Terms & Conditions

Montgomery & Sons coordinates fire risk assessment quotations and bookings. The assessment itself is carried out and signed by an appropriately competent specialist fire risk assessor, who is confirmed with you before the booking is made.

An enquiry or online request is a request for a quotation. It is not a confirmed booking. We review the scope before accepting the work, and any appointment is subject to the agreed scope and assessor availability. Each assessment is quoted individually; there is no fixed price, package or bundle.

To prepare a quotation and arrange the assessment we share the building and contact details you give us with the assessor, limited to what they need for that purpose. Please do not send us residents' medical or other sensitive personal information.

A fire risk assessment is a written assessment and report. It is not a certificate, it is not a pass or fail, and it does not guarantee compliance with fire safety law. Duties under fire safety legislation remain with the responsible person. We do not claim approval or endorsement by any enforcing authority, and we do not offer a guaranteed attendance or report turnaround date. Any works arising from an assessment are separately scoped, quoted and authorised before they proceed.

Sections 2 to 8 below relate to our property plumbing inspection service. They do not apply automatically to a fire risk assessment carried out by a specialist assessor. For a fire risk assessment, the scope, access arrangements, who owns the report and who may rely on it, and any revisit or review are agreed with you in writing before the booking is made, alongside the assessor's own terms where those apply.

A standard property plumbing inspection is a structured, visual and non-invasive inspection of the plumbing installations that are visible and reasonably accessible on the day of the inspection. It includes an emergency shut-off pack, a water-wastage check, a prioritised action plan, a written condition report without photographs embedded, a separate room-by-room photo pack, and your Property Plumbing Passport with authorised portal access.

Leak-alarm hardware, repairs and remedial works, and any follow-up, reinspection or maintenance visit are not included in the standard inspection. They are quoted separately and carried out only with your authorisation. Nothing in the standard inspection creates a subscription, monitoring service, emergency response arrangement or recurring charge.

The base price for the Residential Plumbing Inspection & Condition Report is £199, payable by the customer, with no VAT added. The base price covers one ordinary self-contained home, with one kitchen, up to two bathroom or WC rooms combined, up to one utility or laundry area, and up to two base hours on site. There is no limit on the number of bedrooms. Additional rooms or standalone fittings are itemised in writing before the booking is confirmed; their quoted price includes the associated inspection and reporting, and the same work is not charged again as extra time. HMOs, multiple units, annexes, shared or complex systems and uncertain scope or access require individual review and a written quotation.

Before a booking is confirmed we agree who is commissioning the inspection, that access is authorised by the property owner or their agent, what the report will be used for, who it is intended to be shared with, and the sharing and reliance arrangements. The Property Plumbing Passport belongs to the commissioning client and is not automatically transferred to a buyer, agent or other third party.

• The inspection is visual and non-invasive. We do not lift floors, remove tiling, open sealed ducts, dismantle fitted furniture or carry out destructive investigation.
• Concealed pipework, buried services, areas behind fixed structures and anything not reasonably accessible on the day cannot be inspected and are excluded.
• The report describes the condition observed on the date of inspection only. Plumbing condition can change, and a defect may develop after the inspection.
• Photographs, moisture-meter spot readings, pressure and flow observations are indicative aids to the inspection. They are not laboratory measurements and are affected by ambient conditions, materials and building construction. Thermal imaging is not included in the standard inspection.
• The emergency shut-off pack covers controls we positively identify as safe and accessible on the day. We do not force an old, seized or deteriorated valve, and any control we cannot identify, reach or safely operate is recorded as such rather than as satisfactory.
• The water-wastage check records observed dripping outlets, possible continuous WC flow and accessible flow measurements. It is not a guarantee of any bill saving, a whole-property leak-free result, or a complete trace of concealed leaks.
• The inspection is not a gas safety check, an electrical inspection, a full building survey, a structural or RICS survey, a property valuation, a legionella risk assessment, a statutory certificate, a guarantee against concealed defects or any assurance about a sale, purchase or letting outcome, and must not be relied on as any of those.
• We do not test appliances beyond ordinary operation of accessible outlets, and we do not confirm compliance of historic installations with current standards unless expressly stated.

You (or the person providing access) agree to ensure that, so far as reasonably possible:

• safe access to the property is available at the agreed appointment time;
• water and electricity supplies are on and usable;
• areas to be inspected are reasonably clear and accessible;
• you have the authority to permit the inspection and to allow inspection records and photographs of the plumbing installations to be created; and
• you tell us in advance about known defects, ongoing leaks, vulnerable occupiers, pets or hazards at the property.

If access cannot be obtained, or if site conditions make the inspection unsafe or impossible, we may reschedule and a further charge may apply.

We may rely on information supplied by you, a landlord, agent or occupier about the property, its plumbing history and previous works. We are not responsible for inaccuracies in information supplied to us.

The report is prepared for the client who commissioned the inspection and relates to the property inspected. Copyright in the report remains with Montgomery & Sons Ltd; you may use and share copies for purposes connected with the property.

Third parties may read the report but do not acquire a right of reliance against us unless we have agreed to that in writing.

Where the inspection identifies something we consider urgent, we will tell you as soon as reasonably possible and note it in the report.

Montgomery & Sons does not carry out destructive access or reinstatement as part of the inspection. Repairs and remedial works are quoted and arranged separately, and may be performed by independent contractors who are responsible for their own work, insurance and warranties. Where you ask us to introduce a contractor, we share only the information reasonably necessary for them to understand or quote for the work.

Where remedial works have been completed, a reinspection can be arranged and is charged separately according to the scope required.

Charges are as quoted at the time of booking. Unless agreed otherwise, payment is due on completion of the inspection or on delivery of the report. We may withhold release of the report until payment has been received.

Please give us as much notice as possible if you need to cancel or move an appointment. A reasonable charge may apply for cancellation at short notice or for a wasted visit where access was not available.

If you are a consumer and you booked away from our premises, you have a statutory right to cancel within 14 days. If you ask us to start the service during that period and it is then completed, the right to cancel ends on completion; if you cancel part-way through you may be charged for what has already been provided.

We will carry out the inspection with reasonable care and skill. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited — including your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Subject to that, our liability arising out of an inspection is limited to the level of cover maintained under our professional indemnity insurance, and we are not liable for defects that were not reasonably visible or accessible on the day, for matters expressly excluded from scope, or for losses arising from a failure to act on recommendations in the report.

If something is not right, please contact us at info@montgomeryandsons.co.uk or 020 7088 8301. We aim to acknowledge complaints within five working days and to give a substantive response within 28 days.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remainder continues to apply.