Terms and conditions

Our privacy notice establishes the terms on which we process your information, and the linked privacy notices specifically set out the terms on which we process any personal data (as defined by data protection legislation) we collect from or about you, or that you provide to us. By using our site, you acknowledge that all personal data and other data provided by you're accurate.

• We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page
• Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you

• We may update our site from time to time, and may change the content at any time. However, please note that any of the content on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we're under no obligation to update it
• We don't guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will be free from errors or omissions

• Our site is made available free of charge
• We don't guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our site without notice. We won't be liable to you if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period
• You're responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site
• You're also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them
• Our site is directed to people residing in the United Kingdom. We don't represent that content available on or through our site is appropriate or available in other locations. We may limit the availability of our site or any service or product described on our site to any person or geographic area at any time. If you choose to access our site from outside the United Kingdom, you do so at your own risk

• We're the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and of the material published on it.  Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved
• You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site
• You mustn't modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you've printed off or downloaded in any way, and you mustn't use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text
• Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged
• You mustn't use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors
• If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you've made

• By using our site you hereby give us authority to use the information supplied to you for the purpose of providing and supporting the services offered through our site. If you're a tenant and are providing information in relation to your tenancy, then the information supplied by you may be passed to relevant departments or subcontractors of VHL
• Whenever you upload content to our site, you must comply with the Content Standards set out below. You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you'll be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. If you're a consumer user, this means you'll be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty
• With the exception of Personal Data (as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 or replacement legislation) which is governed by our Privacy Policy, any data or information which you transmit or post to our site shall be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary
• We shall have no obligations with respect to such material. You grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and distribute your information in any existing or future media. You also grant to use the right to sub-licence these rights, and the right to bring an action for infringement of these rights
• We shall be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such information and all date, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes
• We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy
• We won't be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any content posted by you or any other user of our site
• We have the right to remove any posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the Content Standards set out below. The views expressed by other users on our site don't represent our views or values
• You're solely responsible for securing and backing up your content
• We shall be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such information and all date, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes

• You may only use our site for lawful purposes. You may not use our site:
  • in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
  • in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
  • for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way;
  • to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our Content Standards;
  • to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam);
  • to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware
• You also agree:
  • not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of our terms of website use;
• Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
  • any part of our site;
  • any equipment or network on which our site is stored;
  • any software used in the provision of our site; or
  • any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party

• These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site (contributions)
• You must comply with the spirit and the letter of the following standards. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole

• Contributions must:
  • be accurate (where they state facts);
  • be genuinely held (where they state opinions);
  • comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted
• Contributions mustn't:
  • contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
  • contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
  • promote sexually explicit material;
  • promote violence
  • promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
  • infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
  • be likely to deceive any person;
  • be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
  • promote any illegal activity;
  • be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
  • be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
  • be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;
  • give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case;
  • advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse

• We'll determine, in our discretion, whether there's been a breach of these terms through your use of our site.  When a breach of these terms has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate, including all or any of the following actions:
  • immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site;
  • immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our site;
  • issue of a warning to you;
  • legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach;
  • further legal action against you;
  • disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary
• We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of these terms. The responses described in these terms are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate

• The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site
• Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up-to-date

• Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law
• To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our site or any content on it, whether express or implied
• We won't be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:
  • use of, or inability to use, our site; or
  • use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.
• If you're a business user, please note that in particular, we won't be liable for:
  • loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
  • business interruption;
  • loss of anticipated savings;
  • loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
  • any indirect or consequential loss or damage
• If you're a consumer user, please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity
• We won't be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it
• We assume no responsibility for the content of websites linked on our site. Such links should not be interpreted as endorsement by us of those linked websites. We won't be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them

• We don't guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses
• You're responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform in order to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software
• You mustn't misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You mustn't attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You mustn't attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We'll report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we'll co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately

• You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it
• You mustn't establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists
• You mustn't establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you
• Our site mustn't be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page
• We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice
• If you wish to make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact us.

• Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we don't have any control over that other website. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy notice applicable to the website in question

• If you're a consumer, please note that these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree to that the courts of England and Wales will have non-exclusive jurisdiction
• If you're a business, these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales

• These terms explain how you may use the self-service section of our site. This includes accessing, browsing or registering to create an account through the portal. These terms are additional to, and supplement, our website Privacy Policy and any other terms which apply to the use of our site including those set out above

• Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes which we may make from time to time as they are binding on you
• We may modify, update or discontinue the portal from time to time without liability, and may change the content at any time. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on the portal, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on it, will be free from errors or omissions

• Access to and use of the portal is restricted to authorised customers only. Unauthorised individuals attempting to access these areas of the portal may be subject to prosecution
• If you receive any user identification code or passwords, or are asked to provide such information (as the case may be) as part of our website security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You mustn't release such information to any third party without our written permission. If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us by contacting us.
• We reserve the right to refuse any application to open an account and/or to suspend and/or terminate any account at any time at our sole discretion and without providing you with reasons for our decision if it transpires than any information you may have provided to us is untrue, inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, or otherwise misleading, or if you fail to provide us with any information which we may reasonably request from you in order to verify any details which you may have provided to us. We also have the right to disable any user identification code, password or other security information (whether chosen by you or allocated by us) at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use and the other applicable terms
• You warrant that any information which you or anyone acting on your behalf provides to the portal shall be accurate and up-to-date
• You agree that you'll be responsible for inputting or keeping safe any data or passwords or other information which you provide to the portal. VHL excludes any liability for any loss which is caused by the disclosure of data to any party in response to the provision of correct data or passwords unless it can be shown that we were negligent in so doing

• Most websites you visit will use cookies. These are very small files that are placed on your computer by websites you visit. They’re common and used to make websites work more efficiently, provide a customised experience, as well as send information back to the owners of the site (in this case, us). If you want to know more, here’s some more information
• A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the information you choose to share with us