Terms & conditions

These terms apply to every quote we give and every order we accept. Sections 1 to 11 and 14 apply to everyone; section 12 applies to trade customers and section 13 to homeowners.

1. About these terms
2. Quotes and orders
3. Drawings, site measurements and your approval
4. Prices and payment
5. Delivery, collection and site access
6. Installation
7. Ownership and risk
8. Checking your steel, defects and claims
9. Design responsibility
10. Changing or cancelling an order
11. Our liability
12. Trade customers: construction contracts and late payment
13. Homeowners: your legal rights
14. General terms

1. About these terms

1.1 These terms apply to every quote we give and every order we accept for the supply, fabrication, delivery and installation of steelwork, and to our site survey service.

1.2 “We”, “us” and “Metallico” means Metallico Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 07181577. Registered office: 12 Gateway Mews, Bounds Green, London N11 2UT. Workshop and yard: Unit 8-12 Roxwell Trading Park, Argall Avenue, Leyton, London E10 7QY. Phone 020 8539 1717, email info@metallicoltd.com.

1.3 “You” means the person or business named on our quote or order confirmation. A trade customer is a business buying for its work, such as a builder, contractor or developer. A homeowner is an individual buying for their own home, not for a business.

1.4 “Steelwork” means everything we supply under the order: steel members, plates, fittings, bolts and any other items listed.

1.5 If anything in these terms conflicts with our written quote or order confirmation, the quote or confirmation wins.

1.6 Our terms apply, not yours. By accepting a quote, placing an order, approving a drawing or letting us start work, you accept these terms, including our payment terms. We do not accept any other terms, including terms on your purchase order or subcontract order, or terms sent to us with or after your order, unless a director of Metallico has agreed them in writing and signed them. If you send us your own terms and we have not signed them, going ahead with the order means these terms apply. Our order confirmations, delivery notes and invoices all refer to these terms, and accepting delivery or collection of the steelwork, or paying our invoice, confirms the order is on these terms.

2. Quotes and orders

2.1 Our quotes are valid for 14 days. Steel prices change often, so after that we may need to re-price.

2.2 A quote is based on the drawings, sketches, measurements and information you give us. If these change, or turn out to be wrong or incomplete, the price and programme may change.

2.3 Unless the quote says otherwise, it covers supply only. Delivery, installation, galvanising, powder coating, drawings for building control and anything not listed are extra.

2.4 A contract starts when we send you a written order confirmation, or when we start work at your request, whichever comes first. Accepting a quote by email, WhatsApp or signature counts as placing the order.

2.5 Connection bolts are listed on the quote. Bolts are supplied as 8.8 grade, zinc plated, with one nut and one washer each, unless the quote says otherwise.

3. Drawings, site measurements and your approval

3.1 You are responsible for site measurements. We make your steelwork to the measurements and levels you or your builder give us. We do not take fabrication sizes from an engineer’s or architect’s plans, because sites are rarely built exactly to plan.

3.2 Where the order needs it, we send you a confirmation drawing showing sizes, plates, holes and finishes. Nothing is cut until you approve it in writing (email, WhatsApp or signature).

3.3 Once you approve a confirmation drawing, it becomes the specification. We are not responsible for steelwork that matches an approved drawing but does not fit because a measurement or detail you gave us, or confirmed during a survey, was wrong.

3.4 If you ask for changes after approval, we will tell you the effect on price and programme before we go ahead. Steel already cut or fabricated to the approved drawing will be charged.

3.5 Drawings, 3D models and calculations we produce stay our property. You may use them for the job they were made for. Drafting and modelling can be quoted as a separate service, and is payable even if the steel is not ordered.

3.6 Our site survey service. If you book us to survey, the survey is carried out together with your site manager or another responsible person, who must be there and confirm the measurements. Our operative uses our equipment and experience to guide the measurements needed for the steelwork only. We are not responsible for pointing out conflicts outside the steelwork, or for the steelwork’s function in the building, such as where walls should be built or how wide openings should be.

4. Prices and payment

4.1 Prices are in pounds sterling and exclude VAT, which is added at the current rate.

4.2 Deposit: a deposit of 50% of the order value is due when you place the order. We start drawing, ordering material or cutting only once it is received.

