Draft for legal review. These terms were written for Lahood Skip Bins as a NSW skip bin hire business. Have them checked by a qualified Australian lawyer before relying on them, and confirm the business rules they contain (quote validity, cancellation cut-off, interest, fees) match how you operate.
1. These terms and how they apply
- These terms apply to every quote we give, every booking we accept and every bin we supply, together with anything else we agree with you in writing. "We", "us" and "our" mean Lahood Skip Bins (ABN 00 000 000 000). "You" means the person or business that makes the booking or receives the services.
- If you send us your own terms, purchase order conditions or similar, they do not apply to our services and do not bind us, even if we don't say so at the time.
- If there is any inconsistency between these terms and a quote, booking confirmation or account application, the quote or confirmation applies to the specific price and details it covers, and these terms apply to everything else.
- A quote is an invitation to book, not a binding offer. We may change or withdraw a quote at any time before we confirm your booking, and we may decline a booking in whole or in part.
2. Quotes and bookings
- Quotes are based on the information you give us: the type and amount of waste, the bin size, the delivery address and access, the placement and the hire period. If any of that information is inaccurate or changes, the price may change.
- Unless a quote says otherwise, it is valid for 14 days.
- A booking is confirmed only when we confirm it by phone, SMS or email. Submitting the online quote form does not by itself create a booking.
- Trade and commercial customers may also be subject to a separate account application and credit terms agreed in writing. If those terms conflict with these, the account terms apply to credit and payment and these terms apply to everything else.
3. Prices, charges and payment
- Our quoted price covers delivery, the agreed hire period, collection and lawful disposal of the waste types declared when booking. Prices include GST unless stated otherwise.
- Additional charges may apply, at our then-current rates, for: excess weight above the limit for your bin and waste type; a bin filled above the rim or unevenly; extended hire beyond the agreed period; a failed delivery or collection caused by access problems, an unready bin, or a bin we cannot lawfully transport; waste that was not declared when booking; items that attract a disposal surcharge (such as whitegoods or e-waste); the inspection, separation, transport and disposal of Excluded Waste; and cleaning a bin left in an unsanitary state. We will tell you the reason for any additional charge.
- Unless you have an approved trade account, payment is due at the time of booking or on delivery, as agreed. Account customers must pay by the due date on the invoice.
- Any surcharge for paying by card will be disclosed before you pay.
- If an account invoice is not paid by its due date, we may charge interest on the overdue amount at 2% a year above the Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate, calculated daily, and we may suspend further deliveries and exchanges until the account is brought up to date. You are also responsible for our reasonable costs of recovering overdue amounts.
- Best price guarantee. If, before booking, you show us a current written quote from another licensed NSW skip bin operator for the same bin size, waste type, delivery address and hire period, we will match that price. The guarantee does not apply to quotes that exclude disposal, levies or GST, to promotional or clearance pricing, or where the other operator cannot deliver on the same terms.
- For ongoing account arrangements, we may change our rates by giving you at least 30 days' written notice, for example where disposal fees, government levies, fuel or other operating costs change. If you do not accept the new rates you may end the arrangement by written notice before they take effect, and the old rates apply until then.
4. Delivery, collection and placement
- We will make reasonable efforts to deliver and collect on the agreed day. Times are estimates. Traffic, weather, site conditions, facility delays and other matters outside our reasonable control can affect them, and we are not liable for delays caused by those things.
- We do not normally deliver or collect on Sundays or public holidays unless agreed in advance.
- You must provide clear, safe and lawful access for our truck: a firm, level surface able to carry a loaded skip truck; enough width, height and turning room; no low wires, branches or overhead obstructions; and no vehicles or materials blocking the placement spot. Our driver may decline to place or collect a bin where it is unsafe or impractical to do so, and a failed-trip charge may apply.
- Where you ask us to place a bin on a driveway, paving, lawn or other private surface, you accept the risk of marks, cracking or other damage to that surface from the weight of the bin or the truck. We recommend placing timber boards under the bin's skids.
- Only we may move a bin once it has been placed. Do not relocate, tip or drag a bin.
- We may ask you or your representative to sign or photograph a delivery or collection record.
5. Permits and permissions
- You are responsible for obtaining any permission needed to place a bin where you have asked us to put it. This includes a council permit for a bin on a road, nature strip or footpath, and the consent of a landlord, strata manager, body corporate or site owner where the bin will sit on land you do not control.
