Terms of use

Draft, pre-launch. This page is a working draft for a site that has not launched. The operator's address for legal notices has not been confirmed yet, and this text has not been reviewed by an solicitor. Do not rely on it until this notice is removed.

These terms govern your use of spark-up.co (the Site). Spark Up (we, us, our) is operated by MCLACHLAN, RICHARD ANDREW (sole trader). By using the Site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site. If you list or manage a business, the business terms also apply to you.

1. What Spark Up is, and is not

Spark Up is a directory of electric vehicle charger installers in the United Kingdom (home chargers, chargers for flats and shared parking, workplace charging, charger repairs and chargers linked to solar panels or batteries) and a marketplace where people can ask those businesses for quotes and talk to them.

We are not the installer. We do not install or repair chargers, employ electricians, inspect properties or supervise any work. Every business on the Site is independent and is solely responsible for its quotes, its work, its staff, its certification, its registration with any scheme and its insurance.

Quotes come from the installer. A quote on the Site is a price or an estimate an installer gives from your answers and photos. An installer may need to survey the property and may change an estimate after seeing it. A quote is not an offer from us, and choosing a quote on the Site does not by itself create a contract for the work. Your contract for the work is between you and the installer.

We do not guarantee any installer or its work. We do not promise the quality, safety, timing or price of any work, that an installer holds any registration, approval or insurance, or that a listing is accurate or current. A listing is not a recommendation. Before you hire an installer, check what matters to you with them directly, for example their registration with a competent person scheme and, if you plan to claim a government grant, that they are approved for it.

2. Who may use the Site

You must be at least 18 years old. The Site is intended for people and businesses in the United Kingdom.

3. Quote requests

• It is free to request and compare quotes, and you do not have to accept any of them.
• Give accurate information and photos of a property where you are entitled to have the work done. If you rent, or own a leasehold flat, you are responsible for getting any permission the landlord or freeholder must give.
• When you submit a request you ask us to pass it to a small number of matched installers. Our privacy policy explains what they see and when.
• We match on what an installer says it does, how far it is from you and its public ratings. We do not promise that any installer will respond, or how many will.
• Requests expire if no installer is chosen after a period of time. You can cancel a request at any time.

4. Listings, ratings and reviews

Listings are compiled from publicly available information, including a business's own website and its public Google Maps listing, and from what businesses tell us. Details can be out of date. Stated prices are the business's own published figures, not quotes.

Ratings labelled as Google ratings are Google's ratings of the business, shown with the number of Google reviews when we last checked. Review summaries on the Site are written by software from public reviews and may not reflect every experience. Google is a trademark of Google LLC; we are not affiliated with Google. Charger brand names belong to their owners, and naming a brand does not mean that brand endorses an installer or us.

5. Accounts

Keep your sign-in details to yourself and tell us promptly if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what is done through it. You can ask us to close your account at any time (see the privacy policy).

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• submit false requests, false reviews or false business information, or impersonate anyone;
• use the Site to send spam, or to contact installers or customers for anything other than the job in question;
• scrape, copy or harvest listings, contact details or other content in bulk, or use them to build a competing directory or database;
• upload anything unlawful, harassing, obscene or infringing, or any malware;
• probe, overload or interfere with the Site or get around its security or rate limits.

We may remove content, suspend accounts and block access where we reasonably believe these terms have been broken.

7. Your content

You keep ownership of the text and photos you submit. You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, display and transmit them as needed to run the Site: for a quote request, that means showing it to the matched installers. You confirm you have the right to submit them.

8. Calls and texts from your installer

When you choose an installer, it receives your phone number and may call or text you about the job. We send request updates by email and in your account. Details are in section 7 of the privacy policy.

9. Our content

The Site's design, text, software and the compilation of listings belong to us or our licensors. You may use the Site for your own personal or internal business purposes. Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Copyright complaints. If you believe something on the Site infringes your copyright, email [email protected] with your contact details, the work concerned, the address of the page and why you believe it infringes. We will review it and remove infringing material.

10. Third-party sites

The Site links to installers' websites and to services such as Google Maps. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content or practices.

11. Our responsibility to you

We provide the Site with reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of any installer or customer, or for any work an installer carries out or fails to carry out, because that work is a matter between you and the installer.

We are not responsible for loss or damage that was not foreseeable, or for business losses, where you use the Site for business purposes. Where you use the Site as a business, our total liability to you for any claim arising from the Site is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and one hundred pounds (£100).

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law, and nothing affects your statutory rights as a consumer, including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

12. Business users

If you use the Site as a business and someone brings a claim against us because you broke these terms or the law, or because of content you submitted, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and costs arising from that claim.

13. Problems with an installer

If you have a problem with a quote or with work, take it up with the installer first. Installers registered with a competent person scheme usually have a complaints route through that scheme. We are not a party to the dispute, but tell us: we can pass messages on, and we may remove installers that treat customers badly.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you can also bring a claim in your local courts, and nothing here takes away the protection of the consumer law where you live.

15. Changes

We may update these terms. We will post the new version here with a new date and, for a material change, tell account holders by email. Continuing to use the Site after a change means you accept it.

16. General

If part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in force. If we do not enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later. These terms, the privacy policy and, for businesses, the business terms are the whole agreement between you and us about the Site.

17. Contact us

Questions about these terms: [email protected].