The Trusted Business Community Association (herein this document will be known as The Association). Any business that joins the association (herein will be known as The Member). These terms and conditions have been updated for both Members and those considering joining as a member on this day 25th October 2025 (Twenty Fifth of October, two thousand and twenty-five).

1. Should a member wish to join The Association, they do so from their own free will and understand and accept the terms and conditions herein.
2. The Member must pay their subscription within the time scale given on the invoice (Maximum seven calendar days from the date of the invoice) failure to comply with the timescale will result in weekly interest being added to any or all outstanding amounts owed at the rate indicated on the invoice (5% above the Bank of England base rate at that time).
3. The Member must provide The Association with all connected certifications, qualifications and business insurances requested within 14 days (Fourteen Days) of joining. Failing to comply with this reasonable request will mean that The Association reserves the right to suspend membership until the documents are received or cancel membership should they remain outstanding for more than one calendar month from the joining date.
4. Should The Association cancel a membership for any reasonable non-compliant reason then no refund will be given to The Member. Any business that stops trading during membership will not be entitled to any refund. If a member wishes to leave the membership for any other reason, then a proportional refund will be given, The amount will determine the length of membership. An administration fee of £40.00 will also be levied for the exiting of the business from membership before its annual renewal. The decision of The Association is final.
5. The Association reserves the right to refuse membership of a Member prior to any invoice for subscription being sent.
6. The Association has no lockout clause and will accept multiple memberships from the same type of industry sectors.
7. Endorsed, Accredited and Premier Partner Members are to use the “Trusted Business Community Badge” to highlight their membership of The Trusted Business Association to enhance the fact they have been vetted, verified and insurance checked, once the documents to prove this have been received by The Association and not before.

• The Badge can only be advertised by members that are current and up to date with their subscriptions.
• We reserve the right to take legal action towards any business using the badge outside of these conditions.
• The Badge of Trust should be used on all promotional material, Social media posts, websites and vehicles to show consumers/clients that you are part of The Trusted Business Community Association for the duration of your ongoing membership.

8. Leads & Recommendations - The Association provides leads to The Members from inbound enquiries from our lead generation sites and other mediums. We will always offer these leads to the nearest member to the enquiry and will do this geographically. Should the first member not be in the position to take the lead, we The Association reserve the right to then offer it to the next nearest member and will continue to do this until the lead is accepted by a member. Should no member be in the position to accept the lead, we will then sell it on the open market.

• All leads accepted are subject to a commission payable to The Association by The Member based on the agreed quote. Commissions start at 2.5% (larger values) but not being more than 10% of the job size (smaller values). Each lead price will be agreed at the point of sale.
• We reserve the right to have a minimum lead price for any lead where the work is valued below £100.00. This would equate to £5 (five pounds) or 10% of the initial price charged, whatever the greater is from that lead introduction will be implemented, unless we have an agreement outside this provision, which we would confirm in writing.
• We only charge for the initial lead enquiry. Should the client become a regular customer, no further charges are payable to The Association.
• Our lead charges are as follows: Up to £1000.00 we charge 10% of the lead value (subject to the initial minimum fee levy as laid out above). £1001 to £2500 we charge 7.5% of the lead value.£2501 to £10,000 we charge 5% of the lead value. 10,001 to £20,000 we charge 3.5% of the lead value and from £20,001 upward will be charged at 2.5% of the lead value.
• Charges only comply if the consumer accepts your quote for services.
• Payment terms on all leads are within 7 days of the first payment received by The Member from the client/consumer.
• Any Member who withholds lead values or offers the client/consumer to go direct so that they can save money will immediately have their membership cancelled and legal action will be taken to recover any money owed to The Association.
• The Member reserves the right to turn down any lead offered.
• Facebook recommendations remain part of the subscription fee and as such do not come under the category of a lead.

9. Complaints Handling - The Association offers all our members the opportunity to have us handle any complaints that you may get from customers and clients alike. We are realistic and know that you can’t keep everyone happy all the time and as such we offer this support for up to 1 complaint/grievance per annum.

• We will continue to support you thereafter should you need it for a small fee of £40.00 per issue. However, we would assume being part of the Trusted Business Community Association this would be unlikely to be required, but it’s there if you need it!
• Should many complaints be received by us here at The Association, we reserve the right to discuss the issue of complaints with you directly and look at ways to advise you to minimise these issues in the future.
• Should more complaints follow we reserve the right to audit your work.
• The Membership will be suspended until the audit has been carried out.
• The Association will continue to work with you to assist and advise you on performance issues. However, should further complaints be received The Association reserves the right to protect the name of the association and those businesses that make up the membership by cancelling your membership without further explanation. No refunds will be given should this be the case.

10. Business Hub Meetings - The Association runs business hub meetings and wherever possible we would advise members to get to them. This is not an essential part of membership and we do not make any member send a substitute to meetings they can’t attend. However, we do have some rules around them should you wish to attend.