- You are responsible for complying with the conditions of any permit and for any fees or fines that result from a bin being placed or left without the required permission.
- We may decline to deliver if we are not satisfied that the necessary permission is in place.
6. What can go in the bin
- Only the waste types you declared when booking may be placed in the bin. If you need to add another waste type, tell us before loading it so we can confirm it is acceptable and re-price if necessary.
- Excluded Waste must never be placed in our bins. It includes: asbestos or any material that may contain asbestos; chemicals, solvents, pesticides and poisons; liquid paint, oils, fuels and other liquids; gas cylinders; car or vehicle batteries; tyres; clinical, medical or biological waste; food waste in bulk; mattresses; and anything that is flammable, explosive, corrosive, radioactive, infectious or otherwise hazardous or dangerous.
- Asbestos must be handled and removed by a licensed asbestos removalist in accordance with SafeWork NSW and NSW EPA requirements. We do not provide this service.
- We may inspect, photograph, sample and test the contents of a bin at any time. If we find Excluded Waste or undeclared waste, we may refuse to collect the bin until it is removed, or collect it and dispose of it at a facility authorised to accept it, and you must pay all resulting costs, charges, fines and penalties.
- Ownership of waste passes to us when we collect the bin, except for Excluded Waste, which remains your property and your responsibility until it is lawfully received by an authorised facility.
7. Loading, weight and rejected loads
- Bins must not be filled above the top rim, and loads must be spread evenly. Overfilled or unevenly loaded bins cannot be lifted or transported legally and safely. We may remove the excess at your cost or refuse collection until the bin is made safe.
- Each bin size has a maximum weight. Heavy waste (soil, sand, clay, bricks, concrete, tiles and other masonry or rubble) may only be placed in bins of 6 cubic metres or smaller and only where declared when booking. If a bin exceeds its weight limit, excess weight charges apply.
- Do not compact waste in the bin by machine, light fires in it, or use it to store anything other than the declared waste.
- If our driver attends and cannot collect because the bin is overloaded, contaminated, inaccessible or not ready, a failed-trip charge applies and a new collection must be arranged.
8. Hire period and exchanges
- The hire period starts on the day of delivery and runs for the number of days in your booking. If no period is stated, it is 7 days.
- Let us know when the bin is ready for collection. If the bin is not collected by the end of the hire period because you have not told us it is ready, or because collection fails for a reason in these terms, daily extended-hire charges apply until it is collected.
- For scheduled exchanges (a full bin out, an empty bin in), the agreed schedule and rates apply to each exchange. Either party may end an exchange arrangement by giving 14 days' written notice, and we will collect the last bin at the end of that period.
- We may replace a bin with another of the same size at any time, for example for maintenance.
9. Your obligations and our bins
- You must comply with all laws that apply to the waste and the site, follow our reasonable directions about loading and access, and make sure the people on your site do the same.
- Bins remain our property at all times. You must not sell, lend, hire out, modify, mark or grant any security over a bin, and you must not allow anyone else to use it.
- While a bin is in your possession you are responsible for it: keep it secure, keep it visible and, where it sits on a road or verge, lit or marked as the permit requires. You are responsible for loss of, or damage to, the bin caused by you or anyone at your site, other than fair wear and tear.
- If we ask, you must promptly give us accurate information about the waste, including its source and composition, and any waste classification report required by law.
- You confirm that the ground and access at the site are suitable for a loaded skip truck, that access is safe and unobstructed, and that you have the permissions described in section 5.
10. Changes, cancellations and ending a hire
- You may change or cancel a booking at no charge by telling us before 4pm on the business day before delivery. For later cancellations, or if the truck has already been dispatched, a cancellation fee of up to the delivery charge applies.
- We may reschedule or cancel a booking because of weather, safety, site conditions, facility closures or other circumstances outside our reasonable control. If we cannot provide the service, we will refund any amount you have paid for it, and that refund is the extent of our liability for the cancellation.
- We may end a hire or account arrangement immediately by written notice if you breach these terms and do not fix the breach within 14 days of being told about it, if an account is more than 14 days overdue after a reminder, or if you become insolvent. We may then collect our bins from your site at any reasonable time.