4.3 Balance: the balance is due before the steelwork leaves our yard or is collected, unless you have a trade credit account with us that we have approved in writing.

4.4 Trade credit accounts: where we agree credit, invoices are due within 30 days of the invoice date. We may withdraw credit at any time if payments are late.

4.5 We accept bank transfer and card payment (including the payment link on our invoices). We do not release steelwork against a promise of payment.

4.6 Extra work, waiting time, failed deliveries, storage and changes you ask for are charged on top of the quote, at the rates we tell you before we do the work.

4.7 If you do not pay on time, we may stop work and hold back delivery until you do. See section 12 for interest on late payment by trade customers.

5. Delivery, collection and site access

5.1 Delivery and installation dates are our best estimate, and we will keep you updated. We do not accept delay costs, liquidated damages or any other losses caused by delay, unless we have specifically agreed to them in writing for that order.

5.2 Site access is your responsibility. You must make sure our vehicles can reach the agreed drop point safely and legally, with suitable hard standing and room to offload, and tell us in advance about any restrictions (narrow roads, weight limits, school times, parking suspensions, overhead cables).

5.3 Where we use our own crane lorry to offload, our driver decides whether a lift is safe. If it is not, we may leave the steel at the nearest safe point or take it back.

5.4 Someone must be on site to receive and sign for the delivery. If nobody is there, or we cannot deliver because of access, the delivery counts as made and we may charge for waiting time, a return trip and redelivery.

5.5 Collection: collections are from our yard, Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm. Please call ahead so your order is loaded and ready. Your vehicle must be suitable and safe for the load; we may refuse to load a vehicle that is not.

5.6 Steelwork not collected or accepted for delivery within 14 days of being ready may be charged for storage. Storage is charged by the floor area (m²) the items take up in our workshop, and we will tell you the rate at least 7 days before storage charges start.

6. Installation

This section applies only where our quote includes installation. We install for trade customers only, such as builders and contractors, including on residential jobs. We do not install for homeowners directly.

6.1 Before we start, you must give us safe access to the work area, a clear and level working space, and any temporary supports, padstones, bearings and holding-down bolts that are not in our scope, built and cured to the drawings.

6.2 You are responsible for the structure we are fixing to being sound and built to the levels and positions on the approved drawing. If it is not, we may stop, and any extra time or return visits will be charged.

6.3 We work to our risk assessments and method statements and the site’s rules under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. We may refuse or stop work that we consider unsafe.

6.4 Unless the quote says otherwise, plant hire (such as cranes or powered access), propping, making good, fire protection, painting on site and removal of waste are not included.

6.5 Our installation is complete when the steelwork in our scope is fixed in position. Please tell us of any snagging within 7 days.

7. Ownership and risk

7.1 The steelwork stays ours until it is paid for in full. Until then, a trade customer must keep it identifiable as ours and must not sell it on or fix it into a building, other than in the normal course of the job it was ordered for.

7.2 If a trade customer does not pay on time, or becomes insolvent, we may enter the site, with notice, to recover steelwork that has not been fixed into a building.

7.3 Risk of loss or damage passes to you when the steelwork is delivered to site, or when it is loaded onto your vehicle at collection.

8. Checking your steel, defects and claims

8.1 Please check the steelwork when it arrives or is collected, against the delivery note and the approved drawing. Tell us in writing within 2 working days of any shortage, wrong item or transport damage. Photos help.

8.2 Tell us in writing of any other defect within 14 days of discovering it, before the item is altered, fixed in place or covered up where possible, so we can inspect it.

8.3 Where steelwork we supplied is defective, we will repair or replace it, or refund the price of the defective item, at our choice. This does not affect a homeowner’s legal rights (section 13).

8.4 We are not responsible for:

• items altered, cut or welded by others;
• damage from poor storage, handling or installation by others;
• primer finishes left exposed to the weather: red oxide primer is a temporary shop coat, not a finished protective system;
• normal tolerances under the fabrication standard we work to (BS EN 1090-2).

8.5 Structural steelwork is UKCA marked to BS EN 1090-1 and made under factory production control. Your Declaration of Performance and material certificates are available on request for each job.

