Website Terms & Conditions of Sale

Purpose

These Terms apply when you buy our services online through our website.

They are written for individual clients. We do not sell to businesses. By placing an order you confirm you are buying as a consumer, for your own personal purposes.

1. Who We Are

HCB Services Ltd, trading as French Connections HCB. A private company limited by shares, registered in England and Wales.

• Company number: 13809512
• VAT number: GB401002977
• ICO registration: C1969611
• Registered office: 39–40 St. James's Place, London, SW1A 1NS, United Kingdom
• Telephone: +33 1 85 65 74 98
• Email: info@frenchconnectionshcb.com

2. What We Do, and What We Don't

We handle process. We prepare and submit paperwork, book appointments, coordinate, chase decisions, and explain how French procedures work and what the published criteria require.

Appointments with French authorities, consulates and prefectures are attended by you in person. We book them, prepare you for them and handle the correspondence around them, but we cannot attend in your place.

What we provide is practical administrative support: preparing and submitting your paperwork, together with general information about French procedures and our services. It is not legal, tax, insurance or investment advice, it does not take account of your personal circumstances, and it is not a substitute for advice from an avocat, a notaire or an expert-comptable.

French law reserves legal advice to avocats and certain other regulated professionals, accounting work to registered experts-comptables, property intermediation to holders of a carte professionnelle, and insurance intermediation to ORIAS-registered intermediaries. We work with these professionals and will introduce you where your matter requires one. Nothing in these Terms limits your statutory rights as a consumer.

We do not act as a property agent and we do not negotiate on your behalf. Where you need an agent, we introduce you to a holder of a French carte professionnelle.

3. Our Services

Our services are:

• Consultations: a one-to-one with a relocation specialist, or with our founder.
• Region Matcher: a personalised written report on where in France to live.
• DIY Starter: structured, self-directed support.
• Essentials Package: managed, end-to-end support with a dedicated consultant.
• Other à la carte services: bought individually.

These Terms cover whatever you buy online. Where you buy by accepting a written proposal instead, that proposal governs. The description of the service you buy, shown at checkout and repeated in your order confirmation, forms part of your contract with us.

Consultations

You can reschedule free of charge with reasonable notice. If you miss a consultation without telling us, we will offer one further slot. Miss that one too and we may close the booking. This does not count as the consultation being delivered: within your 14-day cancellation period you can still cancel and be refunded in full. After that, any refund is assessed under our Client Refund & Service Recovery Policy.

Region Matcher

Your report is delivered within 5 working days of your consultation, not of your purchase. We cannot arrange the consultation until your completed questionnaire is back with us, so the timescale depends partly on you.

The report is research and opinion on places to live, based on the information available to us at the time of writing. It is not legal, tax, insurance or investment advice, and it is not a property agency service. Property listings are examples of what your budget buys locally; they are not offers, they may no longer be available, and we act neither for you nor for any seller. Living costs, published tax rates and property prices all change.

Credits

Where a fee is credited towards another service, the credit applies only against fees we charge, carries no cash value, is not refundable in its own right, is not transferable, and lapses six months after the original purchase.

4. Ordering & Forming a Contract

Prices and service descriptions on our website are an invitation to order, not an offer. A contract is formed only when we confirm your booking in writing. If we cannot accept your order, we will tell you and refund any payment in full.

We may decline an order, for example where the service is not suitable for your circumstances, where we cannot verify your identity, where we are at capacity, or where accepting would breach applicable sanctions or law.

If a price or description is obviously wrong and you could reasonably have recognised the error, we may cancel the order and refund you in full.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract.

5. Price & Payment

All prices are shown in euros (EUR) and include VAT at 20%. We are registered for VAT in the United Kingdom and hold no French TVA registration. The total price payable is shown before you place your order.

Our price covers our service fee only. Third-party costs are not included and are payable separately, either directly by you or, where agreed, reimbursed to us at cost. These include:

• government, prefecture and consulate fees.
• visa, residency and filing fees.
• translation, notarisation and apostille costs.
• fees charged by regulated professionals we introduce you to, such as an avocat, notaire or expert-comptable.
• rental deposits, agency fees, insurance premiums and travel costs.

