SBT German courses

General Terms and Conditions
(For integration courses and DeuFö-courses different terms and conditions apply, stipulated by the Federal office for Migration and Refugees!)
1. Participation and Registration
(1) Participation in our courses is open to everybody interested in education aged 18 or older. Younger people may join our classes by arrangement with TANDEM Bielefeld e.V.
(2) You may book by sending your enrollment to us by email, fax or standard mail or hand it in at our office in person.
(3) Registration can be done either in person or by proxy. In the latter case the same terms and conditions apply as if the future participant registered in person.
(4) The registrations will be handled in the order in which they are received. In case of overbooking you will be informed immediately. Mailing the registration form does not constitute a claim to course participation, in particular if the respective course is already fully booked.
(5) Within a week at the latest you will receive a written booking confirmation from us by email, fax or standard mail.

2. Beginning, Duration and Organizational Amendments
(1) The beginning, duration, the location and schedule of the courses are described on our website.
(2) All courses must be booked for a minimum period of five weeks, but, with TANDEM Bielefeld e.V.’s agreement, shorter periods are possible as well.
(3) On request ongoing courses may be joined after a placement test and, if desired, a free trial session, if there are still vacancies.
(4) During an ongoing course training staff may be replaced.
(5)  At weekends, on public holidays and on the school’s holidays (indicated on the website) tuition and classes will not take place. Classes that have not been attended can neither be refunded nor taken at a later date.

3. Terms of payment
(1) Upon sending you your booking confirmation you will receive an invoice for the services booked. This confirmation includes statement of payment deadline. Payment in full is required for participants requiring residence visas; all others will be requested to pay a deposit of 200,00 € as well as the first month’s rent if they have booked accommodation through the school. The contract is then finalized as soon as timely payment to TANDEM Bielefeld e.V.’s bank account has been received.
(2)  The amount invoiced is due, at the latest, at the beginning date of the course. We will issue receipts only on request.
(3)    For courses with a duration of more than one month, payment in installments may be arranged. For such, the student must arrange a payment plan with the school’s administration, specifying the amount to be paid, how many installments, as well as a date of completion of payments. The mutually-arranged payment dates are legally binding.
(4)    Payment obligation persists even if the classes are not attended or only attended in parts or if attendance is discontinued.
(5)    All bank charges incurred with payment of your course fees are for your account.
(6) For participants requiring residence visas, the following applies: Once payment of the total cost of the course(s) and the first month’s rent have been received, TANDEM Bielefeld e.V. will send you a special registration confirmation form (“acceptance letter”) by email. This form is to be given as proof to the German embassy or consulate.
For transfers please use the following account:

TANDEM Bielefeld e.V.
Sparkasse Bielefeld
IBAN: DE59 4805 0161 0000 0230 85
BIC: SPBIDE3BXXX

4. Change of Booking
(1)    In exceptional cases, a change of reservation (e.g. a change of the beginning date of your course) is possible and is made in arrangement with TANDEM Bielefeld e.V. and is free of costs.

5. Placement test
(1) The placement test is free of costs.

6. Course books and additional teaching materials
(1) The course fees do not include books. Additional teaching materials are free of costs.

7. Examination fees
(1) The course fees do not include examination fees that must be paid by the student when applying to take the exam.

8. Minimum Number of Participants, Non-implementation
(1) In case there are not enough registrations for a course, or the defection of a teacher who can’t be replaced, or force majeure, or implementation of the course is not possible for reasons beyond TANDEM Bielefeld’s responsibility, the school is not obliged to run the course. For this case TANDEM Bielefeld reserves the right to cancel the course. You will be informed of non-implementation without delay and we shall reimburse you for payments already made immediately.

9. Cancellation
(1)    It is possible to cancel your contract without giving reasons and free of costs up until four weeks prior to the beginning of the course. If this deadline is exceeded you will have to pay a service charge of 50.00 EUR per course.
(2)     If for this language sojourn a visa had to be acquired and hence linked to the attendance of the German course, the attendance to the course is binding and cancellation is generally impossible. If the visa is not granted, the school requires the written rejection from the consulate to be submitted by the Thursday before the course starts. Once this is received, the school will refund the payments already made minus a service charge of 50.00 EUR per course.
(3)    Cancellations have to be made in text form.
(4) By proof of resignation due to circumstances for which the student is not responsible (illness, serious accident proved by medical certificate) the course fee can be credited to a future course instead, but there is no claim to that.

10. Termination
(1)    For courses with a duration of more than three months a termination of the contract is possible for the first time with a deadline of four weeks towards the end of the third month of the beginning date of the course. After this, an ordinary termination is possible any time with a deadline of four weeks towards the end of a course. For this purpose, full weeks will be calculated.
(2)    For courses with a shorter duration ordinary termination is excluded.
(3)    This does not affect statutory cancellation rights in exceptional circumstances. In this case the course fee can be credited to a future course instead, but there is no claim to that. Exceptional circumstances are: decease, serious accident of the student. The student may be obliged to prove the exceptional circumstances of his/ her termination (e. g. by submitting a medical certificate or a written confirmation of this from his/her employer).
(4)    Termination of the contract has to be made in text form.
(5)    In case of a termination you will have to pay the course fees in relation to the course hours already taken place; in addition a flat reimbursement of expenses of 10% of the remaining course fees is to be paid.
(6)    It is your right at any time to establish that costs or damages have not arisen or have arisen to a substantially smaller amount.

11. Liabilities
(1)    With the exception of damages arising out of death, injury to body or health, liability for all other damages is excluded by TANDEM Bielefeld e.V.; this does not apply to damages caused by an act of gross negligence or careless neglect of duty through TANDEM Bielefeld e.V. or a legal representative or vicarious agent of TANDEM Bielefeld e.V. or if the damages are caused by a neglect of relevant contractual duties by TANDEM Bielefeld e.V.
Relevant contractual duties are those duties the fulfillment of which are imperative for an orderly execution of the contract and the achievement of the subject of the contract, and the abidance of which you may expect as a rule.
(2)    Liability for damages that are insured according to customs in this particular trade is also excluded.
(3)    In cases where TANDEM Bielefeld e.V. is also liable for simple negligence, liability for property damage, pecuniary loss or theft of the student’s brought items and valuables not covered by the contract and unforeseeable property damage and pecuniary loss is excluded.

12. Data protection
(1)    You agree to having your data processed electronically.
(2)    We promise to handle all data you provide to us on a voluntary basis in the strictest confidence. This applies to both participants and cooperating institutions or individuals alike. Personal data will only be collected and used for administrative requirements and will at no time be passed on to third parties.

13. Online settlement of dispute (OS)
The EU commission provides a platform for online settlement of dispute (OS). This portal strives to help achieve extrajudicial decisions in online transactions. Please go to: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/odr/
Place of payment is Bielefeld. Place of jurisdiction is Bielefeld. German law applies. Should a clause of this contract be or become ineffective the remaining terms and conditions shall remain valid.

TANDEM Bielefeld e.V. 12.2.2018