9. Design responsibility

9.1 We are fabricators, not designers. We fabricate to your engineer’s drawings and calculations, or to the sizes you give us. We do not check whether a member size is adequate, and we never underwrite or accept liability for the choice of section size.

9.2 We may give recommendations or advice, for example on section sizes. Any recommendation must be checked and authorised by your engineer before you rely on it.

9.3 Connections. Where your engineer has not given a connection detail, or there is no typical detail to follow, we will propose one. We do not design connections in house: any connection we put forward is a proposal only, and we accept no design responsibility for it. Before fabrication they must be checked for the loads by an engineer: your own, or a third-party connection engineer we can appoint for you as a paid service. If you place the order without that check, you take responsibility for the connections.

9.4 Building regulations approval, party wall matters, temporary works and propping are your responsibility unless our quote says otherwise.

10. Changing or cancelling an order

10.1 Steelwork is made to order, to your measurements and drawings. Once material has been ordered or cut, it cannot be returned or cancelled for a refund.

10.2 If you cancel an order, you must pay for:

• drawing and design work already done;
• material ordered for your job that we cannot reasonably use elsewhere;
• fabrication already carried out;
• any other costs we have reasonably incurred.

We may keep these from your deposit, and we will refund any balance of the deposit.

10.3 Changes after approval are covered in section 3.4.

10.4 We may cancel an order if you do not pay the deposit or balance when due, or if you become insolvent. We will refund any money paid for work not done.

10.5 For homeowners, see section 13.

11. Our liability

11.1 Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited.

11.2 Trade customers: our total liability under or in connection with an order, whether in contract, negligence or otherwise, is limited to the price paid for that order. We are not liable for loss of profit, revenue or business, delay costs, liquidated damages under your other contracts, the cost of other trades, or any indirect or consequential loss.

11.3 Homeowners: we are not liable for business losses, or for losses that were not foreseeable when the order was placed.

12. Trade customers: construction contracts and late payment

12.1 Where an order is a construction contract under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (as amended), the payment provisions of the Scheme for Construction Contracts apply except where these terms set out different, compliant arrangements. Our invoice is our payment notice, and the due date is the date payment is due under section 4. The final date for payment is 14 days after the due date.

12.2 If you intend to pay less than the amount invoiced, you must give us a pay less notice no later than 5 days before the final date for payment, stating the amount you consider due and how it is calculated.

12.3 We may suspend work, on at least 7 days’ written notice, if an amount due is not paid in full by the final date for payment. We are entitled to a reasonable extension of time and our reasonable costs of suspending and restarting.

12.4 We do not accept retentions or pay-when-paid terms unless we have agreed them in writing for a specific order.

12.5 Late payment by trade customers carries interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, at 8% a year above the Bank of England base rate, together with the fixed compensation and reasonable recovery costs that Act allows.

12.6 Either party may refer a dispute about a construction contract to adjudication at any time.

13. Homeowners: your legal rights

13.1 If you are a homeowner, nothing in these terms affects your legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

13.2 Steelwork made to your measurements or drawings is made to your specification. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, the 14-day right to cancel does not apply to goods made to your specification or clearly personalised.

13.3 We do not install for homeowners. A homeowner’s order is for steelwork made to their specification and delivered or collected, so the 14-day right to cancel does not apply (13.2).

13.4 If something goes wrong, please contact us first at info@metallicoltd.com or 020 8539 1717. Our complaints procedure explains what happens next.

14. General terms

14.1 Events outside our control: we are not liable for delay or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as supplier shortages, extreme weather, road closures or strikes. We will tell you as soon as we can.

14.2 Your information: we use your details to price, make and deliver your order, as set out in our privacy notice.

14.3 Photos and drawings: we may photograph steelwork we make, and show it on our website and social media without naming you or your address, unless you ask us not to.

14.4 Changes to these terms: we may update these terms. The version on our website at the date of your order applies to that order.

14.5 Transfer: we may use subcontractors for parts of the work, such as galvanising, powder coating or transport, but we remain responsible to you.

14.6 If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.

14.7 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. A homeowner living elsewhere in the UK may also bring proceedings in their local courts.