Payment is taken online by card through our payment provider. Where we offer an instalment plan, you authorise us to collect each instalment on the agreed dates. If an instalment fails, we will contact you and may pause work until payment is brought up to date. We will always give you reasonable notice before pausing.

Any charges applied by your own bank or card issuer, including foreign exchange and international transfer fees, are your responsibility.

6. Your Right to Cancel

If you are a consumer, you have 14 days from the day we confirm your booking to cancel for any reason, without giving a reason and at no cost. To cancel, email info@frenchconnectionshcb.com or use the cancellation form at the end of these Terms. We will refund you within 14 days of receiving your cancellation. The refund is in full unless you asked us to begin early, in which case we deduct a proportionate amount for work already delivered.

Your refund goes back to the payment method you used.

If you want us to start straight away

Consultations are often booked inside the 14-day period. If you ask us to begin before the 14 days are up, we will, and you keep the right to cancel until the service has been fully performed. Once it has been fully performed at your express request, the right to cancel ends. If you cancel part way through, you pay only for what has been delivered.

When the right to cancel ends

Your right to cancel ends only in these situations:

• the service has been fully performed within the 14 days at your express request: your consultation has taken place, your report has been delivered, or the individual service you bought has been completed.
• you have started downloading or accessing digital content, having expressly consented and acknowledged that this ends the right.

Nothing else ends it. In particular, your right to cancel survives all of the following, and we will not refuse a cancellation on any of these grounds:

• work having started, or being partly done. You keep the right until the service is finished, and pay only for what has been delivered.
• you not giving a reason. You never have to.
• you not using our cancellation form, or any other form.
• you not having spoken to a member of our team first.
• you having missed an appointment or not yet returned a questionnaire.

Where you asked us to start early and then cancel part way through, you pay a proportionate amount for what we delivered before you cancelled, calculated as a proportion of the total price. We refund the balance within 14 days.

After the 14 days

Once the 14 days have passed, a refund is discretionary and assessed under our Client Refund & Service Recovery Policy, which forms part of these Terms. A refund will not normally be available where:

• the engagement is more than approximately 75% complete.
• the cost is one of the non-refundable third-party costs listed in section 5, and has already been incurred.
• an application or filing has already been submitted.
• the delay or problem was caused by information you did not provide, or provided inaccurately.
• the outcome or delay was the decision of a public authority or other third party outside our control.
• the request is made more than six months after services commenced. This limit applies only to discretionary refunds, not to any claim you have under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

NOTE: None of the above limits your statutory right to cancel within 14 days, your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 if the service is not carried out with reasonable care and skill, or your right to bring a claim within the applicable limitation period.

7. How We Perform

We will perform our services with reasonable care and skill and within a reasonable time, as required by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

We cannot control, and do not guarantee, the decisions or timescales of French or other public authorities, prefectures, consulates, banks, landlords or any other independent third party.

MONEY-BACK VISA GUARANTEE: If a visa or residency application we prepare is refused, and you have fully complied with all our documented requirements and instructions, we will either resubmit the application at no additional service fee, or refund the applicable service fee less any non-refundable costs already incurred or committed on your behalf. We will talk you through both options and agree the right one with you.

Where a programme is sold with this guarantee, it applies to the visa or residency component of the programme fee only. It does not extend to the remainder of the programme fee, to other services already delivered, or to non-refundable third-party costs such as government fees. Full conditions are in our Client Refund & Service Recovery Policy.

8. What We Need From You

To deliver the service, we need you to:

• provide accurate, complete and honest information.
• supply requested documents promptly.
• respond to us within reasonable timescales.
• tell us promptly if your circumstances change.
• communicate respectfully with our team and partners.

We rely on the information you give us. We are not responsible for delays, extra costs or outcomes caused by information that is incomplete, inaccurate or withheld.

NOTE: If you are unresponsive for more than thirty (30) consecutive days, or do not provide what we reasonably need to progress your file, we may pause, reschedule, re-scope or close the engagement. Any refund is then assessed under our Client Refund & Service Recovery Policy.

9. Third Parties & Introductions

We work with regulated professionals and partners in law, accountancy, insurance, currency exchange, property and lending. Where we introduce you, you contract with them directly, on their own terms and at their own prices.

We are not responsible for the services, advice, fees or refund decisions of third parties, and we cannot refund fees you have paid to them. We may receive a commission or referral fee from a partner. We will tell you when this is the case, and it never affects who we introduce you to.

