1. On placement of an order, agreement with a price quotation or acceptance of an invoice, all the conditions mentioned hereinafter will automatically and without any restrictions or reserve be considered read and accepted. Should Home Office allow a deviation from one or more provisions in these general conditions, this will not be interpreted as though Home Office waives its right to demand strict compliance with these conditions. The present general conditions take precedence over those of the customer if the latter are contradictory.
2. Customers placing an order assume full responsibility for their publication or circulation of texts supplied by Home Office. The minimum charge per order is € 40,00. Cancellation of an order, whether or not its execution has already commenced, may give rise to a claim for damages.
3. We may need to charge our standard hourly rate for amendments to the source text which need to be reflected in the translation and/or for implementing heavy preferential changes in the translation. Any such fees will be proposed to you in writing in advance.
4. Our offers, unless explicitly specified otherwise, are valid for two weeks. They are binding subject to errors, oversights or overdue payments. If Home Office believes there is a possibility of a credit risk, Home Office retains the right to demand payment prior to executing the order.
5. Our rates are exclusive of VAT.
6. Barring a prior written agreement to the contrary, all payments must be made within 30 days of the end of the billing month, as of the invoice date. Any sum that remains outstanding past its due date will, by operation of law and without notice of default, accrue an interest of 1.5 % for every month of arrears. Irrespective of payment of this interest, a surcharge of 10 % will be due on the invoiced amount, with a minimum of € 40,00, by way of compensation. Failure to pay one invoice will entitle Home Office to demand settlement in full of all invoices outstanding at that moment. In the event that it should become necessary to call in a third party to collect a debt, Home Office will be entitled to charge the customer in question a sum to cover the resulting administrative expenses, with a minimum of € 150,00.
7. After five days following the date of delivery, our deliveries will be considered definitively received and accepted. All complaints must be submitted to us in writing within this term. Any shortcomings of a part of a delivery will not entitle the customer to refuse acceptance of the delivery as a whole. Any complaint regarding an invoice must be received by us, in writing, within five days of dispatch of the invoice. After expiry of this term, invoices will be considered accepted. The customer will not be entitled to suspend payment of the invoices.
8. The customer is aware that the request and/or confirmation of the assignment, including any personal data, is passed on to internal and/or external employees of Home Office. By agreeing to the assignment, the customer also gives his permission to transfer the texts and personal data to the internal/external employee.
9. In the event of disputes, whatever their reason, the courts of Antwerp will have exclusive jurisdiction. Disputes that fall within the jurisdiction of the Justice of the Peace will be settled by the Justice of the Peace of the 5th District of Antwerp.