- You may end an account arrangement immediately by written notice if we breach a fundamental term and do not fix it within 14 days of being told, or as allowed under section 3(f) or 15(e).
- When a hire or arrangement ends, all unpaid charges become immediately due, and the sections of these terms that by their nature continue (including sections 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 to 16) keep applying.
11. Liability and indemnity
- To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, contract or goodwill, or for delay, however it arises.
- To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for all claims connected with a hire, whether in contract, negligence or otherwise, is limited to the amount you paid us for that hire.
- We are not liable for damage to driveways, paving, kerbs, lawns, underground services or other property where a bin or truck has been placed, driven or operated where you asked us to, unless the damage results from our negligence.
- You indemnify us against claims, losses, costs and fines we suffer because of your breach of these terms, Excluded Waste or undeclared waste in a bin, a missing permit or permission, unsafe access or ground conditions at the site, or damage to or loss of a bin while it is in your possession, reduced to the extent that our own negligence caused the loss.
- Nothing in this section limits any liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.
12. Australian Consumer Law
- If you acquire our services as a consumer under the Australian Consumer Law, our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded. For a major failure you are entitled to cancel the service and obtain a refund for the unused portion, or compensation for its reduced value, and to compensation for other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure is not a major failure, you are entitled to have the problem fixed within a reasonable time.
- Where the law allows us to limit our liability for a breach of a consumer guarantee for services, our liability is limited, at our option, to supplying the services again or paying the cost of having them supplied again.
- Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot be excluded.
13. Privacy and confidentiality
- We handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles and our Privacy Policy, which explains what we collect, how we use it and who we share it with.
- Each of us must keep the other's confidential information (such as pricing, site details and business information) confidential and use it only for the purposes of the hire, except where disclosure is required by law.
14. Disputes
- If there is a problem, tell us and we will try to fix it. Either party may give the other a written notice describing a dispute, after which both of us must discuss it in good faith and try to resolve it within 14 days.
- Nothing in this section prevents either party from applying to a court or tribunal (including the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal) for urgent relief or to resolve a dispute that cannot be settled by discussion.
15. General
- Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, and both parties submit to the courts and tribunals of New South Wales.
- Entire agreement. These terms, your booking confirmation, any quote and any account terms are the whole agreement between us about the hire and replace earlier discussions and representations.
- Severability. If any part of these terms is unenforceable, that part is removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest continues to apply.
- Assignment. We may transfer our rights and obligations to a related entity or a buyer of our business. You may not transfer yours without our written consent, which we will not unreasonably withhold.
- Changes to these terms. We may update these terms from time to time. For one-off hires, the version published on our website when you book applies to that booking. For account customers, changes take effect 30 days after we give you written notice, unless you end the arrangement by written notice before then. Changes to rates are dealt with under section 3(f).
- Waiver. If we do not enforce a term on one occasion, we may still enforce it later.
- Authority. If you book on behalf of a company or another person, you confirm that you are authorised to do so.
- Notices. Notices may be given by email, SMS or post using the contact details each party has provided.
- Copyright. The content of our website, including text, the Lahood Skips logo, bin renders, graphics and the structure of our quote tools, is owned by or licensed to Lahood Skip Bins and protected by Australian copyright law. You may view and print pages for your own use in dealing with us; you must not copy, reproduce or republish them for any other purpose without our written permission. Photographs on the site are used under licence and remain the property of their photographers and artists.
- Interpretation. "Including" means "including without limitation", and the singular includes the plural. These terms will not be read against us merely because we drafted them.
16. Definitions
- Bin means any Marrel skip bin we supply to you, in any of our sizes from 2 to 10 cubic metres, together with any replacement bin.
- Excluded Waste has the meaning in section 6(b), together with any other material we tell you we cannot accept when you book or at any later time.
- Heavy waste means soil, sand, clay, bricks, concrete, tiles, pavers and other masonry or rubble.
- Hire period means the period in section 8(a).
- Insolvent means being unable to pay debts as they fall due, bankrupt, in liquidation or administration, or having a receiver, controller or similar person appointed.
- Services means the delivery, hire, exchange and collection of a bin and the transport and disposal of the waste in it, and anything else described in a quote or booking confirmation.
- Site means the address where you ask us to deliver a bin.
- Waste means the waste types you declared when booking and that we agreed to accept, excluding Excluded Waste.