10. Our Liability to You

If we fail to carry out our services with reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for the loss or damage you suffer as a foreseeable result. Our total liability in connection with any engagement is limited to the total fees you have paid us under that engagement.

We do not limit our liability where the law does not allow it. That includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and for any statutory rights you have as a consumer that cannot be excluded.

We are not responsible for decisions taken by French or other public authorities, including a refusal or delay of a visa, residence permit or registration, except where the refusal or delay is caused by our own failure to exercise reasonable care and skill.

Our services are supplied for personal use, so we are not liable for any business loss, including loss of profit, business, contracts or commercial opportunity.

11. Intellectual Property

We own the copyright and all other intellectual property rights in the reports, guides, templates, checklists, videos and other materials we produce, including any written report prepared for you.

When you buy a report or other materials, we grant you a personal, non-transferable licence to use them for your own relocation. You are welcome to share your report with your family and your own professional advisers. You may not resell, publish, redistribute or share it commercially, or use it to provide a similar service to anyone else.

12. Changes, Force Majeure & Ending the Contract

We may make minor changes to a service to reflect changes in law or regulatory requirements. If we need to make a significant change, we will tell you first and you may cancel and receive a refund for services not yet provided.

Neither of us is responsible for failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control, including acts of government, industrial action, natural disasters, public health emergencies and geopolitical events. Where this happens we will suspend, reschedule or continue the affected services wherever practicable, and tell you promptly.

We may end the contract, on reasonable notice, if you do not make a payment when due, if you do not provide information we reasonably need, if you ask us to act unlawfully, or if you behave abusively towards our team or partners. Any refund is assessed under our Client Refund & Service Recovery Policy.

You may end the contract at any time. Your cancellation rights and any refund are set out in section 6 and in that Policy.

13. Your Personal Data

We use your personal data to deliver your services, and share it where necessary with French authorities, our group companies and the professionals and partners working on your file. We handle it in line with the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR. HCB Services Ltd is the controller, registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number C1969611.

You have the right to access your data, to have inaccuracies corrected, to object to processing in certain circumstances, and to complain to a supervisory authority: the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, or the CNIL in France. We respond to rights requests within one month.

Our Privacy Policy sets out each purpose, its legal basis, who we share data with, how long we keep it and how international transfers are protected. For any data request, email info@frenchconnectionshcb.com.

14. Complaints & Consumer Mediation

If something has gone wrong, email info@frenchconnectionshcb.com and we will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and respond substantively within 14 days.

If you are a consumer resident in the European Union and we cannot resolve your complaint between us, you may be entitled to refer the matter to a consumer mediation body. We will tell you which body applies to your complaint and how to contact them at the time.

If your dispute is cross-border, the European Consumer Centre network may also be able to help. Details of the relevant national contact point are available through the European Commission's consumer redress pages. Nothing here affects your right to go to court.

15. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. As a consumer, you also keep the benefit of any mandatory consumer protections that apply in the country where you live, and nothing in these Terms takes those away.

You may bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales or, if you live elsewhere, in the courts of the country where you live. We may only bring proceedings against you in the courts of the country where you live.

16. General

• These Terms, your booking confirmation, the service description you purchased, our Client Refund & Service Recovery Policy, our Privacy Policy, our Cookie and Tracking Policy and our AI Policy together form the whole agreement between us.
• If any part of these Terms is found to be unlawful, the rest continues to apply.
• If we delay in enforcing a term, we do not lose the right to enforce it later.
• You may not transfer this contract to someone else without our written agreement. We may transfer it to another company in our group, and will tell you if we do.
• No one other than you and us has any right to enforce these Terms.
• We may update these Terms. The version that applies to your order is the version published on our website when you placed it.

Related policies: Client Refund & Service Recovery Policy · Privacy Policy · Cookie and Tracking Policy · AI Policy

Annex: Model Cancellation Form

You only need to use this form if you wish to cancel within the 14-day period. Any clear written statement will do.

To: HCB Services Ltd, 39–40 St. James's Place, London, SW1A 1NS, United Kingdom. Email: info@frenchconnectionshcb.com

I hereby give notice that I cancel my contract for the supply of the following service: