The Patch List
Plain terms for a simple service. The exclusivity promise in clause 3 is the part you are actually paying for, so it is written to be enforceable rather than vague.
A subscription gives you a regular list of planning applications approved by the local planning authority (the "council") named in your subscription, filtered to the trade category you selected. Lists are sent by email, usually on Monday mornings, covering decisions published in the preceding seven days. Territory subscribers may opt for daily lists instead.
We compile the lists from councils' public planning registers. We do not generate enquiries, introduce customers or guarantee that anyone on a list wants work done.
Your subscription covers one named council and one named trade category — together, your "patch". Trade categories are those published on our website. If your business covers two categories, that is two patches.
For as long as your subscription is active and paid, we will not supply the list for your council, in your trade category, to any other business. If we breach this, you may cancel immediately and we will refund every payment made in the three months before the breach.
Exclusivity applies to the combination of council and trade category. It does not prevent us supplying the same council's list to a business in a different trade category, or supplying your trade category in a different council. It does not restrict what any other data provider does, and it does not stop anyone consulting the council's public register directly — that register is public and we have no control over it.
Your patch is released, and may be offered to another business, seven days after your subscription ends or a payment fails and is not resolved.
New subscribers receive one week's list for their council and trade before any payment is taken. Requesting a sample does not reserve a patch and creates no obligation on either side.
Subscriptions are monthly in advance, by card or direct debit, and continue until cancelled. Prices are as published on our website at the time you subscribe. Founding rates are held for twelve months from your first payment; after that the standard rate applies and we will tell you at least 30 days beforehand. Any other price change gets the same 30 days' notice.
You can cancel at any time by emailing us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the month you have paid for; we do not pro-rate part months. We may cancel your subscription on 30 days' notice, or immediately if you breach clause 7, and will refund any period paid for but not delivered.
The lists are licensed to you, not sold. You may use them for your own marketing about your own services. You may not:
You are responsible for your own marketing and for complying with data protection and marketing law in how you carry it out. If we tell you an address has opted out, you must stop contacting it and delete it from your records.
Breach of this clause ends your subscription immediately, without refund.
The information comes from councils' own public registers and we pass it on as published. We check our filtering but we cannot verify the underlying records, and councils make mistakes, redact records and change decisions. We do not warrant that a list is complete, current or accurate, and you should check the council's record — we link to it on every row — before acting on anything.
We do not exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be excluded by law. Subject to that, we are not liable for lost profits, lost business, lost opportunities or wasted expenditure, and our total liability to you in any twelve-month period is limited to the subscription fees you paid us in that period.
Each of us is an independent controller of the personal data we hold. How we handle it is set out in our privacy notice. When you receive a list you become a controller of that information and take on your own obligations, including registering with the Information Commissioner's Office if you are not already.
We may change these terms on 30 days' notice; if you do not accept a change, cancel before it takes effect. If any clause is unenforceable the rest stands. Nothing here creates a partnership or agency between us. A person who is not a party to these terms has no right to enforce them.
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.
Questions about any of this: hello@thepatchlist.com.