• Friday Coffee Drop-In online event from May 2025 will be accessible to Members at ALL membership Levels along with those that have a guest pass.
• Should you want to join our paid business growth hub meetings Monday & Thursday Editions and two monthly International Growth Hubs, and a monthly Tech Talk Meeting have a separate charge of £15.00 per month to participate.
  The Property & Finance Hub, The Strategy Hour, The StartUp Hub and The Health & Wellness Hour all have free access. Please note that Endorsed, Accredited Members and Premier Partners do not pay the added £15.00 per month to network, as it is a bolt on to the higher level of membership that has been chosen.
• You have a free trial period of up to one month available before joining, should you need it. This is a one-time offer and will not be on offer again after the initial free trial has been completed.
• We reserve the right to review the subscriptions at any time.
• Should you join us at Networking Membership level, the ‘Badge of Trust’ is unavailable for personal business use.
• To register for any online meetings please visit our website. The Direct Debit for your Monthly Subscription can be found here too within our Events Page.

11. Social Media Advertising - The Association offers advertising on social media platforms to include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram.

• The Accredited Membership is entitled up to 12 promotions throughout the membership at no extra cost. A Premier Partner has up to 24 promotions throughout their membership period. Any extra advertising will be charged at £40.00 per online advert.
• Platforms for advertising will be determined by The Association and agreed in advance with The Member.
• It is the responsibility of The Member to supply The Association with what promotions they want promoted.
• Should The Member not provide details of promotions then The Association will not promote The Member to avoid the wrong message being delivered to consumers and potential new clients.

12. Subscriptions To The Association – Membership Fees are currently £299.00 per year for a Fully Endorsed Member Business. We also offer an Accredited Membership at £450.00 per year and an exclusive Premier Partner Membership with a one-off payment of £600.00 per year. Please visit www.trustedbusinesscommunity.com for full membership details.Annual Membership paid every four months. Should you wish to pay for your chosen membership level every four months, please note that you are joining the association for a 12-month period (twelve-month period) and as such ties you into membership for that year. Should your subscription fail to be collected for whatever reason, we will resubmit the collection through Direct Debit only one further time. Should the second attempt also fail to be collected from your bank, you will be given an invoice for the outstanding amount of your membership, less anything you have paid. This invoice will represent a final payment in full for your membership subscription for that membership period and would need to be paid within 7 day (seven days) of the date on the invoice. Failure to settle this and any invoice within this timescale will result in interest being added weekly at 5% above the Bank of England’s base rate at the start of each week the invoice remains unpaid.

• The Association reviews membership subscriptions on the 1st of April each year. The reason for this review is that we are constantly upgrading the offering each year, to offer more to our members by adding value. We reserve the right to make intermittent changes from time to time.
• Should a member introduce a business that joins the community we will pay the introducing member a percentage of what level of membership the introduced new member joined at, but only on the Endorsed or above levels of membership. No introductory fee will be paid out should they join at Networking Level of Membership.
• For multiple outlets we do offer discounts at certain levels of membership. Please ask for details.
• Two weeks written notice of your intention to cease being a member at the end of your term of membership is required to avoid being charged for a new term of membership.
• The Association offers the Silvatree trading platform free of charge to all new and existing members but reserves the right to withdraw or suspend this offer at any time and without notice. Please ask for more details if you would like to benefit from £1000.00, Dollars or Euros etc, as an interest free credit line to spend on your business immediately after joining. If you already have a Silvatree Trading Account and would like to use Silva to assist you joining The Association, then please contact Sean Hewitt, our Director for details on how to get onboard.

13. Premier Partner Support - We offer Legal, Marketing, Coaching, Strategy, Sales Support & Training and much more to all our members through our Premier Partners. As a member you get a minimum of 30 minutes and up to 60 minutes free advice with every case or enquiry. The Member is covered under the minimum 30 minutes free advice for all business and private matters.

• Should you decide to utilise any services from our Premier Partners, their fees will be agreed
  privately between yourselves.

14. The Directory - The Member is responsible for loading their profile on the directory. This forms part of the basic requirement to be given membership of The Association.

• A new member has a maximum of 14 days to register their business. Should the member require us to load their profile, they will need to supply us with all the relevant details to do this. An administration fee will be charged at £40.00 per listing should you require this service. We reserve the right to personally list a business and charge the administration fee, should a member not register their business in the directory within the initial 14 days period given.

15. Additional services are available as follows:

• Consultancy Services (Unique Business Services, The Associations sister company) to include sales and marketing, business development, business coaching, sales training and change management. starts from £900.00 for a minimum of 15 hours (fifteen hours) every month. Additional hours will be charged at £60 per hour thereafter and be invoiced at the end of each monthly period (Members Only) and £1800.00 for a minimum of 15 hours (fifteen hours) then £120 per hour thereafter for non-members of The Association. Please ask for more details should you need this service.
• One month’s notice period will be required should an organisation use this service for more than three months invoice periods continuously. After a six months invoice periods of continuous support, a three month’s period of notice will be levied. Should you wish to use this service ad-hoc then no notice period will be required, however this should be agreed in writing by The Member/client before any support is given.
• All notice periods are subject to the minimum 15 hours support each period.
• All services are paid for in advance.
• Any business petrol expenses will be calculated at 45p per mile.
• Parking expenses will be the responsibility of The Member. Receipts will be provided by The Association.
• Parking Fines will be the responsibility of The Association.
• Public Transport costs will be the responsibility of The Member. Receipts will be provided by The Association. These terms and conditions represent the membership regulations of The Trusted Business Community. All previous terms and conditions have been superseded by this new document.

Payment of your subscription is confirmation that you agree to these terms and conditions of membership.