Terms & Conditions
General Terms and Conditions of House of Lawyers B.V. (02-2021 version)
1. House of Lawyers B.V. (hereinafter ‘House’) is a private company with limited liability, which has its registered office under its articles of association in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and is listed in the Commercial Register under number 82908621, whose legal objective is the provision of legal services in the broadest sense of the terms. House is represented by persons it engages for the performance of its engagements.
2. House considers all of its client’s engagements to be awarded exclusively to House, even if the explicit or tacit intention is for an engagement to be performed by a specific person. The effects of Article 7:404 of the Dutch Civil Code, which contains an arrangement regarding the latter case, and the effect of Article 7:407(2) of the Dutch Civil Code, which establishes a joint and several liability in cases where an engagement is issued to two or more persons, are explicitly excluded.
3. House reserves the right to replace one person who is performing an engagement or participating in such performance with another person who has at least the level of knowledge and experience agreed in the engagement.
4. Should House incur extra expenses in the context of an engagement (including, but not limited to, civil-law notary fees and translation costs), House will recharge these costs to the client. House will charge the client for the time House spends on related work, whether administrative in nature or otherwise.
5. Engagements between House and the client may be canceled, without any further notice of default being required, as soon as the client is declared bankrupt, applies for a suspension of payment, or is in default in its performance of any obligation pursuant to the contract. This will not prejudice House’s right to claim full damages.
6. Unless other payment terms have been agreed, payment must be made within 15 days of the invoice date by transferring the amount to the House account number stated on the invoice. The client will always pay without any deduction or set-off, without any suspension due to actual or alleged failures to perform and without the client being entitled to block payment by attaching the payment obligation against itself or by any other means. If the client does not pay within this term, the client will be in default as of the payment deadline, without any further notice of default being required, and the client will owe statutory interest on commercial transactions pursuant to Article 6:119a of the Dutch Civil Code. 5.13 Complaints regarding the invoice must be submitted in writing to House within 14 days after the date the invoice is sent. After this term has elapsed, the client will have forfeited its right to complain. A complaint will not affect the payment obligation.
7. House and the client undertake to one another a strict duty of confidentiality in dealings with third parties with regard to everything they learn about client or House, respectively, in the context of the engagement. As the occasion may arise, the Client will be entitled to require non-disclosure agreements to be signed by persons engaged by or via House in connection with the performance of the contract.
8. House is entitled to use the client’s name and logo in its external communications including, but not exclusively limited to, publishing the client’s name and logo on the House website. House will also be entitled to include a brief description of the work if the information is not considered confidential. At House’s request, the client will provide House with a high-resolution image of the client’s logo.
9. Throughout the engagement and for a period of twelve months after its termination, the client and its affiliated natural and legal persons and enterprises, will, in the absence of House’s express prior written consent, be strictly prohibited from entering into an employment relationship or any other form of cooperation whatsoever, either directly and/or via or for third parties, with any persons who were involved in performing the engagement by or via House In relation to the provisions of this clause, the client will be responsible and liable for its direct or indirect affiliated natural and legal persons and enterprises.
10. If events resulting in House liability unexpectedly occur during or in connection with the performance of an engagement, that liability will be limited to the amount or amounts covered by the professional liability insurance taken out by House, including House’s excess in the context of that insurance. Omissions are also considered events within the meaning of the previous sentence. If persons are injured or property is damaged during or in connection with the performance of an engagement or otherwise and this leads to House’s liability, that liability will be limited to the amount or amounts covered by the general liability insurance taken out by House, including House Lawyers excess in the context of that insurance. If and to the extent that no insurance payment is made for whatever reason, the aforementioned liability will be limited to EUR 35,000 or the fee which House has charged in the relevant case, whichever is higher, up to a maximum of EUR 100,000.
11. It is possible that persons who are engaged in connection with performing a client’s engagement will wish to limit their liability in this respect. House will assume, and to the extent necessary will require, that all of the engagements awarded to it by the client will entail the authorisation to accept such a limitation of liability, also on behalf of that client.
12. Dutch law will apply to the legal relationship between House and its client. Dutch law will apply to any disputes between House and its client. Should a dispute arise between House and its client, the Dutch courts will have exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate such dispute.
13. In addition to House, all persons involved in the performance of the any of the client’s engagements may rely on these general terms and conditions. The same applies to former employees, including their heirs, if they are held liable after leaving House
14. These general terms and conditions also apply to additional and follow-up engagements awarded by the client.
House of Lawyers B.V. has its registered office in Amsterdam and is listed in the Commercial
Register under number 82908621.