Terms of use
These terms cover using this website and reading Bid or No Bid. They do not cover paid work — that is governed by whatever we sign with you.
Who we are
DCD & Sons LTD, a company registered in England and Wales, based in Portsmouth. Contact: support@dcdandsons.com.
Registered in England and Wales, company number 15240422. Registered office: 24 Picton House, Hussar Court, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO7 7SQ.
The assessments are opinion, not advice
This is the part that matters. Every verdict we publish — Bid, Bid if, No bid — is our editorial opinion based on a public notice, formed without knowing your business, your capacity, your rates or your appetite for risk.
It is not procurement advice, legal advice or financial advice, and no professional relationship is created by reading it. Before you commit to or walk away from any tender, read the notice and the tender documents yourself, and take your own advice.
We do not accept liability for a decision you take on the strength of something we published, to the extent the law allows us to say so. Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
Accuracy
Notice details — values, deadlines, scope — are taken from Find a Tender and Contracts Finder at the time of writing. Buyers amend and withdraw notices, and we may make mistakes. The published notice is always the authority, not our summary of it. Tell us if we get something wrong and we will correct it in the next issue.
Independence
Nobody pays for coverage. We do not write up an opportunity because it suits our own pipeline, and a favourable verdict cannot be bought. If we ever have an interest in a contract we cover, we will say so in that entry.
Our content
The words and design here belong to us. Quote us, link to us, forward an issue to a colleague — that is what it is for. Do not republish whole issues as your own, or use our name or logo to suggest we endorse you.
The newsletter
It is free, and we make no promise that it will continue indefinitely or arrive without interruption. You can unsubscribe from any issue. We may stop publishing, change what it covers, or start charging for something new — if that happens, subscribers hear it first.
Buying the toolkit
This section covers the paid files — the guide, the control dashboard, the Excel workbook and the plan and programme tool. Everything above still applies.
What you are buying
A licence to use the files inside your own business. You are not buying the NEC4 contract itself: that is published by Thomas Telford Ltd on behalf of the Institution of Civil Engineers, no part of it is reproduced in anything we sell, and you need your own copy.
One purchase is one licence, and one licence covers the business named on the purchase — the name you give us at the checkout. Use the files on as many of your own contracts and machines as you like, share them with your own staff, and white-label the dashboard and the plan tool with your own name, logo and colours — that is what the feature is for.
A parent, a subsidiary or a sister company is a separate business and needs its own licence. Do not resell the files, publish them, or pass them to anyone outside the business that bought them — including a client or a joint venture partner. If you want licences for several businesses, email us and we will price it.
Delivery, and the right to cancel
Read this one before you buy. The files are emailed to you as soon as your payment clears, and the download link does not expire. Because they are digital content supplied immediately, you agree at the checkout that supply starts straight away — and that you therefore give up the fourteen-day right to cancel that would otherwise apply to a consumer purchase.
If a file will not work
Tell us within 28 days of buying and we will fix it. That is the first thing we do and usually the only thing needed — most problems turn out to be a browser setting or a locked-down machine rather than the file, and we would rather get you working than take it back.
If we cannot fix it, you get your money back. Nothing in this section affects the rights you have by law where digital content is faulty or is not as described.
Bought the wrong item, or bought the same thing twice? Tell us within 28 days and we will refund it.
What we will not do is refund because you have read the guide and decided you already knew it. That is the trade you make for getting the files the moment you pay, and it is why the section above exists.
Price and VAT
Prices on the site exclude VAT. VAT is added at the checkout and itemised on your receipt, so a VAT-registered buyer has what they need to reclaim it. We sell to businesses in the United Kingdom. If you are buying from outside the United Kingdom you must give us a valid VAT number at the checkout — the reverse charge then applies and no VAT is added. Without one we cannot complete the sale, and we will refund you in full.
Updates
If we correct or improve a file you have bought, the new version appears at the same link at no extra cost. We do not promise that there will be updates, or that any particular one will keep working on a future browser or version of Excel.
What the tools do not do
They calculate dates from the periods you enter and keep your own records in order. They do not administer the contract for you, they are not legal advice, and every date they show is only as good as the Contract Data you set on the setup tab. Where a tool and your contract disagree, your contract wins.
Nothing you type into them is sent anywhere — which is also why nothing is saved for you. Keeping the file you save is your job.
If something goes wrong
Check every date the tools produce against your own contract before you act on it. They work from the Contract Data you enter, and a wrong entry gives a wrong date. Serving a notice, or not serving one, is your decision and your responsibility.
We are not liable for loss of profit, for a claim or entitlement you lose or fail to secure, for wasted expenditure, or for any indirect or consequential loss, however it arises.
If you buy as a business, our liability for anything connected with a purchase is limited to what you paid for it.
Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, and if you are a consumer your statutory rights are unaffected.
Links out
We link to government notice portals and other sites we do not control and are not responsible for.
Law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.
See also our privacy notice and cookie notice.