are buying one week of sessions (5 days, 10am-5pm including a lunch break of 1 hour), then you will be asked to pay 50% of the entire week upfront. All payments should be paid by bank transfer and will secure your booking. The remaining 50% must be paid upon completing our services on the last day we work together. For example, if we work together for one week (5 days), then you will be asked to pay the outstanding 50% on day 5 before we depart by bank transfer. We prefer a bank transfer but also carry a card payment facility with us to enable you to pay the outstanding amount by card on the last day if required. If payment is not received on the last day of completion or within 7 days of the completion date, a 5% charge will be added every 4 weeks to any late payments. Please note that we reserve the right to not book any further sessions if any payment is outstanding.