Terms and conditions

Garden building, paving, planting, pruning and maintenance in Amsterdam-Noord, carried out under the name Hovenier Amsterdam-Noord. Where a written agreement says something different, that agreement counts and this page does not.

We come and measure first. A scale drawing and a quotation follow, with groundworks, hard surfacing and planting each on their own line. There is a job only once you accept that quotation; everything before that costs nothing, the survey included.

For work without a drawing, such as a pruning visit or a maintenance round, confirmation by message or phone counts as the job.

Amounts include Dutch VAT (btw). Within Amsterdam-Noord there is no call-out charge.

Two things are itemised separately on purpose rather than hidden in a total. Disposal of soil and green waste, because it varies per job and per container. And tree work above the 31-centimetre permit threshold, because we subcontract that to a certified arborist.

What is under the ground is under the ground. If digging turns up something that could not have been on the drawing, an old footing, a service line or a layer of rubble, we stop and you hear the cost before it continues. Additional work never goes ahead without your agreement, and it never appears for the first time on the invoice.

Felling a tree with a trunk circumference of 31 centimetres or more, measured at 130 centimetres, requires a permit in Amsterdam under the 2014 tree by-law (Bomenverordening), normally with a replanting obligation attached. We measure that circumference beforehand and do not start work for which the permit is not in hand. We will apply on your behalf if you ask; the permit stands in your name, and so does the replanting obligation.

Anything we plant that fails to take, we replace within twelve months of the planting date at no cost. The condition is that the garden was watered through the first season according to the schedule you receive at handover.

What falls outside it: damage from frost in an exceptional winter, from animals, from other people working in the same garden, and any planting you supplied yourself.

Settlement in paving we laid ourselves is repaired within two years of handover, base included.

What falls outside it is settlement of the surrounding ground. Amsterdam-Noord sits on a made-up layer over peat and that settles; the house stands on piles and does not. That difference in level is a property of the ground rather than a fault in our work, and for that reason it is stated on the quotation as well.

A maintenance arrangement runs per calendar year and consists of four rounds. It can be ended up to 1 February for the current year; after that the first round is already scheduled. Rounds that cannot go ahead because of sustained weather move rather than lapse.

Up to two working days beforehand an appointment moves at no cost. Inside that window the reserved day appears on the invoice as two hours of the hourly rate, because by then it can go to nobody else. When we postpone because of the weather, it costs you nothing.

Up to a thousand euro one invoice goes out afterwards, payable within fourteen days. Above that it runs in two instalments: the first once the groundworks stand, the second at handover. Paying in advance is never required, and we do not ask for cash.

If something breaks because we made a mistake, we carry that up to the invoice amount for that same job at most. Whatever already stood crooked, lay crooked or leaked before we entered the garden stays outside that limit, as do indirect costs such as a missed letting period.

Buried cables and pipes carry a separate rule: they are rarely where a drawing says they are. For excavation deeper than half a metre we file a Dutch utility notification (KLIC-melding), and whatever is missing from that notification falls outside our liability.

If you notice something, let us know within fourteen days at info@hovenier-amsterdam-noord.nl or on the phone. Within five working days there is a reply setting out what we intend to do about it. If it concerns planting, add a photo: that almost always shows whether something failed to take or simply stood dry.

What you are reading is a translation for convenience. These terms are governed by Dutch law, and only the Dutch wording carries legal weight: translating a clause does not create a second clause alongside it. Where this page and the Dutch page do not say the same thing, the Dutch page is the one that counts.